Last year my sister sent me an Easter box with egg dyes. The kind my family has used for my whole life. It is Hinkle's. The kind you paint with Q-tips, not dip in little cups. I asked a couple of my friends to join me. Dying eggs is not a tradition for Micronesians. They were not quite sure why one would do it, but they had fun and did a great job.
On Saturday before Easter, our PIBC family gathers at the Schulz's house to celebrate Karin's 40th birthday. I was happy to have more company in my 40's. Here are Cheryl and Leah with Karin in the middle.
Brad attempts to fish in Jens and Karin's pond.
Karin's sister and brother-in-law is in for a visit from Germany. Here they help with the preparations as the guests arrive.
The Farnsworths enjoy their own little table.
Marbo Cave has become one of my favorite spots on Island. Last time I took a group of about 8 students. This time the group increased to about 24. I was a little concern that the cave would be too small for all of us but fortunately there was plenty of room. Also there are often tourists here when I visit but the only people we found there when we got there were the Sorensons, one of our PIBC families who did not even know that we were going to be there. 
Mayumi having a good time.
Everly just about to dive into the refreshing waters while some other students watch.
Since we left at 1pm some students decided to take their lunch along. 
Here are the Sorensons whom we met there. 
On Friday evening before Easter, I took a small group of students up to Two Lover's Point. This is the site of a local legend.... Kind of like Guam's Romeo and Juliet where the two lovers came to this cliff, tied their hair in a knot, and jumped to their death because their families would not let them be together. The view up here is tremendous, especially at sunrise and sunset.
Between the 6 students I brought, there were 2 cameras and my camera. They took a million pictures and I caught in the fever of picture taking as well. Here is Brad (red shirt) taking a picture of Mayumi on a lower deck of the look out. College students can be such hams. 
Here they are by the signs which tell the story of the two lovers in pictures.
Mayumi and Brad posing in one of the picture boards for the Guam Smootie stand.
Here they are at the bell. I believe this was donated by the Japenese. There is also a wedding chapel at the top of this hill. It is the site of many weddings, especially Japanese tourists. 
Sunday morning there was a service held on campus where most of the students and many of the staff attended. The tradition is to have the staff lead the service but many had committments in their local churches so our travelling team took the lead and Dave Owen, our president, preached based on Daniel 3 which is the text which provided the theme for the week.
After the service, we all had lunch together. These three women, Jayvine, Paulynne and Smileen help me to carry out some of the food from my apartment. I helped with the salad and the dessert while the main dishes were catered and the rice was prepared by the students.
Although the basketball and the volleyball finals were Sunday afternoon, I have no pictures since I spent most of the afternoon helping my team with decorations and preparations for our Sunday evening fellowship time. Although the other teams decorated in their team colors, we went another way. (Since our color was brown and not very exciting)..... We decided to change the front of the stage into the "Fiery Furnance" from Daniel 3 into which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego were tossed when they would not bow down to any idol except the one true God. Although we just started with a concept, and didn't know how we were going to develop it - in the end it we were very happy with it and we received many compliments.
Ned shared a message but before he did he had a number of the staff and a few student leaders play a game like musical chairs but with hats. We had to dance around when we were doing it. When the music stopped you were eliminated if you didn't have a hat. He said that in many parts of the world people are trying to eliminate Christians just like in the game. (Of course for different reasons....).... This is true in many Muslim countries and countries like Burma especially.
Here is most of the team in the fiery furnace at the end of the night. Then we had to take all the decorations down and clean up. I had a lot of fun but boy was I exhausted in the end. I slept all through Monday morning. 
On Saturday night the Meschach team led the fellowship hour. They did another tremendous jobs. The Meschach team chose as their colors the "Reagge Colors". Even though Jamacia and Guam are far apart, they appreciate the island style of music.
Here Russell, Joel, Jens and his nephew Simon talk about the final preparations for their teams presentation.
Everyone waits for program to begin. When students organize events they are often on "Micronesian Time" this means they start when everyone is there and ready. This is often an hour later than planned. 
Some of the Meschach woman share a song that they wrote themselves. 
After the program filled with music, games, and a brief message by Jens, the team was happy to pose for a picture.
Usually the first thing that happens during PIBC Days is a presentation of the teams. They usually march onto the basketball court doing some type of cheer. Due to some miscommunications only one team marched and they were loud, proud and excited. 
Our team decided to march around the field before the track events began.
The games on Saturday morning were mostly races. Azariah (Abendego) and Meschach dominated the races. 
Tug O War was also part of the games. Azariah beat our team (Shadrach) again.
During the afternoon, they had the second leg of the volleyball and basketball competitions. The finals were held the next day on Sunday afternoon.
The first night was the night for the Abendego team to lead worship. Since Abendego is the Persian or Slave name for Azariah - this team reverted back to the the Hebrew name for their team. However Shine they did. This team put an incredible amount of work and effort into preparations for the evening. 
Here is a team picture.
Ginny and Percia do an action song.
These flowers were just part of the decorations. They were made out of napkins and were placed into stems of coconut trees with ferns.
The sign above said "Stand Your Ground". This is the theme for this week. It is based on the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego, three Israelites who were in slavery in Persia. They were asked to bow down to the gods of the land and when they refused they were thrown into the fiery furnance. It was so hot that some of the guys that threw them in died. However the 3 men, not only lived but were seen walking around in the furnace with a forth man. When they came out, they didn't even smell like smoke. God protected them because they did not bow down to other gods. So like them as Christians we need to "Stand Our Ground" because our God is faithful.
Friday after noon, classes ended before Spring Break. There was excitement in the air as every one started to get ready for PIBC Days. The games started at 2pm when two teams faced off on the basketball court. It was a close game but Meshach pulled off a win over, Abendego. I took my first turn at announcing the game. 
Here are the official score keepers of the first game. Usually the score keepers are from the team that is not in the game. This is Kalvin, Sharon, Jonathan, and our dean of men, Hiob with his son, Micah.
Here are some ladies from the Meshach team cheering on their guys. This team had the most AND the loudest cheerleaders.
After B-Ball was Volleyball where the Shadrach women played the Meshach woman. For some reason many of the Shadrach women were not available on Friday afternoon, so we played the whole match with only 6 players. The other team rotated from about 20 players. Since one of those players was Karyn Sorenson, our counseling professor who is a serious volleyball player, I didn't think we had any chance. 
See they even let me play. I was hoping to stay in the background because I am not all that good.... but in spite of me - my team won anyway.
Lately I have been having trouble with my ears. When I was little I had tons of ear infections but these are apparently of a different variety. When I was little my ear infections were always in the middle ear, behind the ear drum. Now I am having ear infections in the outer ear canal. I am told that they are not uncommon in the hot and humid climate that we have in Guam. I thought I had gotten past them but another one showed up in my opposite ear. It feels some what like i have my head stuffed full of socks and the little metal party clickers. I can not lay my head on that ear without constant clicking. So I continue to battle with these crazy symptoms, am hanging out in my apartment on my day off instead of going to the beach. :o( Fortunately I did get to go to the beach once last week before the symptoms started again. 
This year the church that I attend started something new. On the first Monday night of the month, it is a woman's night. Women get together and talk, share, and of course, eat some goodies. Each month has a different theme. This month was a craft night. We did not do crafts but had sort of a show and tell of different crafts we did or received. This woman in the center of this picture is Wanda. She is a retired Liebenzell missionary. Technically she is only retired from Liebenzell and not mission work. 
Fiona is sharing about a photo collage she made for a friend. Our church family will miss her as she is moving to Singapore. Unfortunately Guam tends to be transitory.... people come and go. So saying goodbye to friends is a regular occurance here.
This is me and Terry Atkinson. She is wife of one of our pastors, Greg. For the last year and a half, I have been a member of one of her weekly biblestudies. This semester we are on break. Although I miss biblestudy, the break really came at a good time for me.
Students seem to love my chocolate chip cookies. Many beg me to teach them how to make them. So when I decide to bake them sometimes I have some students help me. This time I found Jayleen and Ginny who wanted to help me.
Ginny is checking the oven. 
Our school now requires 3 one credit classes for our students. The first class, named Ministry Development One, shows students the many faces of ministry. They have some class room time but much of the time they observe other people doing ministry in various settings. Ned Farnsworth teaches this class right now. There is considerable driving in taking his students in two groups of six to the different sites in which they are to observe ministry. Some of these sites include a preschool class (shown here with Joyce Owen), a prision, a church, and the Naval Base.
Joyce is an amazing teacher and uses many biblical principle and verses to teach her children to read, and sing, and to get some exercise. 
Every Monday morning is cleaning time. The students are divided into two teams and get up and are ready to go (with some prodding) to keep our campus clean. And yes! They do windows are you can see by this picture of Mayumi (pronounced My-u-mi). This is one way we as a school help keep our costs down and affordable for our students. 
