Friday, December 19, 2008

End of the Semester

The last final has been completed, the last dorm room has passed exit inspection, the grades are in (or at least they will be soon), reports and evaluations are done and the students, staff and faculty are breathing a sigh of relief. Christmas vacation is here. Actually it seems like just yesterday we were beginning orientation. In some ways it was a tough semester. We had less dorm students than we expected this year so we had much less money than was budgeted. But with some belt-tightening we got through and nobody seemed to lack what they needed. We completed our first four seminary classes. I have to say that my Basic Exegesis class was one of my most fun and rewarding experiences in all my years on Guam. I saw tremendous improvement in my students' ability to interpret and preach God's Word. We saw (or heard) great improvements in the English level of many students. In addition, we saw students make lifetime commitments to God, some first time commitments. This semester was time well-spent!

But now it is Christmas vacation and the students have departed to their islands or to relatives' places on Guam. According to today's PIBC Post the staff and faculty will spend their Christmases like this ....

  • Bill and Christel Wood leave Sunday morning for Singapore.
  • Peggy Duncan will be arriving this weekend from Chuuk and she will be staying at the Wood's house.
  • Larry and Sharon Bock leave on Monday to spend Christmas with their family in Texas. Larry will be returning for the start of the new semester and Sharon will be returning in February
  • Ned and Marisol Farnsworth's parents arrived earlier this week to celebrated Christmas with them.
  • Eric and Karyn Sorenson's parents arrived this week for Christmas.
  • Brad and Cheryl Boydston's three children will be joining them over the holidays.
  • Tim & Melody Plaxton's daughter Erin is visiting from Palau.
  • Hollie & Aaron Schaub are leaving Jan. 1st to go backpacking in New Zealand.
  • The long awaited return of Steve & Anne Stinnette is almost here! They've purchased tickets to return on Jan. 27th.
  • We will leave Christmas morning for three weeks in California with our family.
Not all the students leave and go back to their islands. Some stay with faculty members. We will have two of students (pictured moving in) Daisy (from Texas) and Mayumi (from Chuuk) stay with us until we leave for vacation. They will then house-sit for us until we get back in January. Tonight we had a little party at our house with staff who are staying around and the students staying with them. Melissa Heck, our Dean of Women and Laura Peters our receptionist came over with some of the students to eat and play games. I think they all came, except for one who said she didn't want to do "white people things." ;) I am not sure what that means. Vacation has begun!

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