Palau Trip

I spent last week down in Palau. Sadly I didn't get to do any teaching while there, but I always enjoy going back. My main purpose in going was to talk with church leaders, students, staff etc about the changes and challenges that look like will be ahead of us at PIBC/PIU over the next few months. As I shared in an earlier post, about half of our administrative council will be ending their term of service and will not be returning to PIBC after this school year. This leaves us in a position where we do not have enough people to administratively support multiple sites for the 2009-2010 school year. Our board has decided that, unless we get a miraculous influx of missionaries within the next month, we will pull back and run only the Guam campus next year and put the other sites on a one-year hiatus. Two weeks ago board member Harald Gorges and our CFO Jens Schulz went to Chuuk to inform church leaders, students and staff there. Last week I went to Palau to do the same thing.

I was very encouraged at my meeting with the Palauan Church leadership as they expressed their appreciation for PIBC and assured me of their help. The church leaders assured me that they would provide the support needed to keep the Palau TF open. With their help we can provide a computer lab and office where the students can take distance education classes and some hybrid classes (intensive classroom time with a distance ed. component) can be offered. I am hoping that we can do the same thing in Chuuk and Yap. I also needed to inform the church that we were moving our missionary and TF coordinator, Rob Watt, up to the Guam campus to be the VP of our student life department. I know they did not want to lose Rob, but the PEC leadership approached the issue with a kingdom perspective and I was blessed with the spirit of unity and cooperation that prevailed. The picture here is of Rob teaching his PIBC class in the Koror Church.

I also had the opportunity to drive up to Bethania with Rob and speak to the PIBC students up there and to spend some time with the senior class at the girls' high school. (I borrowed these Palauan scenery pictures from Bethania teacher Jenny Spencer). There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm for, and interest in, the possiblity of coming to PIBC/PIU. These young ladies asked a lot of good questions. I also enjoyed the drive up Babeldaop island. The road is nice and smooth now all the way and of course, the Palau scenery is always spectacular. (You can see beautiful scenery like this all over Micronesia). The only bad thing about going to Palau is that the return flights to Guam leave at 1.00 AM and arrive at 4 or 5 AM.

I would appreciate your prayers for the people we need to run our Guam campus and to re-staff our teaching facilities in the future. More on the needs in a later post.