PIU Days 2013–Team Faith

PIU Days began in earnest on Friday afternoon at 4 PM with contests and games. Each day one of the three teams, and the character quality they represent, is featured and today focused on Team Faith. They were in charge of the program, served the food and refereed the games. They did a great job and got the 2013 PIU Days Celebration off to a good start.

The team cheer contest always starts off the competitions. I got to give the bonus points to the teams for this. I gave bonus points to Team Agape (bottom right) for being the best looking and organized. Team Faith (upper left) won the award for best dancing. Team Courage took the award for cheer with best content.

Then we gathered for prayer to dedicate the day to the LORD.

Then Team Agape and Team Courage faced each other in ladies’ volleyball. Team Agape was victorious

The same two teams faced each other again in guys’ basketball and again Team Agape took the win

Meanwhile Team Faith was setting up the chapel for their evening program

Libat led in Team Faith for their grand entry. After some spectacular dancing Kita led the group in some singing

Team Faith sang several numbers. Each team performs an original song written specifically for the PIU celebration and themed on the their team name.

They also performed a skit from the Gospel of Mark about the woman who was healed when she touched Jesus’ clothes

Matthew and Diverson sang before board member John Robertson delivered the evening message which encouraged us to “stand firm in the faith.”

Team Faith ended the program by having Libat escort our IT Director, Mary Lou Carruthers, up to the front to sing Happy Birthday to her. She even got to dance with Ransome.

All of us, including Courage and Serenity, enjoyed the hamburgers and chicken sandwiches provided by Team Faith after the program.

PIU Days Chapel

Our 2013 PIU Days celebration began with chapel service today. Dean of Students Rob Watt assembled a panel of long term PIU faculty to reminisce about the history of the school. The panel included Steve Bradley, who actually taught the very first class offered at the Micronesian Institute of Biblical Studies (which became PIBC in 1991 and PIU in 2009) in 1976 and attended the first organizational meeting in 1974, Bill Wood, who started at MIBS in 1986 and became the 2nd president of PIBC in 1995, Iotaka Choram who was one of the first MIBS graduates and has been on the faculty at PIU since the mid-90’s, and me. There were a lot of stories told about God’s miraculous provision for the school and the dedicated service of many people over the last, almost, 40 years.

  

We started with some music and prayed together.

When you get a group of “old guys” talking about the “old days” there are a lot of interesting stories to be told. As you can see the audience was entranced. Seriously it was a good time of thanking God for what He has done through PIU.

PIU Days 2013 Begins Tomorrow

The annual event PIU Days begins tomorrow, March 22 and will run through Sunday night March 24. PIU Days is a celebration of the God’s goodness to our school and thankfully remembers the founders and many servants of God who made PIU a reality. This year’s theme verse is 1 Corinthians 16.13-14 and the teams are named Faith, Courage and Love. The teams will be competing in sports, skits, singing, cheering and many other fun events. Each night from 7-9 PM one of the teams will host the campus for a program which will include songs, skits, games and a message from the Word. We invite our alumni and the community to join us for the events of PIU Days and celebrate with us. Here is the schedule below. For stories and pictures from last year’s event go here, here, or here.

PIU DAYS Spring 2013
March 22, 23, & 24- Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Friday Events

PIU Days Chapel  11.00 AM

Outdoor Events    4:30pm-6:00pm  PIU Campus
    Opening Ceremony by President Dave Owen
    Girl's Volleyball: Agape vs. Courage
    Boy's Basketball:  Agape vs.Courage

Team Faith Program 7:00pm-9:00pm

Saturday Events

FIELD DAY (at Bayview Baptist Church Athletic Field)

9:30am-10:00am: Breakfast Game: Eating Contest
10:15am-10:45am: Soccer
11:00-11:35am: 60 meter dash, 100 meter dash
11:40am-12:15pm: Capture the Flag
12:30pm-1:15pm: LUNCH BREAK
1:20pm-1:45: Mixed Relay (Stick, Three-legged, Egg toss, Bat race)
2:00pm-2:30pm: Tug-of-War
3:00pm- Cleaning

Evening Events (at PIU Campus) 4:00pm-6:00pm
   Girls Volleyball: Faith vs. Agape
   Boys Volleyball: Faith vs. Agape

Team Courage Program  7:00pm-9:00pm

Sunday Events

Indoor Games  1:00pm-2:00pm
       Trivia Contest
       Save the Life Saver

Outdoor Games 2:30pm-5:00pm
   Girls Volleyball  Faith vs. Courage
   Boys Basketball Faith vs. Courage

Team Love Program   7:00pm-9:00pm

The Bible on the History Channel #3

So last night I started up the DVR and watched my recording of the third installment of “The Bible” on the History Channel. Overall, I would say that this installment was better than #2 and about on the same level as #1. I also have read some other blogs that rate the program as “total heresy” which I think is too strong a statement (I think they are really trying to get the basic message of the Bible in there) or that rate it as wonderful and are getting ready to buy the workbooks to use for their Sunday School classes (better to study the Bible directly). I am going to come down somewhere in between those again.

So I liked the lead up to the scene on the siege and exile of Jerusalem. I wish they had connected it better to how the seeds of unfaithfulness were sown by David and Solomon (how does the reign of Solomon and building of the temple get completely skipped in this series!?) and ultimately led to the failure under Zedekiah and the Exile. However, I thought the program accurately portrayed the siege and the reasons for God bringing on the exile. I thought they also did a good job of portraying Zedekiah’s weak character. They compressed the story a bit but that was understandable. They also got Jeremiah pretty accurately. I would have brought out that the reason Jeremiah went to Egypt was because of the rebellion of the Israelites left in the land but they left that out.

Overall, I also thought they did well with the story of Daniel. I especially appreciated that they did not remove the miraculous from the story and included the fiery furnace story (with the one like a “son of man” walking in the fire) and the lion’s den story. I also liked that they worked in Daniel’s dreams of the image, beasts and son of man. I can’t believe they left out the handwriting on the wall scene as Cyrus came into Babylon. There were inaccuracies. Daniel was exiled during the reign of Jehoiakim and so would already have been in Babylon 10-11 years before Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and burned the temple. I was also surprised that they worked in the comment that Isaiah was in Babylon and prophesied that Cyrus would free the people. The program has taken a pretty conservative approach so far to the text so I was surprised to find “second Isaiah” popping up there. I am also surprised they left out any reference to the “conversion” of Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 4.

So far,the Jesus section has been ok. I thought the annunciation scene was done well except for the addition of the fighting in Nazareth. The birth scene looked like it was based more on Christmas card theology than what the Bible actually says, but perhaps they were just trying to put all the stories together. The baptism scene was pretty good. I think it got across who Jesus was. The temptation scene was also good. I just wondered why they had to portray Satan with a southern European accent and Jesus with a British accent. I am still reserving judgment until they get into Jesus’ teaching and the cross-resurrection section. Maybe next week?

Again, overall basic good ideas but they still get details unnecessarily wrong.

Josh Preaches

Sunday I was back at Agana Heights attending church (and not preaching this weekend.) The sermon was delivered by one of our PIU students, Josh Ladd. Josh did a great job (Mike and I did give him a critique) of preaching a narrative sermon on the stories of the conquering of Jericho and Ai from the book of Joshua. He focused on how often the people we expect to be “in the kingdom” are often “out” (Achan) and those we expect to be”out” show by their actions that they are “in.” He applied this by making the decision of Rahab, to give up her city, culture etc., and align herself with God’s people an example for us to make the decision to follow Jesus. It was great to see Josh applying what he had learned in class and at our Preaching conferences to make the Word come alive for the people at Agana Heights. In addition, the really cool thing, is that, at the same time, there were PIU graduates and current students doing this very same thing all over the island and throughout the region as they ministered in their churches.

Friday Chapel

Friday’s chapel was another good one. Our speaker was board member Siska Hutapea. Siska has been our board for two years now. She runs a real estate valuation and advisory service business on Guam called Cornerstone Valuation Guam Inc. She shared her testimony about being a minority in every place she has gone to school and worked, and how God helped her overcome the odds against her. She challenged the PIU students to take the gifts and talents that God has given them, get prepared, and then work hard to use them for the Lord. She had the students read verses that talked about the need to work and then asked them what they would do if “they could not fail.” I think the students and staff were encouraged.

A good time of music led by Kevin and the Worship Team

We also had a special visitor, Rev. Saladier Ilai. Sal is an alumni of PIU who just graduated last year. He is now the Bible teacher and chaplain at Ohwa Christian School in Pohnpei. It was good to see Sal and to have him there to encourage the Pohnpeian students at PIU.

49ers Football Clinic on Guam

Saturday morning I took Titus to a football clinic at the University of Guam. The Guam youth football league had flown in some former and current rookie members of the 49ers to lead the clinic for kids 5-14. Even though Titus does not play in the leagues I thought it might be fun to take him. The former 49er players were John Paye and Dana McLemore. John Paye was wearing his Super Bowl ring from Super Bowl 23. Even though we did not stay for the whole day, it was worth going. After all how often do you get to see NFL players, especially 49ers, live on Guam?

Titus got lined up to get ready to do some drills

The 49er players led the drills

I think Titus was happier at Burger King than he was on the football field