Dave and Joyce Owen September 2010 Prayer Requests

Another semester has started at Pacific Islands University and we are excited about the students and opportunities God has entrusted to us. It is such a privilege that God gives us to serve with Him in His Kingdom work. God is at work here and we recognize that prayer plays a very important part in "His will being done on earth as it is in heaven." We are thankful for so many of you who pray regularly for us and for the work done at PIU. We want to share with you how God has been working through your prayers and make you aware of some issues that we would ask you to pray about this month...

Praise God for...

1. Nino Pate has received approval for his visa to come to Guam. We have been asking you to pray for Nino since January. We just received word this week that he will be allowed to enter Guam and join our leadership team. He is greatly needed and we are thankful that he will be here as soon as we get paperwork finalized.
2. We are also thankful that Michael, Samantha, Titus, Courage and Serenity are here on Guam and working with us at PIU. Mike and Sam have already jumped into the work and Joyce and I have already been enjoying spending time with the grand-kids. It is very good for me to have regular times where all I have to be concerned about is "what fun thing will I do next with the kids."
3. We are also thankful that wedding plans for Missy and Cliff are going well. We are happy for them and looking forward to October 29th.
4. We have 95 students registered for the Fall semester. We are privileged to be entrusted with their training and ask for your prayers as we move forward through the semester

Prayer Requests...

1. Because of changes in island laws we have to abandon our long range plan for PIU and may need to consider moving to a new property within the next few years. Please pray for discernment and direction for our board and administration as we revise the plans for PIU.
2. Pray for Joyce as she teaches at the Japanese school, teaches one remedial English class at PIU and takes a theology and church history class. After this semester she will have only more class to go for her BA.
3. We are thankful that our school finances stretched far enough to get us through the summer with everyone receiving their paychecks and all our bills paid on time. We will be tight financially this semester and we ask for prayer that God will provide for all of our financial needs.
4. Please pray for these personnel needs to help with the work at PIU...
1. Chief Financial Officer: We have a person we have been interviewing for the position and we ask for God's direction as we proceed
2. Accountant: We also need a qualified accountant in our office
3. English Teachers: We have many students who would like to attend PIU but their English level does not qualify them for admittance. We need two teachers, preferably with some TESL training, to enable us to meet the remedial English needs of these students.
4. Education Teacher: We need an experienced teacher with at least a masters degree in education to head our education department and train our students to teach the next generation of students

Finally please pray along with us for our staff and students that our love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that we would approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9–11

PIU Student Orientation 2010

With almost all the students on campus, and most of them having gone through the registration line we began orientation on Monday morning. The morning began with a one-hour assembly to introduce the faculty, staff and student leadership team to the students. Last year's theme was the Super Bowl. This year, instead of jerseys, we wore our island shirts and outfits and the theme was "catch the wave," in keeping with our new PIU wave logo. After the introductions I got to talk to the students about the core values, mission and opportunities that we have at PIU. It was hard to cram all that into a 12 minute sermon. From Nehemiah, my point was that success would happen as we looked to the past to learn from mistakes and repent of sin looking to God's faithful acts, then look to the future as we put our trust in God's promise of restoring His image in us and then commit ourselves in the present to acting in the power of the Spirit to grow together into what He has called us to be. After the message the students broke up into groups to hear from each department of the school.

Mary Lou Carruthers, IT Director, talked to the students about study center rules, how to access the school wifi and administered the orientation assessment survey. 

Director of Libraries, Lisa Collins, explained all the wonders and opportunities available in the PIU library.

Here the women of the Rollex dorm (all 4 dorms at PIU have names ending in "ex." The men's dorms are the Mannex and Cannex and the women's dorms are the Rollex and the Bannex.) listen to VP of Student Life, Rob Watt, explain how dorm life works. He showed them how "washing each others feet as Jesus did" might mean cleaning ovens and floors and that if they did it little by little, they might only need to "wash the feet and not the whole body."

Steve Stinnette, VP of Advancement, introduced the PIU long term plan to the students, explaining to them what we have planned for development of the school and how the generous donations of people who support the school, and missions that support the school, make it possible for them to afford education at PIU.

 Many of the students "signed in" on the white board

Meluat took some time in the afternoon to do a little skateboarding. 

In the evening there was a dinner for the whole PIU family. There were some songs, skits and the VOM (plus one VOI member) guys performed a stick dance.

Sunday Service at PIU

One of our traditions at PIU, at least we have been doing it as long as we have been operating on our current campus, is to have an on-campus church service on Sunday morning as part of the orientation weekend. The new students have not yet had time to find a "home church" on Guam and all the students are still settling in to the campus. It is a good time for us to worship and fellowship together as a PIU family. Rob and Leeman led us in some worship songs and we enjoyed fellowship around the communion table. My favorite part of the service is when students and staff come up front and talk about how God worked in their lives during the summer or how God brought them to PIU. I am always so encouraged to hear how God works in people's lives and how PIU people have played a part in it. This year, I think, a record was set for how many people got up and shared. God was working all over the world through the PIU family.

Grace was part of our VOM team this summer and is one the RA's in the dorm this year. She talked about how God worked in her life on the trip and how God has prepared her for her leadership role at PIU.

Josh was born in Palau but spent most of his life in North Carolina. He was very open about the struggles that God has brought him through, but thinks God has called him into missions and he wants to get training for it at PIU.

 

Samantha and Courage talked (actually Courage played with the microphone and smiled) about how God provided for their support to come to PIU and how excited they were to be here and to be ministering as teachers and administrators for the next few years. 

Davey told us about his ministry in Chuuk during the summer. He will also be one of student leaders in the dorm this year.

Teisy ministered on campus this summer, worked in the office and attended classes. 

Mondale, a PIU graduate and now a seminary student, challenged us from what God was teaching him from the Word about how Jesus handled his trial and crucifixion. 

Meluat, who was also part of the VOM tour shared his amazement at how God used him to do ministry this summer and challenged us with the great needs of the world.

I met Lindsey in Susanville California, where her father who was my student in Palau back in 1984 is a pastor. She gave a very moving testimony about how she was able to minister to her family in Palau and how she was trusting God to supply her financial needs for school.

Scott is here as a student and as a short-term missionary from Grace EV Free in La Mirada. Sorry about the blurry picture Scott.

Of course some of the testimonies were given in song!

After the service May, Joyce and Jayleen posed with Serenity, who seems to be saying, "no more pictures, please!"

Registration at Pacific Islands University

We have been very busy at PIU over the past week with the arrival of students. It has been a lot of fun picking up the returning and new students as they come in to the airport. Today (Tuesday) was the first day of classes but students have been arriving since the beginning of last week. It looks like we will have just under 90 on the Guam campus. Registration began last Wednesday and late registration will end later this week. Except for a few conflicts and unexpected problems we have almost everybody situated in dorms, classes etc. Here are a few pictures from registration with a couple more posts on the beginning of school to follow.

Registration is one of the busiest weeks of the year for the staff. On the left here, Financial Aid Director Delight Suda, counsels a student about grants and scholarships while, on the right, Mary Lou Carruthers assigns student email addresses and makes sure that student information in the computer is all correct.

This is the scene that greets students as they come out of Guam customs and into the waiting area of the Guam airport. 

Steve Stinnette and I pose in the airport with Josh Ladd, a new PIU student from North Carolina. Josh is also the son of long-time missionaries in Micronesia, Ernie and Annette Ladd. Ernie was one of our faculty colleagues when Joyce and I first arrived in Palau in 1984. Josh was born in Palau and has now returned to the islands to go to college.

Baby Shower for Serenity

Last Sunday night Joyce organized a baby shower for Samantha and Serenity at the PIU campus. I think she is really enjoying having this baby nearby! She prepared the food, planned some games and even did a devotional for the gathering. As you can see from the pictures it was well-attended by our PIU family. Samantha was very appreciative of the "diaper cake" pictured here given by our school counselor Evelyn Suda. I had to include this picture of Mary Lou (PIU IT director) and Serenity since Serenity is posing for the camera and Mary Lou is wearing the PIU T-shirt with the stylish cut and braided sleeves.

Anne and Vivian enjoyed playing with the baby

There were three grandmas at the shower with their new grandbabies. On the left is Celia Atoigue, PIU Office Manager, with her 2 month old grand-daughter, Josephine Mendiola, adjunct faculty with her grandson and Joyce with Serenity.

One more picture with babies, moms and grandmas. We have known Josephine and Haani for about 15 years since they were with us when we pastored at Yigo Baptist and Guam Evangelical Church. Haani and our daughter Missy have been friends going back to AWANA and youth group days at the church.

Student Leadership Orientation and Training

The semester at PIU has begun. Registration begins today (Wednesday)! Classes start next Monday. Teacher and staff orientation and in-service has been going on already this week. Lots and lots of meetings to get ready for the students to arrive! Some of the students are already here. 5 new students arrived from Chuuk last night and 3 of our American students have already arrived. We expect the other 60+ students to arrive Thursday and Friday night to get ready for student orientation which begins this weekend. However, the first group to arrive came in last week - the student leaders. Rob Watt, our VP of Student Life, has had the 2010-11 student council members and the resident assistants and other student leaders in all this past week for leadership training and prep for the school year. I had a chance to share a devotional with the group on Monday morning about "being the image of Jesus 24-7" and enjoyed the brief discussion that followed. We also got to interact with them when they came over to our house for dinner last Friday night (pictures are from that event). Each evening last week the student leadership team brought dinner over to one of the faculty members' house and enjoyed an evening of fellowship. I thought this was a great way to connect students and staff.

Grace, Tyleen and Jayleen are smiling and ready for the semester to start

Doug and Leeman are getting rested up for the start of the semester

Drinking a Coconut

One of the nice things about living on Guam is the availability of fresh coconuts to eat and drink pretty much year round. We have two mature coconut palms in our front yard and two in our back yard. We also have a couple new trees which Joyce planted last year. In addition there are countless coconut trees in the jungle next door. So the other day Joyce took Titus and Courage outside to find a coconut to drink. They found it and drank it right in our front yard. I couldn't resist posting a few pictures of it.

The coconut was big enough for the two of them to share it. 

Seems like they enjoyed it.

It is rainy season here so we get some spectacular clouds. But, even in rainy season, it is always warm here.