I Felt the Earth Move Under My Feet, and Sky came tumbling down.

This morning I was asleep around 6AM when I felt if someone were shaking me to wake me up. When I woke up I realized that no one was there and my bed was still shaking. That was when it dawned on me that I was experiencing an earth quake. Since I have been to Guam, there are often tremors of earthquakes which I mostly miss because they are from epicenters hundreds of miles away some where under the ocean. This morning, the quake was only about 5 miles north of me and a number of miles (all the reports I heard were different) below the surface. It measured 5.4 on the rictor scale and is what they consider a somewhat mild earth quake. I have heard of no reported damage or deaths. Some people even slept through it.

The Day of the Tourist

So often I get so busy I don't get too far off campus except to go to church or shopping. So I try to have some fun days on my days off and play the tourist. This is especially fun when there are actually tourists involved. Karin Schulz's family is still here from Germany. I have been bugging Joyce Owen to hike up Mt. Lamm Lamm (The highest peak in the world if you measure from the bottom of the ocean where it starts). So we asked them to go along. Kathy Newell, one of our teachers who just came for this semester, heard about our adventure and decided to join us.
We went to Gedao's Cave (can be found in my archives), Inarajan Pools (where the group shot was above - also in my archives), Priest Pools (pictured here and below) and ended up hiking Mt Lamm Lamm at Sunset. Here is a view of the Pools.
Joyce of course is always up for an adventure. She hiked down to one of the lower pools.
Here we are in the middle of our trek up the mountain. The view is breath-taking.
There are many crosses on the top. Each year the Catholic church does a vigil at Easter and hikes to the top of the mountain. Many of the crosses show the station number for the Stations of the cross used by the Catholic church. There is also a shrine to Mary on the way up. One of the good things is they also cut back the sword grass for their vigil. Another important thing is that you go during dry season. Otherwise red mud makes the hike treacherous. Below is a very brief panoramic view of the view from the top. I apologize for the sound since I kept picking up conversations. Hey I have a great idea..... come see it for yourself.... I would love to have visitors.

Flowers

Lately I have been enjoying the many beautiful flowers here on Guam. Here these Bird of Paradise are planted on the way up Mt Lamm Lamm.
This red hibiscus was taken at Ned and Marisol's yard but it could have been anywhere since these are plentiful on Guam.
I am not sure what these are. There is a huge patch of them near my apartment. They look like Morning Glories to me.

Another Work Day

Back to the daily grind.... Monday morning at 8am sharp, the students were required to work on campus to help keep the campus clean and the yard mowed.
There are quite a few gardens on campus and the weeds grow so fast even in the dry season that it is almost impossible to keep up with the weeding.
Jaynee helps by cleaning up the weeds.
Percia and Sally pose after the cleaning in a patch of flowers that just showed up in the last month. Percia is wearing a marr marr that she created from some of the flowers.

Amelia and Joel

Sorry just wanted to share some good pictures of my little friends. This is happy Ameilia
This is grumpy Ameilia..... Actually she is little actress Amelia since she was just showing me her grumpy face.
Joel is showing me pictures from his book..... My favorite - the giraffe...
And one I am all too familiar with in Guam.... the red fire ant.

Easter Afternoon with the Farnsworths

I spent Easter afternoon with the Farnsworths. We made "Resurrection Rolls." You take a toothpick which represents the spear that pierced Jesus's side. You stick a marshmellow which represents the body of Christ. You prepare it for burial by rolling it in oils and spices like in the olden days (we used butter and cinnamon). Then you wrap it in grave clothes or a cresent roll (which ever you have handy).... When you bake them the marshallow disappears (melts) leaving an empty tomb & a delicious treat. ;o)
Then I watched as Joel and Amelia had a short Easter Egg hunt. Very fun.

Painting Some Eggs

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.

Happy 40th Birthday Karin

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

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.

Early Easter "Ham"

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.

PIBC Days Come to an end for another year

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.

Meschach Fellowship

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.

The Fun Continues

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.

Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and a lot of sun.

Sometimes for PIBC Days some of our students write new songs for the Weekend based on the Theme. Here Tim Ruda and Happiness Lodge sing one of the songs they wrote for the fellowship time of their team. Hope you enjoy!

We're Together Again

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.