Back From Chuuk

I have just returned from a short trip to Chuuk to visit with the faculty and staff at our PIBC sites there and to spend some time with church leaders. You may remember that our board made a decision in June to phase out the academic program on our Tol, Chuuk campus (classroom pictured) and consolidate that program in Chuuk at our Weno (district center of Chuuk) facility. We also have started a remedial program at our Weno teaching facility called the "Bridge Program" which began operations this past week. Right now we have about 32 students on our Tol campus and about 60 at the TF on Weno. The main purpose of the visit was to figure out how the Tol campus would operate in the future. As we discussed this with all involved it seemed that the best plan was to provide a one-year partial academic program that would allow young Chuukese students to experience their first year in college in a more familiar environment before they went on to one of the other more multi-cultural sites like the Guam campus. This would also allow us to run the remedial Bridge program out on Tol as well. We already have dormitories on Tol (we don't have them on Weno) where the students could live and experience campus life. This would also enable us to accept students from outside Chuuk who do not qualify academically for the Guam campus or other sites and place them into a remedial program. We would appreciate your prayers as we explore the feasability of this plan and work out details. It was a real blessing to have such a spirit of cooperation going between the school administration, staff and church leadership.