First Week of the Semester at PIBC

We are already beginning the second week of the semester so I should post about the first week before it becomes a distant memory. We began the week with our monthly PIBC prayer and potluck in the main classroom on Sunday night (pictured). Besides having an enjoyable time of fellowship it is great to begin the semester with a focus on God and an opportunity to lift up our school including the people, programs and everything else to Him. Our task at PIBC is large but we have seen God act in a mighty way so many times here that we trust Him to meet the needs of this semester no matter what they are.

My first class was on Tuesday night - Exegesis in Genesis. It is mostly an on line class but I meet with the students for eight regular sessions during the semester. The class has 7 total students in it but only two are on the Guam campus. Thus, our class meetings will be focused on individual discussion, more fun I think. The challenge will be to provide the same kind of instruction to the five students at the Teaching Facility in Chuuk. I will not be able to go there until after the board meeting in mid-February. I will do most of my interaction with the students through chat room, threaded discussion and email. All my class material is uploaded to the site and the students watch a series of powerpoint presentations which are on a CD.

My focus in the office is getting prepared for our February 11 board meeting and the upcoming visit by our accreditor in May. We are getting closer to the completion of our Self Study. Some of the other challenges we are facing are 1) Accrediting the changes we are making in our curriculum, school name and programs, 2) Trying to come up with the best plan for our other sites, especially Chuuk, that best meet the needs of our students there and continues to provide accessibility to our programs to students who cannot come to Guam 3) Finding the funding for what we believe God is calling us to do as a school 4) Finding staff and faculty to fill our many openings. I would appreciate your prayers for these issues.

Saturday morning I began my seminary course - Old Testament Survey - with three students. We have been purposely trying to keep student numbers in the seminary low for this our first year, but I really would have liked to have a couple more students in the class. Nevertheless we had a great time talking about Old Testament geography, transmission of the text and the overall theological theme of the OT. I am looking forward to our discussion next week of Genesis and Exodus.

I am the chapel speaker tomorrow so I need to close this down and work on my message!