Joyce and Her Missions Class

This semester one of Joyce's three classes is Micronesian Church History, taught by our Liebenzell Micronesia Regional Director, Harald Gorges. Joyce says that it is one of the most interesting classes she has taken at PIBC. I can see as I sometimes look over her shoulder, (Don't worry Harald, I am not hepling her do her quizzes!) that Harald has done some great research for the course and has the class reading some very interesting primary source reference materials. The class also seems to do a lot of fun things, like watch movies that deal with missions and cultural subjects or go on field trips. They have been studying the Spanish period in Missions history so they are taking advantage of opportunities to visit old Spanish, and other, historical sites all over Guam.

So while I was in the first day of the three-day annual PIBC board meeting, Joyce was out touring Guam with the missions class. (The above left picture is not Spanish - Joyce is standing in front of the first Protestant church building on Guam). As you can see from the pictures they got all around the island. After all why just read about history from a book when you can go out and touch it? To the left the class enjoys the old Spanish bridge.

From the reports of the class, the highlight of the trip was the carabao ride at Fort Soledad in Umatac. This is the site where the Spanish under Magellan made first contact with the indigenous people of Guam. The fort was built much later and is a popular spot for tourists and sometimes for locals - I have been to a couple weddings up there. I am sure the class was very interested in finding out the history of the place, but it seems that most of the pictures were taken of the carabao ride. Joyce enjoyed her ride. You can also see a video of it complete with comments by her classmates on my Facebook page. By the way, you can connect with me on Facebook by clicking the link "My Facebook Profile" below right under "other interesting links." It will be interesting to see what the Missions class does next.