Owen Prayer Letter June 2012

This is the prayer letter I just sent to our supporting churches…

Another school year has already gone by (I am turning back into dust faster and faster it seems) and we were blessed to graduate 27 students on May 7th, including three with a Master of Arts in Religion, 3 with an Associate of Arts in Biblical Studies and 21 with a Bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies. These graduates will going on to grad school, beginning ministries in churches as pastors (some have already been pastoring churches as students), youth pastors and children's workers, and starting jobs as school teachers in the public and private schools throughout the islands, working in government and business and many other things. We had an enjoyable, though financially tight year and are very thankful for the way God provided to get us through the school year with a short staff and faculty. We are excited about the new Bible translation emphasis in our Bible program and our new relationships with TITIP school in Papua (we have 6 students from Papua now) and with the SIL Isles of the Sea Group. We are truly blessed with the people that we work with, and Joyce and I both enjoy the ministry God has called us to in Micronesia. It is hard to believe that we have been out here since 1984 and have now been missionaries with Liebenzell USA for 28 years. Many of you have been part of our prayer and financial support team for all of that time and we are very thankful for you. We are very thankful for all of you who make it possible for us to be here in ministry full time.

Here are a few prayer requests as we head into summer ministry....

1. Summer Programs At PIU: This summer PIU is teaching several summer classes on campus and on line. The first summer session has already started and another session will begin in July. I am teaching two seminary courses. One is Old Testament Theology and I am doing an individual study with a student on New Testament Theology. This coming week we will begin the PIU 8-week summer remedial sessions. We will be offering these 4 classes: speaking and listening, reading, writing and study skills tuition free to serve the community. We had hoped that a local grant would fund these classes but we found out yesterday that we would not get the grant. We still believe God would like us to offer these classes so we are moving forward on faith to do that. We are hoping to get some donations to fund the materials ($10 per student per class) and the outings ($80 per student for the summer) so that finances are not a barrier to any student who wants to come. Michael Owen and Joey Charles will be teaching the classes.
2. Owen Personal Financial Support: Since 2002 Joyce and I have been fully supported to minister at PIU through Liebenzell Mission USA. PIU does not pay us one penny for what we do here. We have been so blessed that we have had 10 years of adequate support but, because some of our support team has died or gone through hard times, our support has gone below the break-even level and we will probably go into the red in our account with Liebenzell Mission by the end of this year. It will be very difficult for us to get away from our ministry at PIU to raise support so we would ask for your prayers on this. We would also that you might prayerfully consider becoming a financial supporter of our ministry or increasing present support if God so enables and leads. For information on how to support us please email me at dowen@piu.edu or click here to get info or to donate to us on line. We appreciate it.
3. PIU Summer Ministry Trips: You can read a lot about the two PIU groups doing ministry this summer in Yap and in Susanville California in the blog posts below. We have 10 students in Yap right now helping the Yap Evangelical Church with VBS, youth ministry, evangelism and Bible studies. One student Kita Mokut is working with the Susanville Baptist Church with women's and children's ministries. Please pray for them that God will make their ministries fruitful and will overcome the spiritual warfare they are experiencing.
4. Grants for PIU: I mentioned above that we had missed out one grant already this summer. We have about 5 grant applications in right now (private and government) to seek funding for much needed items such as administrator salaries, seminary scholarships, Bible Translation scholarships and for improvements on our buildings and property (paving a road and parking lot is one urgent need). In addition we are needing donors for our Rising Tide program which helps fund PIU yearly regular operations. Our students pay less than 1/3 of what it actually costs us to educate them and so we ask you to pray that God will supply the resources necessary to make Christian education accessible to the people of Guam and Micronesia.
5. New Applicants: We have more new applications in process than we have ever had in the history of the school. Please pray for the applicants that they are able to get all their testing done, paperwork in and everything done to get accepted and on campus in August. Please pray for us that we have wisdom in accepting and placing students. Our goal is to have 120 students enrolled for the Fall semester.
6. Family: Finally please pray for our dads. Both my dad and Joyce's dad have been experiencing some health problems this summer and we would ask prayer for them. It may be necessary for us to go to California this summer to spend some time there (not that we don't want to do that but it is hard to get away from PIU) and we need wisdom and provision for that.

Thank you so much for your faithful prayer and support for the ministry God has given us in Guam and Micronesia.