First Classes This Semester

The Prophets 1 class went well last night. I ended up with 18 in the class. Most of the students in the class are full time resident students from Micronesia. There are only three off campus students. This is unusual for an evening course. We spent a lot of time going over the class assignments and materials. My goal this semester is that the students will really interact with and think through the text with a view toward specific application. This is really new for many of them as they are used to just being asked to memorize information. Though they are a little apprehensive I think they enjoyed the first class. Next week we will be looking at Joel and Obadiah.

The Cults class is something new at PIBC. I have taught it 3 or 4 times before in the traditional classroom format but this year will be the first time we have taught it in a hybrid on-line/classroom format. All assignments will be made and completed on-line. There will also be an online threaded discussion where students will be able to post responses to each others answers to the weekly discussion question that I post. Each week the Guam students will meet in a classroom with me to dicsuss the week's lesson. The students taking the class in Palau will meet with Rob Watt (our PIBC missionary-teacher in Palau) will meet with him there for their live discussion. Maybe next time we will do the whole class on-line.

Chapel

We have chapel four times per week on the Guam campus. Today was my opportunity to preach to the students. My text was Joshua 7, the story of Achan's sin and the defeat at Ai. The point was that times of victory and success can be very dangerous if we let that success distract us from how God got us there in the 1st place. The four mistakes the Isrealites made were ...
1. They attributed the success God had given them to their own efforts.
2. They failed to work together.
3. They put their own desires above their commitment to God and to each other.
4. They failed to watch out for each other and hold each other accountable.

Please pray that we will not make the same mistakes and that God will continue to bless us as we build servant leaders for Micronesia!