Cool Stuff at the Japanese School

Joyce continues to work at the Japanese School of Guam as an English teacher. She enjoys her work there very much. So much so, that she has increased her weekly hours. She works three mornings (Tuesday to Thursday 4 hours) a week in the classroom and has added two hours each on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon in the after school care program. This works very well with her classes and teaching schedule at PIBC/PIU. It also gives her an opportunity to have some interaction outside the PIBC and church community. Of course the school is very happy with her work and has hired her for the next school year.

Joyce says that one of the cool things about doing the after-school care is the different equipment the Japanese school has in their play-yard.....

Of course there are the standard swings, that are not always used in the way they were originally designed to be used.







Then there are these balance posts to run and walk on.









And then there is this tire/pole/rope thing that looks like a lot of fun to play on. I have heard a rumor that Joyce can get air-borne off of this thing. Joyce says that the really cool thing is the garden at the Japanese school and she promises to bring home some pictures of that for a future post.

Happy 4th from Dave and Joyce

It is already the 4th of July here on Guam, where America's Day begins so we are in our second day of Independence Day weekend. We spent most of our Friday looking at and test driving cars. Our Santa Fe has been giving us some trouble (and there are a lot of times where we need to be in two places at the same time) so we have been saving some $$ for some time to buy another car. After looking at pretty much every economy car on the Triple J lot we decided on the Kia Optima. I will put a picture up of it as soon as the loan goes through and we get it. For now, I am putting up some pictures Joyce took of her trip to the Mango Festival last Sunday. Joyce didn't get Friday off from the evangelism class she is taking. It is an intensive class so they meet right through the holidays.

It is mango season on Guam. All over the island the road side stands are selling mangoes. Right now I like the mangoes, blended into smoothies and in salads. The fruit is great. The blossoms (in April and May) make me have an allergic reaction.






So, we hope you have a Happy 4th of July. We will be filling some holes in our road this morning and then going to a BBQ this afternoon. Happy Independence Day!

We Are Now Pacific Islands University

According to our accreditor TRACS, PIBC has now officially become PIU - Pacific Islands University. We still need to change the DBA's on our business license to reflect that we are one university with three schools- Pacific Islands Bible College, Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary and Pacific Islands Christian College. I am trying to find a local lawyer who can help us with this and a couple other transition issues. We are also in the process of changing our web site, seal and logo - and of course the most important thing: buying new PIU shirts to sell. We are excited about the changes and are praying that the new people we need for our expanded programs will be found soon. We are also happy to have many new student applications, more than we usually have at this point.

Funny Guam Sign

Hmm. Is this just an unfortunately named coffee bar or an avenue to heaven, "a glorious caffeine fix," on earth? But I do love coffee....

Hello, Goodbye

These are two words that missionaries have to say quite often. Summer seems to be the time of transition with this summer being no exception. So...

We said "Hello" to Dr. Gary Barnes from Dallas Theological Seminary. Gary is a faculty member in the Biblical Counseling Dept. at DTS. He was out here to do a week-long marriage seminar for military families. John Tomada (PIBC alum now attending DTS) gave me the "heads up" that he was coming out and Gary joined us for Sunday worship at Bayview Baptist (pastored by Mike and Judy Albin, also DTS alumni and pictured with us) and lunch at a Thai restaurant afterwards. We enjoyed getting caught up with what is happening at DTS along with other good conversation. I hope to meet up with Gary again this Fall when I stop in at DTS for faculty recruiting.

We said goodbye to Hiob, Leah, Micah and Jirah Ngirachemoi. Hiob has been our Dean of Men at PIBC for the last 3 years. We enjoyed a going away party for him at our house and then another one at the Palauan Evangelical Church of Guam. As you can see from the picture Joyce made sure Micah is properly armed for the trip back to Palau. We will miss Hiob's pastoral care for the students here at PIBC but we are excited to be able to continue working with him as Pastor of the Koror, Palau Church. I will also miss our discussions which ranged from missions strategy to theology to basketball and baseball. We had a good time watching the NBA playoffs together.

We said hello to Rob Watt as he comes to PIBC-Guam to be the new VP of Student Life and Dean of Men. Rob is not new to PIBC. He has been out TF Palau coordinator for the last 4 years. I guess we are kind of making kind of a trade as Hiob and Rob switch places. Rob has been up for a month teaching a summer class here. We have had several opportunities to discuss "stuffs" and I am looking forward to working more closely with Rob this school year. Hopefully we may even get out together to the golf course once in a while. I plan to watch a little football with him, and I'll even let him wear his Steeler helmet inside my house.

Hellos and goodbyes seem to be part of this job. Sometimes it is really hard to see people go, but hey, we have friends all over the world!

Update on the PIBC Thailand Mission Team

On a recent post On the PIBC Thailand Team official blog, the team posted some prayer requests including Friday night chapel services, team relationships and health. We are thankful for the answer to your prayers for Erten. He will be getting his cast off next week. Melissa Heck, PIBC Dean of Women and one of the team leaders is asking for prayer for the "Eternal Friends Camp" that our team would be bold to invite friends who would say "yes" to the Gospel.

One of the student team members, Meluat, is also blogging about his experiences in Thailand. Meluat is a 2nd year student from Palau. His latest post, Challenges and Blessings, includes the story of the team leading a Thai student to Christ. He, and we, are thankful for your prayers for the Thai team. Please keep them in prayer over these next couple weeks of ministry. For more complete information on the Thai team click on the links in this post.

Some New "Stuffs"

I have not posted lately. Things have been a little busy around here as I work on our PIBC/PIU response to the 39 TRACS recommendations. Many of our staff and faculty are on vacation or on support raising furlough. But here are a few updates...

Chuuk Trip: I just returned last night from Chuuk. I met with several church leaders and was encouraged by their good attitude about the changes we are making there. We are trying to set up a distance education facility there to meet the needs of the current PIBC students who cannot come up to Guam to finish their education. In the Fall we will offer three courses that will be fully distance education. If this goes well we hope to offer more full DE courses and some hybrid courses.


Our new grandson Milo: Matt says that Milo is growing every day. He is now over a month old (born May 16th). We really enjoy getting to talk with him and see him on Skype. He is constantly moving and noisy. Matt says that he is even noisy when he sleeps. Joyce will be getting to see him in person sooner than me as she will take off for some time on the mainland on July 24th. She will go to Missy's place first and then meet Matt, Michael, Kristin and Samantha and the grandkids a week later. In the picture Titus is lovingly holding his new cousin.




New PIBC Office Manager: Last month we hired Celia Atoigue to be our new office manager. As we reorganize our office she will also be our donation fund manager and take up a few other duties. Celia is a Guam local, and has worked for a long time for a local insurance company. She is a member at Agana Heights Baptist Church. We are thankful that God brought her to us and are enjoying getting to know her, even though she is a LA Laker fan.






Little Brown Bunny: It turns out that our "little brown bunny" belongs to our neighbor's kids. They bought it as a baby and then it ran away. They were surprised at how big it was when we found it. It must have escaped again because Joyce saw it on our back yard again last night.