As I mentioned before, the main purpose for my visit to Yap was checking on how the PIBC facility renovation was going and meeting with the Yap Evangelical Church leadership to discuss the operation and use of the building. I had an enjoyable meeting with YEC leadership and we pretty much agreed about the use of the building. We want to see the facility used by both PIBC and the Yap churches. Outside of PIBC, there really are no theological libraries in Micronesia and we want ours to be accessible throughout Micronesia, so we have been adding books to the TF libraries in Chuuk and Palau in addition to our very full library on the Guam campus. With a new building in Yap we can send more books there. We hope to begin some PIBC courses on Yap in the Fall, even before the building is finished with windows and air conditioning. These classes would probably be "hybrid," with intensive classroom sessions and then homework and on line discussion done through our PIBC distance education web site. Internet access on Yap has improved some since I was there in 2007 with wireless access, but the maximum speed of 64Kbs still limits what we can do with class content delivery. We are hoping and praying that by the time the Gateway team returns to finish the building in 2010 we will also have the fiber optic cable delivering broadband to our TF's in Yap and Palau.
Operational costs for the Yap Teaching Facility will also be a challenge. The Yap church has agreed to provide some volunteer labor and staffing for the facility, but we figure that we will need about 12-15, 1/2 time, program students each semester there to cover PIBC's operating costs. Before the typhoon in 2004 we normally had about 7-10 students in Yap taking one course. The situation has changed somewhat in Yap so the YEC leadership was confident that we would have the numbers to operate. Please pray along with us that the PIBC Yap Teaching Facility becomes a learning and discipleship center for the churches of Yap and an academic launching pad for Yapese desiring Christian higher education.
As I mentioned before, the main purpose for my visit to Yap was checking on how the PIBC facility renovation was going and meeting with the Yap Evangelical Church leadership to discuss the operation and use of the building. I had an enjoyable meeting with YEC leadership and we pretty much agreed about the use of the building. We want to see the facility used by both PIBC and the Yap churches. Outside of PIBC, there really are no theological libraries in Micronesia and we want ours to be accessible throughout Micronesia, so we have been adding books to the TF libraries in Chuuk and Palau in addition to our very full library on the Guam campus. With a new building in Yap we can send more books there. We hope to begin some PIBC courses on Yap in the Fall, even before the building is finished with windows and air conditioning. These classes would probably be "hybrid," with intensive classroom sessions and then homework and on line discussion done through our PIBC distance education web site. Internet access on Yap has improved some since I was there in 2007 with wireless access, but the maximum speed of 64Kbs still limits what we can do with class content delivery. We are hoping and praying that by the time the Gateway team returns to finish the building in 2010 we will also have the fiber optic cable delivering broadband to our TF's in Yap and Palau.
Operational costs for the Yap Teaching Facility will also be a challenge. The Yap church has agreed to provide some volunteer labor and staffing for the facility, but we figure that we will need about 12-15, 1/2 time, program students each semester there to cover PIBC's operating costs. Before the typhoon in 2004 we normally had about 7-10 students in Yap taking one course. The situation has changed somewhat in Yap so the YEC leadership was confident that we would have the numbers to operate. Please pray along with us that the PIBC Yap Teaching Facility becomes a learning and discipleship center for the churches of Yap and an academic launching pad for Yapese desiring Christian higher education.
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