Back To Work

We are back into the home stretch for the Fall semester after our one-week Fall break. The whole PIBC family enjoyed a great Thanksgiving Day feast (without football since the Thanksgiving Day games from the US come on in Guam on Friday). The students were able to use the time to relax and get caught up on their studies. The staff and faculty were able to take a deep breath and get ready for end of semester stuff. It is hard to believe December is almost here. Here are some prayer requests....

1. We are beginning preparation for our March Board meeting. Please pray that I am able to present the issues and vision to the Board in a clear way.
   
2. We need Solomonic wisdom for some discipline and discipleship issues among the students.
   
3. Pray for the students to make a good finish to their semester.
   
4. Energy, excitement and encouragement!
   

Happy Thankgiving

We have just finished up an enjoyable Thanksgiving with our PIBC family. (Pictures to follow in a later posting) We do miss our kids a lot on these family days so I thought it would be fun to look at a few old Owen family pictures. I think the first one is from 1996, the second from 1998 and the third from Matt's wedding in the summer of 2005. We pray that you enjoy your time to enjoy and thank God for all the wonderful blessings he has givin us. HAPPY THANKGIVING!!

P.S. My hard drive crashed last weekend. I am working on restoring everything but it may delay my responses to you a bit. Thank you for your understanding.

Spiritual Emphasis Weekend

Well it was a great weekend! It was very nice to get away from the normal routine and have some time to relax with the students and listen to what they have to say. We had only one minor casualty all weekend. Inca, one of our Chuukese students, was bitten by a Guam Brown Tree Snake while she was sleeping in the cabana. (See picture) She is OK but still in a little pain. Basically the format of the weekend was for the students to hear three messages, have group discussions and individual meditation times after each one, play games and have a lot of time to play at the beach. We had 2 faculty members (Brad Boydston and I) and a guest speaker, Paul Castillo a Navy chaplain, bring the messages. The theme was "Don't Waste Your Life." I enjoyed sitting with the guys discussing the messages and hearing what God was doing in their lives. We also had time to play silly games and just talk and get to know each other better. It is exciting to hear what God is doing in the lives of the students. Please keep praying for them that they will keep listening to God and they will see him overcoming the obstacles in their lives. Also many of our students are struggling with other issues that threaten to divert them from what God is calling them to do. They can use your prayers too. Here are some more pictures of some of the activities of spiritual emphasis weekend...
Preparing Sea Cucumbers to Eat


Packing Out

Back Into the Classroom

Thank God It's Friday! Not for the usual reasons and not because today was "Island Wear Day" for Spirit Week and I got to wear my island shirt and golf shorts all day. Friday is the day I finally get back into the classroom after a month away. While I was gone I have been interacting with my Cults distance education class students by internet chat, threaded discussion and email but today I was back in the regular classroom. I always enjoy our Friday class because it is in full discussion format. I come prepared with a couple questions. Today, since we are studying Oneness Pentecostalism, my questions dealt with the how's and why's of non-Trinitarian views and the problems with the added requirements for salvation of extreme Arminian views. The students always seem to bring up an unexpected side to the issue. Then we move on to issues the students choose to bring up. Since last week's subject was Post-Modernism, most of the students' questions related to relativistic views of truth. So class was a lot of fun today. As always, I came out of the class pumped up and wanting more.

Back Home on Guam

After almost a month on the road, I am finally back on Guam and it is great to be back. Except for my 10 pound weight gain from all the good food on the trip I would say it was very successful. I have a pile of resumes to sort through from interested prospective teachers. I will be following up with everyone I talked to over the next couple weeks.

It was great to be back at school with the students and staff and hear what has been going on while I was away. Yesterday at the staff meeting one of our deans shared how one of our new students prayed to receive Christ this week. Every year we have students, who came here thinking they were already Christians, understand the gospel for the first time and commit their lives to Christ. The great thing about it was that he was led to Christ by a fellow student. I had a chance to preach in chapel today. This week we have been preaching through Ephesians 1:3-14 and today was my turn. This weekend we will be going to an all-school retreat at Rios Beach. I am looking forward to spending some direct time with the students and I will get to preach to them again at the Sunday sunrise service. The students are also excited about this week's startup of our "Adventure Club" outreach to the kids in our neighborhood. Next week will be the Fall semester break.

Here are some prayer requests....

1. We are in need of short or long term coordinators for all three of our remote teaching facilities in the Fall semester due to furloughs and other issues.
   
2. The Chuuk state scholarship funds have not yet arrived. This is a real hardship for our Chuukese students and a bit hard on the budgets of both campuses.
   
3. Please pray for refreshment and that our students and staff will hear what God has to say to us as we take time away this weekend from normal activities to focus on prayer, fellowship and God's Word. I'll let you know next week how things went!
   
4. Pray for Chuuk faculty member Graceful Enlet and his wife Bilha as they go to Hawaii to deal with some of her medical issues.
   

Staffing Needs

1. Bible/Theology Teachers - especially ones who could also serve as teaching facility coordinators
2. English Teachers - Master's degreed or ESL qualified
3. Maintenance Person for our Chuuk campus - Short or Long term
4. Computer Person - Short or long term

If you are interested or know someone who is send me an email for details....

And here is another picture of my cute grandson

Heading Back to Guam (Finally)

Well my long trek is finally over. The TRACS conference ended today after lunch. Again it was a great conference in which I learned a lot. However, the best thing about the conference is being able to interact with the leaders of institutions similar to us. I had a lot of time to talk with Randy Furushima, President of Hawaii Theological Seminary. Plans continue to go forward for us to put together a partnership that I am hoping will enable us to offer accredited seminary courses on Guam in the Fall of 2007. The seminars were also excellent. The picture is of David Barton who spoke last night after the evening meal. It was an excellent presentation on the overwhelming influence that evangelical Christianity had on the founding fathers and documents of the USA. I also did not realize that evangelical African-Americans had such an influence on the American Revolution and early American government. But, I think I have had enough of the mainland now and am ready to come back home to Guam and to my lovely wife. (Pictured) I will be back on Sunday night (Guam time) after a marathon flight and I will be back in the office on Tuesday.

Greetings From Nashville

I have now finished my first day at the TRACS conference in Nashville. At the end of a good week in California I had the opportunity to make a PIBC presentation to the Gold Country Baptist Church mission group. It was great to see so many old friends, and family. (See some of the younger ones of the group pictured here!) On Saturday morning I flew to New Jersey where I met up with old friends from seminary, Jim and Rebecca Fox. Jim is the new pastor at Evangel Baptist Church in Springfield, NJ and I was honored to be there for his installation service. I appreciate him letting me preach the morning service. It was also fun to spend time with several of their family members. (Sorry no pics. My batteries were depleted.) Jim then drove me up to Schooley's Mountain to meet with the board of Liebenzell Mission USA (See web site at www.liebenzellusa.org). We had a productive couple of days sharing vision and strategy for the mission and PIBC. (Pictured here is board member Norm Dietsch and wife Hilda and Candidate secretary Mike Galley) Wednesday morning I headed to Nashville for the TRACS conference. I plan to post a report on that tomorrow. It has been a long month and I am ready to head back to the warmth of Guam.

Greetings from Northern California

I just returned from a speaking engagement at Shasta Bible College in Redding, California. Note the speaker's eye view of today's chapel in the picture! Again it was a real encouragement to see so many young people who are dedicated to the Lord and Christian service and interested in missions. Several talked to me afterward about short term, internship and student exchange possibilities at PIBC.
I have been keeping busy in California visiting family and supporting churches. It's a little cold here but I am enjoying getting to experience the Fall season. I will be here until Saturday and plan to meet PIBC appointee teachers the Plaxtons and Sorenson while I am here. I will head to New Jersey on Saturday. I am enjoying my trip, but looking forward to getting back to Guam.