Greetings from Winston-Salem North Carolina. I have just returned from dropping off our Chuuk Campus Director Yosta Lodge, pictured here with Don and Melissa Howell who hosted us in Columbia South Carolina, at the Greensboro airport. Yosta will stop by Los Angeles to meet with people in the Chuukese community there and try to recruit new teachers and partners in churches and schools there. He will then meet with PIBC alumni in Hawaii on his way back to Chuuk.
Our time at Columbia International University went well. We spoke to about 25 interested students after I spoke in chapel. Several expressed interest in becoming Bible or English teachers at PIBC after their graduations. Please pray that interest will become action and reality. I will be spending the weekend following up on those interested at CIU and Dallas Seminary. I will also be meeting people at a new church in High Point, NC this Sunday.
As you can see Joyce is also keeping busy with her classes and pre-school. Though we are both busy it is hard to be apart from the one you love so long. Just two more weeks to go!

This Weekend

Greetings from Columbia, South Carolina! I am here after a busy weekend. On Friday, Missy drove me up to Edmond, Oklahoma to visit with our former foster son, David Ahlgren. David runs a web business called Wave Services and has been donating his service to PIBC to run our web page and Distance Education pages. We had a great time of fellowship and (for me) learning a lot about how to use our distance education set up. We then went to Metropolitan Baptist Church where we met with several of the mission committee members and presented PIBC to them. PIBC has been approved there for designated giving and we are hoping to become part of their regular faith promise giving. We drove back to Dallas on Sunday evening where we met with the mission committe at Redeemer Bible Church and made another PIBC presentation. Joyce's sister Janet and her husband Paul Ramler are on the mission committee there. Then we got up early Monday morning and Paul took me to the airport to fly to Greensboro NC. I met our Chuuk Campus Director, Yosta Lodge in the Houston airport. We then met Annette Ladd in Greensboro, borrowed their car and drove to Columbia SC. This morning I was able to speak in the chapel at Columbia International University and speak with several of the students about opportunities to serve in Micronesia. I am very encouraged by their enthusiasm and responses. I am so thankful for God's provision through the wonderful hospitality of David Ahlgren, Janet and Paul Ramler and Don and Melissa Howell, our hosts in Columbia, and to the Ladds for the use of the trusty Rav4. I'll share a little more about Columbia tomorrow. I do appreciate your prayers.

I'm Back at Dallas Seminary

Hello from Dallas Texas. I am a little cold - I don't even have a jacket - but doing well. I was very pleased about how things went in Hawaii. We continue to talk with Hawaii Theological Seminary about a possible partnership and significant progress has been made there. I was also encouraged to meet with leaders of several other Christian schools and institutes in Hawaii who are interested in a cooperation that I believe will benefit the students at all of our institutions.

I flew from Hawaii to Dallas on Tuesday night. After spending most of Wednesday with Missy recovering from the red-eye flight, I spent all day Wednesday interviewing eight Dallas Seminary students and graduates who are interested to become PIBC faculty. I was impressed and encouraged by their qualifications, but even more by their missionary spirit and desire to see young people discipled and trained to minister in their churches and to the unreached areas of the world. Please pray with us that God will lead them to the right place of service and enable them to get there.

After the day at DTS I met Missy and we had a nice father-daughter dinner at Olive Garden. (I have been looking forward to some of their pasta and bread since there isn't one on Guam.) We will be heading to up to Edmond Oklahoma tonight to see David Ahlgren and to meet the missions committee and pastors at Metropolitan Baptist Church. I will let you know how it goes!

Meetings in Hawaii

Hello everyone. I am in Hawaii now. I just finished a great meeting with administation members from Hawaii Theological Seminary and Hawaii Bible Institute. I was able to show a Power Point presentation about PIBC and talk about what we are doing. Tomorrow I will meet the President of HITS for breakfast to talk more about partnership possibilities. We will then have a lunch meeting with several other interested people. I am very encouraged by the openness here to partnerships and to hear what God is calling us to do to reach the island people. Sorry, no pictures of the meeting. Our camera is broken and I don't have the school camera. I plan to buy a camera when I get to Dallas on Wednesday. In the meantime here is another picture from our trip last week to Palau. (Sorry it is a little fuzzy).

More on Our Palau Trip

Here is another picture of Titus with his mother Samantha. We did get to do a couple other things while we were there. I was able to meet with Billy Kuartei our PIBC Board member and the Chief of Staff for the President of Palau. I appreciate him taking time to meet with us while in the midst of moving the Palau capitol from Koror to Melekeok. I also had a chance to meet with the PIBC Palaun students and meet the students from Palau who are taking the Distance Education course we are offering. I also had a chance to preach in the English service in Koror. It was a busy but relaxing time.

Our First Meeting With Titus Ungilbesul Owen

We are back from Palau after a great week with Michael, Samantha and Titus. I will talk more about the other events of the week later but today, just about Titus. He is, of course, the cutest and best behaved baby in the world. He is growing fast, now over nine pounds. He sleeps a lot and when he is awake he scopes everything out and seems to be looking and thinking everything over. He doesn't seem to cry unless he wants something. We think he looks very much like Michael did as a baby. He is a real wiggler and tries to push on everything with his legs.

Of course, he took to his grandma right away. He was very happy to be with her unless, of course, he was hungry. I had a little bit harder time with him. He wasn't happy with me holding him until the last night we were there. I was just amazed every time I looked at him. Stay tuned for more pictures in the next couple days. I promise some pictures of Michael and Samantha next time. Thanks for your prayers for them and for Titus.

October Prayer Requests

Wow, it is hard to believe it is already October. We are well into the semester and beginning to get to know the new students. Here are some things you could be praying about for us for this month.
1. Please pray for a quick recovery for Samantha from her 30 hours of labor with our new grandson. Also pray for Titus that he will grow up to be what Jesus calls him to be. (This is also an excuse to post another picture of the good-looking boy)
2. Joyce and I will be going to Palau on Friday. Pray that we will have a good time with Michael, Samantha and Titus and that I will have a productive time meeting with church leaders and PIBC students and staff at our teaching facility there. Three of my Cults class students are taking the course by distance education from Palau.
3. Our administrative council meets October 4-5 to finalize the budget revisions for the 06-7 school year and to take care of other business. Pray for wisdom, discernment and understanding of the needs of all our sites.
4. I will be going on a recruiting/support raising trip to the US starting October 16th. (More info to follow on that) Please pray for effective preparation for the trip.
5. Though both Joyce and I have been down a couple days with the flu we have been spared from being wiped out like some of our staff members. We appreciate prayers for our continued health as we stay very very busy.
6. Keep praying for our students as they hit the middle of the semester that they will stay focused and disciplined and that God will use them in a powerful way in their ministries.

Our New Grandson Has Arrived!

Titus Ungilbesul Owen was born Friday morning @ 4:30 A.M. Sep. 29 2006 at the hospital in Koror, Palau. He was 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 52 cm. long. His mother and father are both doing well although Samantha is resting up after almost 30 hours of labor. We are thanking God for him and that all went well. He has O negative blood so the shot was not needed, even though they had it. Thank you everyone who prayed for him and his birth. Joyce and I will be going to Palau next Friday to spend a week with the latest addition to our family (and with Michael and Samantha too). Isn't this great!!! Keep coming back for more pictures as I get them.