A Day in the Park in Susanville

Last Saturday the VOM gave a presentation at a gathering of Palauans, Chuukese and some Americans in a local Susanville park. Along with our performance, the day included a touch football game, Micronesian and American BBQ and other food, a softball tournament and lots of good conversation and fellowship. The 1st Baptist Church of Susanville has been partnering with the Palauan group there since December of 2005 and have had a Palauan service there for quite a while. Pastor Jake (former student of ours in Palau from our time there in the 80's) and Pastor John Murdock (Father of PIU student and staff member Daisy) have been reaching out to the Chuukese community in Susanville for some time and thought that having our team there would be a good opportunity to bring the Palauan and Chuukese community together. So we were very excited when about 50 Chuukese showed up in the park, along with the rest of us and we had a great day of fellowship in the park together. As our VOM group, which consists of both Palauans and Chuukese, sang songs in both the Palauan and Chuukese languages, a lot of tears flowed and it seemed that the spirit of God was really bringing people together. We were also happy to see the Chuukese and Palauans worship together with the VOM team (next post) on Sunday at the 1st Baptist Church and we hope to see a continued unified ministry among the Micronesians at Susanville. We feel privileged and thankful that the VOM team was able to play a part in this happening.

The football game was a lot of fun. I had some good blocks, but here Joyce caught me clipping Meluat. 

Some of our players are so skilled that they can play football while walking on their hands

The VOM team sang and danced in both Chuukese and Palauan languages and cultural forms

PIU student Keiny Aisek gave a welcome and a message in the Chuukese language. (left). Pastor Jake Ngirablosch was the MC for the event and shared his heart for the Micronesian Christians in the US to work and minister together. We are making plans for PIU to have a part in training Micronesian leadership for the churches in the US.