Advent Celebration

Although we don't necessarily always recognize Advent here at PIBC, this year it seems to be the thing to do. I have been celebrating Advent in Devotion, Bill Wood taught about Advent in devotion last week by teaching us how to sing "O Come O Come Emmanuel" like a choir, and this week Brad also focused on Advent in his Chapel time. He also decided to join the praise team with his Tenor Ukelele.

He shared with us along with his friends and his wife a song Cheryl (far right -Brad's wife) wrote for Advent called Come Messiah Come. Cheryl writes a lot of praise and worship music. Check her out at http://caminomercedmusic.blogspot.com/

Visitors from Pennsylvania

My co-worker and friend Ned's parents arrived safely on Tuesday night for a month long visit to Guam. The ladies and I went over to greet them after they arrived at Ned's house.

We serenaded them with "There's a Welcome Here." and "We are one big happy family." I really enjoy Ned's parents and am looking forward to getting to visit with them again soon.

P.S. Thanks for taking pictures Marisol. I forgot my camera.

A Devotion Guest

On Monday night during our devotions we had a special guest. On Sunday at church, we had a special guest. A woman from San Diego flew in to Guam to be Baptised at our church. About 10 years ago she lived on Guam. Her husband left her and she and her daughter became homeless. She shared the story about how God really helped her through that difficult time and now she lives in San Diego and is an Inspirational speaker. She felt the need to return to Guam where her spiritual journey began to be baptized. While she was staying here, she came to share her story with our girls.

Here are two pictures of Tracy posing with the ladies. They really enjoyed meeting her.

Chuukese Fellowship

On Sunday the Chuukese Fellowship Organization hosted their year end Christmas party. They invited me as their special guest along with a few others. Early in the day they had a worship service then they hosted a meal, singing and games.

Here the men patiently wait for the meal to start.

Here Jayleen and I played pass the soda can tab on the coconut palm frond sticks. I had a difficult time but eventually got the hang of it.

In this relay, the teams were passing a ball of paper in their necks. I was honored to be included in their fun celebration.

Community Group Fun Day

Before the semester ended we decided to plan a fun outing for our community group. Due to a special connection to someone who works at a local water park, we were able to get a reasonable rate. Most of the group had never been to a water park and really enjoyed the experience. I really enjoyed hanging out with the students and going down and up the water slides and swirling around the lazy river.

Here is the gang posing with the Tarza mascots.

The 3 main water slides exit here. The one of the far left is called the "Black Hole". It is an enclosed water slide which is pitch dark inside. It is a bit freaky but very fun.

Alicia and Keiny take a turn on the double tube.

Here Shelby and Hadson hang out in the lazy river.

Gabby and her cousin pose with Marcus by the lazy river.

Teneryn, Myu, and Alicia pose with one of the intertubes used on the slides.

Hiob and his family enjoyed most of the day on the lazy river. I could not convince Micah to go down the water slide with me. :(

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year since I have been here we have been here at PIBC, the tradition has been to have a big Thanksgiving Dinner with staff and students. I have organized it for the last two years. Most of the staff and facilty bring food. Then I fill in the gaps with some of the regular food money. The students often help me cook. Here Percia and Myumi help with the Turkeys. We cooked and baked all Wednesday night until Thursday at noon.

Here is part of the spread before many people added their offerings.

Some of the staff with part of the decorating crew.

Leeman and Melaut help lead us in some songs.

Amelia and Marisol.

Enjoying yummy food and fellowship.

Business Lesson #1

It is important when opening a business and choosing a name that you might have others give you feedback.

High-Tech Devotions - It's a Small World After All

Last night Daisy's mom lead devotions. The one problem with that was that she is in California and we are in Guam. The other problem was an 18 hour time difference. However Daisy's mom got up at 3:30 am to share with us at 9:30PM. We used Skype video phone to connect and voila. We had a great devotion in which Patsy shared with us the importance of forgiveness in a Christian life.

The ladies also started the devotion by singing several songs for the devotion.

Spiritual Emphasis

One weekend during the Fall semester we host a "Spiritual Emphasis" Weekend. We try to get off campus and go camping for a couple days. There are not many places on island to go camping so this is a tricky thing. However this year, with Hollie and Aaron still here, we were able to go camping on Andersen Airforce Base. Each year has a theme and the theme this year was "Prayer". Sometimes we have one speaker but this year we had 3. Hedrick Kual, a graduate and a member of our master's program, spoke on why we pray and what keeps us from praying when we should. Ned Farnsworth spoke about how to pray and what to pray for. Hollie Schaub ended our teaching on the topic of spiritual warfare. Overall, except for the lack of rice (Most Micronesians don't go a single meal without rice - even breakfast), I believe everyone had a great time.

Leah and Joyce hanging out during breakfast.

The beautiful view from our campsite.

Lydia and Stella heading back from the very nice and clean restrooms. (A huge improvement over the last year.)

We also had some visitors during our weekend. These are baby wild boars. They were feeding them. Then two of our students actually caught one with their bare hands. Pretty impressive. However, they were asked to let him go since apparently hunting is only allowed on Monday thru Thursday.

Re-Joyce

The woman in the pink shirt is my friend Joyce. She is also the wife of Dave Owen, the president of PIBC. Dave has been gone for almost a month now to do work in the states. He has been visiting supporters of theirs, recruiting teachers and workers, and attending a conference of the school's accrediting agency, TRACS. Mean while Joyce is back at the ranch (figuratively) helping all of us with whatever she can. In this picture she is helping the students with their clean up day. She has hung shelves in my apartment. She has helped with transportation. She has worked in the Library. She has helped numerous students with their school work. And much, much, more. Boy if Dave were gone one more month, she might have the whole school and the island of Guam organized and more beautiful.

Even so we will be glad to have Dave back on November 21st.

Surviving Yap

Last season the television show Survivor was in Micronesia. Mostly they were on the islands of Palau but for one of the reward challenges they took a group to Yap to enjoy a cultural experience. We currently have 5 stduents from Yap. This is a clip from the episode where they went to YAP. I found it on YouTube. Enjoy.

Another Earth Moving Experience

Today we had the first Earthquake that I felt since I have been back on Guam. They are actually better than an alarm clock.

Magnitude 5.1 GUAM REGION
Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 05:33:57 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude
5.1
Date-Time
Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 05:33:57 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
Sunday, November 02, 2008 at 03:33:57 PM local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
13.51N 144.99E
Depth
37.5 kilometers
Region
GUAM REGION
Distances
25 km (15 miles) E of HAGATNA, Guam75 km (45 miles) SSW of Rota, Northern Mariana Islands205 km (125 miles) SSW of SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands325 km (200 miles) SSW of Anatahan, Northern Mariana Islands
Location Uncertainty
Error estimate: horizontal +/- 7.2 km; depth +/- 9.9 km
Parameters
Nst=59, Nph=59, Dmin=15.6 km, Rmss=0.85 sec, Erho=7.2 km, Erzz=9.9 km, Gp=76.1 degrees
Source
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Remarks
Felt (IV) at Agana, Barrigada and Santa Rita. Also felt at Yona and Mangil.
Event ID
usyxay

Congratulations Cristel and Ben!....

Cristel is a missionary who came to Guam in the beginning of Fall 2007. She taught math and church finances at PIBC for the 2007-2008 School year. While she was here, attending the Lutheran Church, she met and fell in love with Ben. They were married mid-October in the states with Cristel and Ben's friends and family members. However last night, they had a reenactment for us here on Guam.

Hollie, Evelyn and myself enjoyed our time together.

As did many from PIBC.

They had their second first dance.

They also reenacted their vows that they wrote for each other.

This pictures are out of order so I appologize.

Of course there was plenty of good food and dancing to be had by all....or at least some.

Happy 50th Birthday Bayview Baptist Church!

During a majority of the time that I have been here on Guam, I have been attending Bayview Baptist Church. Being a Presbyterian most of my life, I guess it was time for a change. From this shot you can see how my church gets it's name. This is one of the views from the church property.

Here are the Farnsworths and Joyce Owen as we wait for a special lunch on Sunday to celebrate the monumentus occasion. They are friends from church and PIBC.

Here is a view of the front of the building. This building is actually only a little over two years old. The opening was held only a couple weeks after I arrived on Guam. The project manager for the building project, sold me his wife's car, before they left island. I was also glad to see him during the celebration. The previous building was completely destroyed by a Typhoon about five years ago.

On Saturday, they held a carnival. It was a fun time. They had all kinds of activities and games, a concert, a puppet show, and food.
Ned and Marisol took a ride on the train.
The kids loved the carnival games.
Pastor Mike and Pastor Greg both took turns in the dunk tank. Unfortunately I was not a good enough throw to sink either one.
And what is a carnival without a moon bounce?

Chicken Soup

I finally was able to upload a video to You Tube that I shot during the last Spring Semester. It is a skit our students have done on several occassions where they take a simple story about a Mom making Chicken Soup. A director comes in and keeps re-directing the actors. We think the results are funny. However some would suggest it is just because we know the people. You can decide what you think.

If you are a PIBC student or Alumni, I hope you enjoy.

PIBC Ladies Rock!

Ethel's departure gave us reason to take a group shot of all the ladies here on campus. If you look hard, you will even find me. Only Daisy is missing from the picutre.

Pray for May

May (pictured with Ethel who is wearing the flowers) is our library assistant. That title is some what deceiving since she runs the library most of the time. Our librarian lives off island and only visit in person once a year.

May and her husband Tony flew to Hawaii on Sunday so that she can have surgery to have a cyst removed from her ovary. Pray for the doctors to be able to remove it effectively, that it would be found to be begnign and that she will recover quickly and return to Guam.

Waiooooo Ethel! We Love You

A little over a week ago Ethel, my assistant Dean, learned of the death of her mother. This created a dilema since Ethel is the Philippines and she was here on a VISA extension. For her to go, would make it nearly impossible for her to come back. However after much thought and prayer, Ethel decided she needed to go and be with her family during this time. This gave us only two days to prepare for her leaving. Here the preaching class came and sang and shared scripture with Ethel in my apartment where we happened to be meeting at the time.

At Chapel Eric said a prayer for Ethel and her family.

The ladies had cake with Ethel after a combined devotion with the men.

Of course what send off would be complete without the traditional Marmar and Lei made by Evelyn.

Since everyone was so sad and no one wanted Ethel to go, many came to the airport to see her off.

We will miss Ethel but we wish her the best.

P.S. Waiooo is a Chuukese word - pronounced "Y - Oh".... It is an expression of sad longing and missing. A type of nostalgia. I don't really know of an english expression that translates or expresses a sentiment so exactly.