PIU First Annual Five-K

PIU is hosting our first ever 5K run on Saturday morning May 12th. We are expecting between 100-200 runners. I have never run in a 5K and I am not sure that I will start now, but I will be there. We still have available slots for runners and invite everyone else to come out and cheer and then join us for the barbecue in the afternoon. More info and on-line registration are available here.

Guam Pacific Daily News Story on PIU Graduation

I will be posting my own pictures and story soon on the PIU end-of-year events soon. In the meantime here is a gallery of pictures posted in the local Guam newspaper of our graduation ceremony. http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=M0&Dato=20120507&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=205070804&Ref=PH and here is the article about the graduation: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120508/NEWS01/205080306/27-graduate-from-Pacific-Islands-University

Celebrating May 5th on Guam

  Yesterday (Saturday) was quite a day of celebration for us. Yes, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a Mexican style dinner cooked by Samantha in the evening. In the morning I had the opportunity to be part of the 33rd anniversary celebration of the constitution of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. There are about 500 Marshallese living on Guam and we celebrated Micronesian style with music, parades and lots of food. The theme of the celebration was a Marshallese word that meant something like “completion of our potential.” I spoke to the group about how that is exactly what we are about at PIU and that we were thankful that we have been able to participate with them in that goal through our Marshallese students and alumni.

There was a parade led by the flags of the Marshalls, Guam and the USA

 

Later in the afternoon we played in our backyard in the pool Joyce acquired for the kids…

 

… and relaxed in the hammocks as we ate our Mexican food.

Final Bible Projects at PIU

  The end of the semester has arrived and the students had final projects in both Mike’s Old Testament Survey class and my Exegesis in Wisdom Literature class. Mike’s OT100 class had to do a creative project on an Old Testament subject while my OT404 class had to take a passage from wisdom literature and present their exegesis work to the class along with a 3-5 minute homily that made clear and applied the main message of the text. The students obviously put a lot of work into their projects and I think they had some fun with it too. Most important they understand the message of these books better and are much better equipped to teach others.

On the left, Greg Calvo (looking a bit like the big final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark) leads Mike’s class through a Passover while, on the right, beat poet Jonie Jones, explores the deep message of Proverbs 9 and makes pointed application accompanied by bongo drums.

Rommel Carino and Joshua Combs teach their wisdom psalms in a more traditional style

Josh Ladd and Johnny Esa took us through Psalm 72 and 62.

National Day of Prayer on Guam

  The National Day of Prayer, as always, kicked off on the island of Guam on Thursday (we are where America’s Day begins!) morning with the Guam Minister’s Association prayer service. We met at Life in the Son Church. Though this year’s service was a little smaller than usual, we had a great time of worship and prayer for our nation. Several of the island’s pastors prayed for different aspects of our society including government, military, church, family, media, business and education. As usual, I got to lead the prayer for the educators and schools of Guam and the nation. The GMA prays every Thursday morning and this was just an extension of that regular prayer time. It has been a real privilege and encouragement for me to pray every week with several of the island’s pastors and we would invite others to join us. 

PIU Yearbook on Line

For the first time PIU has published an official yearbook. The students, advised by Samantha Owen, were able to complete the book in about 4-5 weeks. The hard copies arrived Monday and are now available for sale in the campus office for $15. The on line version is available here. This yearbook will be a sweet keepsake for remembering Pacific Islands University's first years (the yearbook covers graduates of 2010 to the present).

More Pictures of Courage’s Birthday

Joyce took a couple other cute pictures of the kids on the way to Chuck E Cheese for Courage’s birthday party. I thought I’d post a couple of them – they are pretty cute kids!  Joyce bought the matching outfits for the girls.

 

Here is all three of them

Mike takes a picture of the Mario birthday cake