Final Day of the TITIP Visit

Most of the last day of the visit from our TITIP friends was spent in meetings.  They met with the administrative council in the morning to iron out details of getting their students started in our distance education program and in the afternoon met with our faculty. PIU faculty got to see a presentation about what TITIP is doing in Indonesia and we got to know each other a little better. We now have four students from Papua, Indonesia accepted and ready to register for the next semester with a potential for several others for the future and we have a teacher from TITIP coming for the January semester to work with us and build the relationship further.

  On Monday night, we went to the home of Siska and Edward Hutapea for dinner. The Hutapea’s are from Indonesia, and Siska is a member of the PIU advisory board. Edward and Siska attend the Lutheran Church of Guam and the TITIP team were introduced to them when they attended there on Sunday (left). We had a great time on Monday evening eating Thai food, talking about Indonesia and our schools, and being entertained by the Hutapea children. The Hutapea’s also have an amazing Christmas tree!

Guam Island Tour with the Papua Team

Saturday morning Joyce and I took the three members of the Papua team for a sightseeing and hiking tour around the island. Samantha’s mother had not had an opportunity to see the island so she joined us for the day. It was a mostly sunny day but we ran into light showers at most of our stops. Nevertheless, the island, as always was gorgeous. Any excuse I can get to show some island scenery, I am going to take. So here are a few pictures of our December 3rd tour.

We took our customary shot of the Ceti Bay overlook. This is one of my favorite spots on Guam. If you come visit us we will take your picture here.

We made a stop at Fort Soledad overlooking Umatac Bay and village where Magellan landed in 1521. Pak Oyang does his duty in the old Spanish guard tower

We ended the day at the home of Bill and Christel Wood where we had a great dinner and good conversation.

Welcoming our Partners from Indonesia

Last week we were privileged to host a team from the TITIP school in Papua, Indonesia. The team consisted of Larry and Willa Yost (left) and pastor Oyang Sesaray. TITIP stands for “Training Indonesians for Transition to Institutional Programs” but it also is an Indonesian word that refers to something that is left for safekeeping until the owner returns for it. This, in a way, is what TITIP does for the parents of the young people that it trains. TITIP is one of the educational arms of the “Yayasan Pelayanan Antarbudaya” a non-profit organization that assists with community development in West Papua. Pak Oyang and the Yosts were visiting PIU to explore sending some of their TITIP graduates to PIU to become students in our accredited degree programs.

For most of the first day our visitors sat with our PIU leadership team to discuss what a partnership would look like. Pictured are Christel Wood our academic VP, Hartmut Scherer, PIU distance education coordinator, Urte Scherer, our registrar, the Yosts, Pak Oyang and me. After much discussion we determined that we would start with four students enrolled in our distance education program for the upcoming spring semester. The Yosts will mentor the new Indonesian PIU students at the TITIP site there. In the future we plan to have TITIP students studying in residence on the Guam campus. Pastor Oyang was also our chapel speaker on Tuesday the 6th.

The Indonesian group also had the opportunity to meet with the Guam Minister’s Association at its monthly meeting. It was a good opportunity for them to meet several of the pastors of the Guam churches, military chaplains, and leaders of other para-church organizations. GMA members seem to be very excited about the connections PIU is making locally and overseas. We had a great time of fellowship there.

PIU Open Mic Night

On November 26th the PIU Student Council sponsored an “open-mic” night at the Guam Lutheran Church. Everyone was invited to come and share their talents in song, spoken verse, story telling or any other manifestation of vocal art. Several PIU students and many of our friends from the Guam church community took advantage of the opportunity. The result was a fun night of hearing many different styles of music from a lot of different people. It was also a good way to get people from the community acquainted with the PIU students. I think it is possible that some future artistic collaborations will result from it. All in all it was a pleasant way to spend an evening and some money was raised by the Student Council for future projects and activities. Here are a few pictures of the performers.

Faculty members Mike and Sam Owen, and Joey Charles contributed some tunes

We had men’s and women’s trios perform

Asia rapped the now famous “PIU parody” rap. The snacks were also good (as mentioned several times by MC Josh Ladd) and the ladies provided cookies, cupcakes and coffee with a smile.

Some More Pictures of the PIU Thanksgiving Feast

I  found some more pictures of the PIU Thanksgiving Feast taken by Joyce (they are much better than the ones I took) so I thought I should post these too. Enjoy.

 

 

Courage and Serenity enjoyed the Thanksgiving celebration

As did students and staff

Baby Gwen is held by her mama Glenda, while Josh “holds” Titus, or is it the other way around?

Meanwhile the bird and ham are enjoyed by everyone

The Thanksgiving feast was enjoyed by people of all genders.

Some Pictures from the PIU Thanksgiving Feast

It has been a busy last couple of weeks here at PIU with many visitors, getting caught up after four weeks away from Guam, and our normal end of the semester activities. This is why I am just now getting to posting my Thanksgiving pictures. It was nice to return to Guam and have a four-day weekend to get rested up before we hit the home stretch for the end of the semester. We were very thankful this semester to get so much of the dinner donated by local businesses and, of course, the faculty and staff chipped in with their favorite dishes and tastiest desserts.

Students and campus kids prepare decorations while Joyce, Vivian and Rob get the food ready.

Everybody had a chance to eat all they wanted with a lot left over. We are blessed people

Every year it seems there is a new baby at the Thanksgiving celebration. Serenity was the baby last year. Baby Gwen (daughter of PIU administrator Nino Pate and Glenda) is this year’s new baby, held here by Lisa Collins, PIU librarian.

Joyful Noise Music Festival

Another event that I missed while I was away (by only one day – ouch!) was the Joyful Noise Music Festival benefit for PIU. Pastor Jeff Johnson (pictured with his wife, PIU Board member Mary Johnson, and Greg Atkinson pastor of Bayview Baptist Church) of the Lutheran Church of Guam organized several of the Guam churches to come together at Bayview Baptist Church for a music event to raise a little money for our school. I heard that it was a real blessing to a lot of people and, of course, the music was excellent. Joyce says that the last combined choir number (above left) was the highlight of the event.

The Voices of Micronesia were one of the groups that performed. Here is a video of one of their songs.