"The Smeared Beards of Joyous People"

Another tradition is to start the school year with community worship. Although through out the school year we all belong to different churches on island, we like to begin the year coming together and worshiping and fellowshipping together.
As part of this special occasion, we participate in the fellowship of communion. Dave Owen, president of PIU, led us in communion as we reflected in our hearts on the significance of the event.
Rob Watt, our new Dean of Men and VP of student life preached the message on Psalm 133. This Psalm talks about how good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity. The Psalm also talks about that it is like when priest are anointed with old. Rob decided that to have an illustration of what it is like to be anointed with oil and I got to do the honors.

Psalm 133

A song of ascents. Of David.

¹ How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!

² It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron's beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.

³ It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

Welcom Back Bar-B-Que!

Micronesia is all about the Bar-B-Que.... So how else do you start a school year but with a welcome back bar-b-que. We had all the standard foods such as chicken, ribs, hotdogs, rice, potato salad, tossed green salad. Then after a time of talking and fellowship - we had ice cream sundaes. Finally the students couldn't wait to get started playing basketball and volleyball again. It is exciting to have the campus full of life again.

Another Year.... Another Registration

Saturday, August 29th was registration day at PIBC. Although it was scheduled from 9AM - Noon, the process took until after 6pm. There were lines for advisors and lines for financial aid and lines for books and balances. Over all everyone seemed to have a good attitude and were patient waiting. Here Morin, Grace, and Merlyn wait to see their advisors.
Julie is one of our freshmen. She is excited to start college. She has been on campus for a week starting with a study skills class.
Melody is our new academic dean, yet she is still advising students.
Christel Wood is a "retired" missionary but she is still teaching a class or two. Here she helps Ransom, who is a student who transferred from our Tol Campus which is closed this semester.
Laura volunteered to help for the registration day. She helped Anne in the office distributing books.

Mattresses and Mohammed....Beginning a New Year

Every year before school starts we have a lot of maintenance work to be done. However since our maintenance supervisor was away most of the summer and got the flu when he returned Mohammed and a few students did most of the work getting the school ready this year. That is a lot of work.

After a few comments on some surveys last year we also recognized that some of donated "used" mattresses had become a bit overused. So we ended up replacing about one third of our mattresses before the students got here. Of course, Mohammed was there to get the job done. Thanks for all your hard work this summer.

God is Faithful

After the floods in the story of Noah... God sent a rainbow. The rainbow from that time on was supposed to be a reminder to God's people that he was faithful to keep his promises. Here in Guam we have many such reminders. This is one of God's reminders that I saw the other day on my way to test drive a car that was an answer to my prayers.

Back to the Future

In the 80's, when the movie Back to the Future was filmed, I was busy graduating from high school with the class of 1984. This September our class will host it's 25th Reunion. Unfortunately due to the expense of flight and the timing of the reunion in September I will not be able to make it.

However I have been enjoying some of my ol' freinds from high school and new friends on Facebook have been going down memory lane posting old pictures from Yearbook and what not.

This picture is from 1989 at our 5 year reunion. I just have two questions ..... What was I thinking when I picked this outfit and did my hair????? Where the "heck" did time go? I can't possibly be this old.

Anyway if you are part of the class of 1984.... enjoy the reunion. Otherwise maybe I will see you at the 30th.

Amazing Thailand

One of my fun experiences in Thailand was to get to pet a tiger. Since my camera battery was dead I had a "professional" photographer take the pictures. All my work with college students prepared me for this experience.... Ha Ha Ha... Notice the trainer's hand in the corner of the picture. Shortly after this picture the tiger looked at me like I was lunch. I cut my photo session short at that point.