We're in Northern California

Yesterday we flew up from San Diego to Sacramento. We are now staying for a couple weeks with my (Dave's) parents. We had a great week of vacation with Matt and Kristin with a lot of time for talking, reading and sleeping. Monday we went to see Pirates of the Carribean. It was a lot of one liners and special effects. Then on Tuesday we went with Matt to the San Diego zoo. I was most impressed with the bears. The polar bears rough-housed right in front of us and the Alaskan bear walked right up to us. Joyce especially enjoyed the children's petting zoo.
Now we are getting ready for our speaking engagements. We will be speaking at Gold Country Baptist this Sunday. It will be great to see old friends again. Here are our speaking engagements for the next couple weeks...
June 3 Gold Country Baptist AM Services, Shingle Springs CA
June 6 Placerville Christian School Chapel
June 7 Placerville Christian School Chapel
June 8 Gold Country Baptist Church Evening Panel Discussion
June 9 GCBC, Building Up Men Conference
June 10 Camino Community Church AM Services, Camino CA
June 17 1st Baptist Church of Redding AM Services, Redding CA

If you are in the area we would love to see you.

Vacation in San Diego

We are enjoying our time in San Diego with Matt and Kristin. We are jet-lagging a little bit, but it hasn't been too bad. Friday night we went to the Padres-Brewers game (see pic) and got to see an exciting game that included a grand slam and an excellent pitching performance by Greg Maddux. Saturday we drove around the area (our planned trip to the zoo was postponed because it was too crowded). We went by the San Diego Christian College campus to see the library where Matt works and spent the afternoon at the Water Conservation Garden. That evening we had dinner at Marie Callender's (yes, I went for the fresh strawberry pie and Joyce had rhubarb!) with some of our Guam kids Alison Morehead and Aaron and Heather Bryce with their baby Bradley. Sunday we met Kristin's family in Temecula for lunch. It was great to get caught up with them. We got our Sunday afternoon naps and now Matt and I are watching the NBA playoff game. It's a great vacation so far!

We arrived in San Diego

I am now sitting in Matt and Kristin's apartment after getting 12 good hours of sleep last night to recover from my flights. Joyce left a week ago to spend some time in Texas with her sister's family and Missy. (All are doing well there - the picture is of Joyce with John and Lisa Tomada - PIBC'ers now attending Dallas Seminary) I left Guam Wednesday morning, arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday afternoon, met with educators in Hawaii all day Wednesday and then flew on the red eye all night to Los Anegeles. I met Joyce at LAX and we drove to where Michael and Samantha are staying, delivered their stuff we were carrying for them and then drove down to San Diego last night. We will be staying with Matt and Kristin until next Wednesday.
Thank you for praying for my meetings in Hawaii. I think they went very well. I met with Leon Watson who is working as a development person for PIBC and several Christian schools in Hawaii. Leon has a lot of good ideas about fund-raising and cooperation between the schools. I also met with Randy Furushima the president of Hawaii Theological Seminary. Our partnership with HTS is progressing and we are excited to offer our first seminary class on Guam this Fall with the former president of HTS, Kevin Gilbert, teaching the course. I also met with Mike Engfer the director of the Bible Institute of Hawaii to talk about the possibility of PIBC working with them to offer our accredited curriculum through their school. Finally I also got an opportunity to meet Mike Silva, the pastor of Palisades Baptist Church in Hawaii, and talk about cooperative efforts for ministry in Palau. Please pray for me that I will have wisdom in pursuing these opportunities.
This coming week is scheduled for vacation time with Matt and Kristin. Tonight we are going to a Padres baseball game. Thanks for your prayers.

PIBC Palau Graduation

During the Sunday service at the Koror Evangelical we held our very first graduation ceremony for a PIBC graduate from the Palau Teaching Facility. Enitha Edwards finished her bachelor's degree requirements at the end of this spring semester. Enitha was a graduate in 1979 from the old Micronesian Institute of Biblical Studies and, since we established the Palau TF four years ago, has slowly been working on upgrading her Bible diploma in the old program to a PIBC bachelor's degree. I congratulated her for her discipline to complete the program along with her many other responsibilities. In her speech, Enitha gave the glory to God who gave her the ability and power to do it. We are excited about how God will continue to minister in Palau through Enitha and that PIBC is able to deliver our program away from the campus to the many islands of Micronesia. Congratulations Enitha!

Palau Trip

I spent this past weekend in Palau. The main purpose was to present the diploma at the graduation ceremony of our very first bachelor's degree recipient from the Pacific Islands Bible College Palau Teaching facility. (More on that later). I also had a chance to give a brief "charge" on Saturday to the sixteen Emmaus and Bethania high school graduates. Of course I also recruited them to continue their education at PIBC. Another main purpose of the trip was to discuss the new curriculum changes with our Palau coordinator, Rob Watt. On Sunday I was privileged to preach in the Palauan service of the Koror Evangelical Church and attend the English service. This was also the last service in Palau for Michael, Samantha and Titus as they are heading out of Palau to return to LA so that Michael can begin his Master's degree studies at Talbot Seminary. Mike and Samantha sang a song they composed together for worship time and then Mike preached on Ephesians chapter 2. I thought he did a great job.

I also got to spend a little time with my grandson. It was amazing how much he had changed in just 2 months. I am looking forward to flying with them Wednesday to Hawaii. They will be going on straight to LA and I will stay one day in Hawaii for meetings at Hawaii Theological Seminary. I'll post again soon about the Palau graduation.

Guam Campus Graduation

Last night we had our Guam campus graduation. We had 9 bachelor's degree and 4 associates degree grads. The ceremony went well. the speakers were great and the graduates looked wonderful. You can go to the PIBC website at http://pibc.edu and see another report and some pictures. There are also links to some of the other faculty blogs and the story in the Pacific Daily News.

It is always a time of mixed emotions as we are so proud of what our graduates have accomplished, excited about their futures but sorry to see them go. The Chuuk campus graduation will be Saturday and I will be going to Palau for the graduation ceremony of our first BA graduate from the Palau Teaching Facility. Tomorrow morning I will be putting Joyce on the plane for Texas and then I will join her next week in San Diego. Enjoy the pictures of us with the graduates.

Weekly Prayer Requests

We are already to the last day of the Spring 2007 semester! How did the time go by so fast? So, as the students are scrambling to get all those assignments in on time and cramming the last bits of information into their brains for the final and the teachers are staying up late to get the grades done before graduation, we would appreciate your prayers for a few of our end of semester needs...

1. Graduations: The Guam graduation will be on Tuesday the 15th, Chuuk campus on the 19th (the picture here is of some our Chuuk campus students posing in front of the campus sign.) and we will have our very first Bachelors degree graduate from our Palau TF honored at the Koror Church on Sunday the 20th. I will be going to Palau on the 18th to participate in that ceremony. Please pray for a good witness to the community at each of these graduations and that our graduates would reflect Christ's character as they go out from PIBC.
2. Happiness Lodge: Happiness is a 3rd year student on the Guam campus and the son of our Chuuk campus director. He will be with us during the May-June part of our summer furlough doing a missions internship. He will spend July working at a Christian camp in New Jersey and participating in international outreach in New York City. Pray for his preparation and that God would use him effectively this summer.
   
3. Preparation For Furlough: Joyce and I have been so busy we really have not had much time to prepare for our summer furlough. We have so much to do before Joyce leaves on the 17th and I leave on the 23rd. We want to be a blessing to all of you we meet this summer.
   
4. PIBC summer classes and programs: Campus life goes on even when we are gone for the summer. Pray for the summer classes on the Guam campus and Chuuk teaching facility and for the non-academic pastoral training on the Chuuk campus. We also begin the admissions process and we know will have many more applicants than we have space for.
   

I will now get back to reading the Wisdom Literature final exams and term papers.

Last Week of School

I am sitting at my desk preparing to share with the Guam campus students for the last time this semester in chapel. I am going to try to encourage them that they have the responsibility, and power through the Spirit, to bring the love of Christ to all the people they meet this summer. We have many students who will be going on mission trips to Thailand and the Marshall Islands. We also have many who will be back in their home churches doing internships or other ministries. There will also be another good group taking summer classes on the Guam campus and the Chuuk Teaching Facility. Please join me in praying for them to have a productive summer, stay true to Christ and get a good break from classes. Also please pray for our graduates for wisdom and guidance for their future lives and ministries. Guam graduation is May 15 and Chuuk graduation (the picture is of Chuuk campus students) is May 19. I will be heading down to Palau May 18-21 to recognize the first Bachelor degree graduate from the Palau Teaching Facility at the Sunday service of the Koror Evangelical Church.