The Owen's Get a Christmas Tree

One of the most exciting things for us this Christmas is having most of our kids and grandkids here for all the Christmas season. Now that Mike, Sam and family live here, we have been able to enjoy all the fun events of the Christmas season with them. Matt, Kristin and Milo will arrive this Sunday night and Missy and Cliff will get here in January, but we have been enjoying, since Thanksgiving, the Christmas shopping, Santa visiting, Mall light shows etc with Titus and Courage. One of the big events for us is going to get the Christmas tree. Of course there is no place to cut a Christmas tree on Guam, unless you want to decorate a coconut palm, which we do in our front yard. However, to get your traditional Douglas Fir, we went down to the local grocery store, Cost-U-Less, and bought a 6 footer out of the parking lot. Everyone then came back to our house and decorated the tree while drinking egg nog. Almost everyone had a good time.

Serenity was very excited to be going in the car to get the tree

Titus wanted to sit up on top of the car with the tree while Courage could not understand why we were putting a tree on top of the car.




Mike, Marci, Titus and I get the Christmas tree into the stand. It took a lot of work to get it to finally stand up straight. Then I had an allergic reaction to something on the tree. It pretty much put me out of commission for about a week. Has anyone else had a reaction like that to a store-bought real Christmas tree?

After putting up the tree we enjoy a well-deserved snack.

Even Serenity was tired out from the evening's festivities

Christmas Concert on the Beach

Last Sunday was the annual Christmas concert at Ypao Beach. Joyce and our house guest, Marci, headed down to the beach for the concert. I had planned to go, but was not feeling well, so they went without me. The concert included the Guam Symphony and the University of Guam chorus and, of course, a visit from Santa Claus. I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the event...

Joyce enjoyed the concert and got a little sun.

Santa showed up with his sleigh drawn by his carabao

Santa's Carabao got a little unruly

But the carabao finally got Santa where he needed to be

Kids' Day at Pacific Islands University

Last Saturday was our annual Kids' Day at PIU. Each year the "Principles of Teaching" class, taught by Dr. Cristel Wood, hosts the children of our Guam community for a day of fun and learning. This functions as part of the "final exam project" for the class. Judging from this year's attendance it is growing in popularity. This year the theme of the day was "Daniel in the Lion's Den." The games, music and story and time encouraged the children to "have courage" because "God is with you no matter what troubles you find yourself in." This year was of special interest for me since two of the Kids were my grandkids Titus and Courage. Here are a few pictures of the days' activities.

Pete makes an important point from the story of Daniel. 

The guys wait for their opportunity to do the "Daniel Rap"

The youngest kids get a visit from King Darius

Kita helps Courage and Titus sing the theme song and say their memory verse. 

The whole PIU student body was working hard on the program!

Everybody sang together at the end of the program

The New Voices of Micronesia 2011 are Ready to Go

The Pacific Islands University ministry team, the Voices of Micronesia, has been re-formed for the 2010-11 school year and is available to perform on Guam from now until May of 2011. They have already performed a couple times to enthusiastic audiences. The team will be performing on the US Mainland again in May and June 2011. The team is also making plans for a performance in Mexico on this tour. If you would like more information about the VOM team or would like to schedule them for a performance at your church, school or civic group please call the school at 671-734-1812.

While you may recognize several of the team members from last year's VOM team several new members have been added. 

Another Great Post on Our Preaching Conference

PIU student Meluat Meluat has also posted about our preaching conference here with dozens of great pictures which I think you will enjoy. The pictures are a good representation of the diversity that you will see on the island of Guam and there are some good shots of the Voices of Micronesia performance. Meluat is a talented photographer and we enjoy the fruit of his ministry here at PIU. I think you will too.

Preaching Conference at PIU

Last week the Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary of PIU hosted a 3-day preaching conference at the Reef Hotel on Guam. Our main speaker was Dr Mark Mitchell from Central Peninsula Church in Foster City, California. Our seminary dean Dr. Eric Sorenson also spoke for one session and served as the MC of the event. The conference was designed to provide basic training in how to prepare biblical sermons or lessons for people who regularly, or occasionally, preach or teach from the Word. We had about 75 people attend the event and most of them were enthusiastic that we should follow up with another conference soon. It was great to see so many people from so many of the local churches and ministries attending. Our desire is that PIU and PIES become a valuable resource to the churches of Guam and Micronesia.

One of the best parts of the conference was to be able to sit and interact with people from various churches. I think it was great for the pastors who need to prepare something every week to get some other perspectives and input. 

The PIU faculty and staff enjoyed lunch with Mark out at Jeff's Pirate Cove. They still make a great fish sandwich out there. 

Eric, Samantha and Celia did a great job planning the conference. The conference was a great way to introduce our seminary to the island. We had several attendees say that they were seriously considering taking some courses at PIES in the near future. Hopefully, I will see some of them in my Basic Bible Exegesis course in January. 

Happy Thanksgiving from Dave and Joyce

Happy Thanksgiving from the Owen's. We have already enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner and taken our afternoon naps. We had a great Thanksgiving service at PIU today. Here are a few pictures of faculty, staff and students enjoying the festivities, especially the feast.

Delight and Joanie get to the front of the buffet line

About 100 people enjoyed the feast

Charles, Sousou and Xyanne show off their full plates

Here is the correct way to eat turkey

A group of very serious eaters

Kevin and Josh survey the food choices

Serenity enjoys her first Thanksgiving

Everly and Mike pose for the camera while Larry is intent on getting to the turkey

Joyce and May pose in front of the desserts

Daisy and Iotaka demonstrate the proper way to make a multi-layer fiesta plate

Titus models his Thanksgiving shirt as he trolls for more food

Samantha, Lisa and Mike make a second run through the food line

Everyone left the room with a full stomach