PIU Days Is Coming

The court is newly painted and PIU students and staff are excitedly waiting and practicing hard for the annual PIU Days celebration that will begin this Friday afternoon. PIU Days is a three day celebration of the history of our school filled with games, contests, singing, competitions, skits, worship services, fun and of course, food. This year’s theme verse is Psalm 34.8, "Taste and see that the LORD is good.” Students, faculty and staff have been divided into three teams the “lions” (my team!), the “the saints” and the “angels.” All three teams have already written their team song and are practicing it along with their skits. Everyone is training for the athletic events and planning their decorations for their night to lead worship. It is hard to keep everyone’s attention on class right now!

 

Our three alumni speakers have been announced. I got this info from the PIU alumni page. Check it out!

The first night’s speaker will be John Tomada. John graduated from PIU in 2005 and then headed to Dallas Theological Seminary where he received his Master of Theology degree. John met his wife Lisa on the PIU campus. She was our Dean of Women. They returned to Guam in January with one child and another on the way. The picture on the right was taken in 2004 on the return flight from our mission trip to Harbin, China.  Behind him is Philemon Ngirakel another PIU alum.

Constant Enlet will be our speaker for the second night of PIU Days. Constant and Rejoice live on Guam and minister in one of the Chuukese churches here.

John Jim Phancy will be the speaker for the Sunday evening session. He is serving as the Chuukese pastor of the Marianas Baptist Church in Agat. John Jim and his wife Satrin graduated from PIU in 2002.

March Prayer Requests

March looks like it will be a busy month for Joyce and me. We do appreciate all the people who pray for us regularly and financially support our ministry in Micronesia here at PIU. Here are a few things to pray about for us this month…

1. Grandchild #5 - Joyce will be flying to Texas on Tuesday to stay with Missy and Cliff and be there for the birth of our 5th grandchild. Leila is due to arrive around March 15th so Joyce plans to be there a week early to help them get settled into their new house and get ready for the new baby. Joyce has never been there for the birth of a grandchild so she is very excited about this. Please pray for a a pleasant trip for Joyce and a quick and safe delivery for Missy and Leila.
2. My Spring Trip - I will be flying out for my spring recruiting trip on March 12th (PIU’s spring break). My main focus for recruiting will be an academic administrator and VP of Advancement. I am also looking for a music/fine arts teacher and other liberal arts and biblical studies faculty. We could also use a Dean of men. I am also hoping to interview some volunteers to help us with our summer 2012 programs. My schedule is Santa Cruz CA 12-14, Nor California 14-16, Portland OR 17-18, San Diego CA 19-20, Dallas TX 21-25. I would love to see you if you are near one of these stops.
3. PIU Days - March 9-11 will be our PIU Days celebration. The school is already divided into three teams for games, worship services, Please pray that it will be a good time of mid-semester relaxation for the staff, faculty and students and that God would build deeper relationships among the PIU family through it.
4. Finances - Please keep praying about our financial situation at PIU. God has provided already through his people but we continue to be in need of donations to make our Spring semester budget. Also, we are applying for several grants. Please pray that God will provide the resources we need to pay faculty and staff and continue to provide accessibility to quality Christian education for the people of the Pacific.
5. Student Recruiting - Spring break will see two teams from PIU heading out to do student recruiting. Lisa Collins and Daisy Murdock are headed to Palau to follow up on Daisy’s (and Mike and Samantha’s) earlier trips to recruit students. Student, Saladier Ilai will head to Pohnpei with Nico and Pam Daams (Isles of the Sea missionaries who helped us develop our new Bible Translation emphasis in our biblical studies program) to publicize the program and recruit new students. Please pray that God will guide the students as they make decisions about their college futures. Later in the semester a group of students will head to Yap to do some recruiting there.

We do appreciate your prayers. We have seen God work here on the PIU campus in so many wonderful ways and we know that God’s people praying all over the world are an important factor in that.

Of Mice and Memory

The letter below was written by our IT person Mary Lou Carruthers to Board member David Mayer after David brought a bag of new computer mice and RAM memory to us for our PIU computers. Several people in North Carolina donated so that David could purchase the badly needed upgrades for our computers…

I want to express my thanks for the memory and mice for our computers here at PIU.

Every computer comes with one mouse and I had gotten to the point where I had NO spares.  Thank the Lord for your donation of mice.  I now have spares and if a student comes to me asking if I have any spares, I have them to check out for the semester.  I have been able to do this with keyboards but not mice.  The mice are the exact type I wanted - tethered via a USB port.

I have so far updated 2 PCs with the 2 gig memory chips you sent.  I experimented on the Front Office computer which has been very slow in being able to service student needs.  It was like filling my gas tank with jet fuel!  What a difference.  Attached is a picture of a very happy Anne Stinnette who immediately noticed.  With the memory you sent, I will be able to upgrade the memory on 12 PCs which will get the most used computers with more memory.

Again, you have blessed us by donating the memory and mice to help make PIUs computers run faster and I thank God for you being willing to do this.

Blessings, Mary Lou

There still is a big need at PIU for new computers. The student computers were bought with a grant we received in 2006 and many of them are falling out of service. Most of the staff computers are even older and Mary Lou was unable to upgrade them. In fact several of the library staff computers are running Windows 98 or 2000. If you would like to find out how you could help PIU by donating computers or computer equipment please send an email to Mary Lou or call PIU at 671-734-1812

Saturday Kid’s Day

Last Saturday was the opening of a new children's ministry. PIU advisory board member Cita Tomada has felt a calling for a long time to provide a safe place for kids to come after school and on Saturdays where they could play, learn and and have fun in a Christian environment. Saturday was the “soft opening” of the ministry which takes place on Route 8 next to Faith Book Store. The opening ran from 9 AM to 4 PM and included a bounce house, drumming lessons, modeling training, face painting, games and a performance by the VOM. Joyce and several PIU students were there to help out with the opening. Cita is looking for a person to run the program so that it can expand from Saturdays only to an after school care program. Anyone interested can call PIU at 734-1812.

The VOM sang and danced for the kids.

The Owen kids enjoyed the day, especially the bounce house

PIU Board Meeting Day 3

The third day of the board meeting is usually mostly evaluations and election of board officers for the next year. After three years as Board chairman, Bill stepped down and Howard Merrell (pictured on the right) was elected to the position. Bill will continue as a trustee on the board. Billy Kuartei was elected as vice chairman, Siska Hutapea secretary and John Robertson treasurer. I think this was a very productive meeting and we have a very clear goal for what we need to do in this coming year.I am looking forward to working with this board and believe that God will move PIU forward to where we need to be as a school.

Friday is also the day for the board to lead the PIU chapel service. Each one of the board members gave a testimony or shared a word of encouragement to the PIU students, staff and faculty.

Harald Gorges shared a story of reconciliation on his recent trip to Chuuk. He said that he had to learn how to hug and it was still somewhat uncomfortable for him. But he said that the hugs he received in Chuuk were very comfortable because they were hugs of reconciliation. Howard Merrell said that Harald needed more practice hugging and created the PIU Rising Tide “Hug Fund” so that Harald could receive more hugs from everyone there.

 

Howard writes, “In an extension of the old "Kissing Booth" we said that anyone who wanted to could get a hug from this guy--who isn't nearly as unhuggable as his story implied--for $1. Soon there was a bid of several $$ to not have to hug him, and I think over $100 came in because of our impromptu fund-raiser. The fact is PIU is a significant ministry doing a good work on a shoe-string--or in this part of the world a flip-flop strap.It's a horrible mingling of cultures, but if you'd like to Help Us Get-r-done--HUG, go the PIU website, click on the Advancement tab, and follow the instructions for making an online gift.http://www.piu.edu/

Chapel was followed by a fellowship lunch for board members, faculty and staff. All the board members took the opportunity to thank the staff and faculty for faithful service

Board members and PIU staff got to know one another a little better. John Robertson sits with Anne and Steve Stinnette who are Liebenzell missionaries and Larry and Sharon Bock who volunteer at PIU On the right Howard Merrell make his point to Ken Dixon, a missionary from TITIP in Indonesia on faculty at PIU this semester

Each Board member received a PIU business card holder (handmade by PIU IT coordinator Mary Lou Carruthers). Billy Kuartei encouraged us by reminding us that PIU is much needed in the region because we “produce leaders with character, not just education.”

PIU Board Meeting Day 2

Day 2 of the PIU board meeting was administrative report day. Billy Kuartei, our board representative from the Palauan Evangelical Church, opened the day’s sessions with a devotion from the story of the 12 spies in the book of Numbers. In that story Israel missed their moment of opportunity because they failed to look at God’s promises and focused only on the problems. He challenged us to be the minority that stepped out in faith to accomplish what God is calling us to do. This was appropriate for the day as each report honestly presented the challenges we face at PIU along with the amazing things God has done through the school this year and the great opportunities that are in front of us. One phrase that kept popping up in the conversation was that “we have gold in a paper bag” at PIU. That is, though the school does not look like much in terms of physical plant (which needs great improvement) we have a tremendous faculty and staff, solid academic programs, our alumni are making successful contributions to their communities and lives are being changed.

I was encouraged by the Board members’ commitment to be involved in prayer for the school and to “put feet and hands to their prayers.” As Nino Pate (left), our Executive Administrator shared our financial situation and Lisa Collins, our librarian who is also coordinating our recruiting and fund raising efforts, discussed advancement of PIU the theme was that our needs are great and our opportunities are great. I would appreciate your prayers as we attempt to raise about $80,000 over the next few months to fund our operating needs and recruit students from all over the Pacific region for our summer programs and Fall semester.

The evening ended with a barbecue dinner for board members and students to get together and have some fellowship, but my camera battery went dead in the afternoon and I didn’t get any pictures. It was a fun evening program.

Day #1 of the PIU Board Meeting

The first day of the annual PIU Board of Trustees Meeting, taking place at the Christian Serviceman’s Center at Bayview Baptist Church, went very well yesterday. The morning began with an excellent breakfast (Fried rice and spam provided by Shirley’s Restaurant) and devotional from board member Harald Gorges and was filled with internal board business. The highlight of the morning session was the installation of two new board members Siska Hutapea and John Robertson. We now have a 10 person board. The morning session finished as some of the advisory board members joined us for some fellowship and discussion of the PIU long range plan.

After a nice lunch provided by Subway, the Voices of Micronesia 2012 gave a short performance. The students did a great job. Mike and Samantha have been directing the VOM team on an interim basis but we are still praying and looking for a director for the team who can also teach music as part of our faculty. After the performance, Hartmut came and took the official pictures of the event.

The Board (L-R): Advisory Board Members Cita Tomada, Jeff Jones, Board of Trustees Members David Mayer, Billy Kuartei, Bill Schuit, Vincent Parren, Siska Hutapea, Howard Merrell, Harald Gorges, me. Not pictured Mary Johnson (she is Skyping in to the meeting), John Robertson, Martin Auch.

The afternoon session mainly consisted of the president’s report and a discussion of the PIU organizational chart. I shared with the board the challenges we face as we try to keep excellent Christian higher education accessible to the people of the Pacific islands without losing our focus on discipling and providing character development to our students. It was an encouraging time for me. Today’s session 2 will consist of reports from all the departments of PIU. Please be in prayer for our administrators as they report and the board as they continue to make decisions that they will be directed by God’s Spirit. Our publication table here shows how many policies, procedures and plans they need to go through!  Thank you for praying for our board and the meetings this week.