PIU Keeps Trophey

The Lutheran Church of Guam challenged PIU to sports challenge of Basketball, Volleyball, and Tug-of-War. Maymay, Jen, and Jayleen pose together before the volleyball challenge.
Eric, Katie, and Noelle enjoy watching the basketball game.
Mason, the great dane, was one of the highlights of the day. Meluat made a new friend.
Lucy and Sophie hang out and wait for the food to be done.
Rommel worked hard to grill as much meet as possible.
The Trophy waits for the results.
Kalvin keeps score for the game as Dave watches on. It was a close game with LCG won by a few points in the end.
Styling a pose.
Jake shows off his new hair cut.
Lisa Collins, our new librarian and also a member of LCG was the only girl brave enough to play Basketball with the men.
Dave and Doug contemplate who will get the trophy..
Jen loves on baby Ethan.

Welcome Jen

Jen is one of the newest members of the PIBC family. She arrived this fall to help teach study skills and remedial English. She also has the desire to really work with the students so she has joined the student life team with me as we plan events and services for the students. We also have had fun walking and "sight seeing" together.

Basketball Begins

This year the boy's basketball team has a new coach and it's a girl!!!! Yep Daisy be schoolin' those boys in basketball.
Charles (aka JarJar) takes a free shot after being fouled from a player from my church team (Bayview).
Of course basketball needs some cheerleaders but sometimes it is hard for them to get up by 7:45 AM every Saturday to get to the game.
TJ is new to the team this year.
So far we have only won one game. However there is great potential in this group of guys.

Some Real Class

I have always appreciated Eric Sorenson as a friend and collegue but this year I get to appreciate him as a teacher. Because I have heard the students from his class always rave over his classes, I thought I would check one out for myself. So right now I am auditing his Prophetic Literature class. In the first three weeks we completed the book of Isaiah.... so to speak. Unfortunately it is only a "survey" class of all the old testament prophetics so we don't get in deep with any of them.
I really enjoy mixing it up with the students in the class. They think it is funny that I am taking one of their classes but I never went to Bible school like a lot of my co-workers.
Unlike Gloria and Inca, as an auditor of the class, I don't have to actually do the homework, although I do try to keep up with the reading.

I really feel blessed to be here with such quality faculty and staff.

University of Guam Ministry

Now I know some of you can't believe that there is one college on an island but we actually have three accredited colleges. Besides Pacific Islands University, there is Guam Community College and University of Guam. At the beginning of last year, Austin Evers (pictured here) was brought in by a Baptist group to do ministry to the students of the University of Guam. We also had a group of students who were doing the same so we have joined forces. Austin and the UOG ministry held a Bar-B-Que on our campus this past Saturday night to welcome back the students.
Of course there was plenty of food.
Volleyball in the light of the full moon.... and a little bit of electrical help.
Everybody seemed to have fun.
Even the faculty and staff joined in.

Safe in the Father's Arms of Love

Yesterday I was standing behind this man and his daughter in church. He was singing praises and swaying and holding his daughter, who was resting her head on his shoulder. It occurred to me that this is much like our Heavenly Father wants us to rest in Him and he will sing over us (Zephaniah 3:17).... I was really blessed by the picture and thought I would share it with you...please feel free to add your own music and imagination.

"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.

On our way home.....

We have been traveling since noon on July 28th.... We left ChiangMai by bus.. (10 hrs). We rented a van to take us to the airport. We stayed up most of the night and checked into our flight at 2:30AM.... (If you are ever traveling with Micronesians - it seems that people in many countries do not know that Micronesians do not need US Visas..... it slowed us down but they eventually figured it out.) We flew from Bangkok to Tokyo. I was actually able to sleep most of the trip.... This is VERY unusual for me. We will board our flight in Tokyo around 5:30pm local time and arrive in Guam at 2AM on July 3oth.

Looking forward to getting home and getting ready for the next semester but I will really miss all my new friends in Thailand. Waiiiooooo!!!!

Meeting "James Bond"

Ok ... So I didn't meet the real James Bond movie star. However I have enjoyed meeting a Thai student whose name is "Bond"...He is to my right in the picture. He and his friends (to my left, "B" and Pump, white shirt) are English majors at Maejo. We have met so many fun people, we will miss them when we return to Guam.

A Dream Come True

For many years I collected all kinds of giraffes. Figurines, shirts, stuffed animals, etc. Although I stopped probably close to 10 years ago because I got tired of dusting them - it was still a cool experience to feed and pet a real one at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand.

Something Light!

I can't read it but I still love to drink it. Coke Zero and Diet Coke don't really taste all that different from each other here. I can get about a 590ml bottle for about 50 cents.

Prayer Requests for Thailand Team

Pray for PIBC students to continue to meet new students and build relationships with other students.

Pray for us on Friday night as we will be having a chapel service for students from all Campuses.

Pray for our relationship with the Campus Crusade staff, that we will be able to be a blessing to each other.

Pray that each member of the team that they would grow closer to God during this time. Pray that they would not get discouraged. Pray that God would give us a spirit of Boldness to share with our new friends.

Pray for the health of the team. Right now a few people have cold sores. (from CC Staff) Erten will get his cast off next week.

Pray that we would stay focused on our purpose here.

Pray that we would be patient and loving towards all we work with here.

Pray that God would help us go out of our comfort zone more.

In two weeks we are having "Eternal Friends Camp". Pray we would have the courage to invite our friends and that many would say yes.


See Thailand Blog for some pictures and updates..... (link)

Sending from the Land of Smiles....

Thailand is known as the land of smiles. We certainly have seen and shown our share of smiles since we have been here. We have completed our second week of ministry by walking around and talking to students at one of the universities here. Next week we will set up a booth to show and sample all things Guam/Micronesia. We hope this will be another way to meet more students.

We have pictures and we are making different foods popular in our cultures. Some of us will also be wearing Micronesian dress.

Pray for the Thai staff of CCC, whom we work. We have today off to rest and recover but they are working this weekend training their student leaders. They work really hard to serve us and make sure we have what we need.

Tomorrow they are going to take us on a drive around Chiang Mai to see sights and go to the famous "Walking Street", which is a market of Thai crafts and stuff.

Erten seems to be healing well and for that we are thankful.

Thai Team Prayer Requests

Pray for….

Health and safety of the team.

Pray for Erten as he recovers from his surgery. Wisdom for his best care. Praise God for that the cost was less than $1000 for his hospital stay and surgery.

Pray that God will meet the financial needs of the team after paying the medical expenses. (Although we feel ok so far… when we are on campus lunch costs us less than 1.00 each for a hot meal…. Which helps.)

Pray that many students will come and be blessed by our “Micronesia Booth” which will be set up on both Tuesday (6/16) and Wednesday (6/17) afternoons on Maejo University campus.

Pray that we would have wisdom in the preparations for our booth.

Pray that many students would consider coming to our “Eternal Friends” overnight camp in a couple of weeks. Pray that the details would be worked out and that it would be blessing for all who attend the weekend.

Pray for the Thai staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. We have really been blessed by their ministry to us so far. Some need to raise more support so that they can continue in the ministry. Pray that God would pour out His blessings on them. Pray especially for those working directly with the team…. Pai, Ngon, Lar, and K.

Pray that we would continue to develop relationships with the friends we met during the first week and that we would continue to meet others.

Pray that we would allow God to direct and lead us as we minister to the people of Thailand.