Merry Christmas from Dave and Joyce

  Merry Christmas!! We are enjoying being with family in Northern California this Christmas. We are thankful that God has ultimately revealed Himself in the incarnation of Jesus Christ and we celebrate that significant event and we re-commit ourselves, with God’s enablement, to continue that event by being part of Jesus’ body in service to God’s world and God’s people. We pray that you have a wonderful holiday season wherever you are in the world.

PIU End of 2011 Newsletter

Dear Friend,
Pacific Islands University is honored to announce our December 2011 graduates:

(From Left, Top Row) Hadson Ngirikasau, Meluat Meluat, Gary Linny (Middle Row) Xyanne Sonis, Shelby Salvador, Lucy Aunu, Teisy Tatashy, (Bottom Row) Jayleen Nakamura (Not Pictured) Karl Flores, Soram Manual, Paylinn Sias, Justin Marar, MD Hossaion, Orichy Orichiro, Michael Vigil
These men and women are equipped and ready to move into the next stage of their lives, which looks different for each one. Shelby, Hadson, and Paylinn are returning to their home islands of Palau and Chuuk in order to begin teaching in the elementary and high schools thus fulfilling the great need for qualified educators. Meluat is ready to work in the Palauan church and enter the mission field. Teisy is considering applying to our Master of Arts in Religion program through our seminary, PIES. Others, still weighing their options, are well prepared to enter various marketplace positions made available through their education and degree from PIU.
They will be joining the ranks of alumni who already serve as teachers in public and private schools, church workers, hospital administrators, and business and government leaders. Your donations make it possible for PIU to offer these students, most of whom would otherwise not be able to attend an institution of higher education, the opportunity and support to complete an accredited university degree. Most of our students are only able to come here through our low tuition cost which we lower for qualified students to such a degree that we need the support of donors like you to provide the balance of finances for this ministry.
We rely on the generosity of our supporters to fulfill our operating costs. As this year draws to a close, we are facing a $20,000 deficit in our Rising Tide Annual Fund. Please prayerfully consider adding PIU to your Christmas list and help us give the gift of higher education for those who consider it out of reach.
A Blessed Christmas to you and yours from all of us here at PIU!

Advent Chapel at PIU

Last Friday we held our traditional advent chapel for the last chapel of the semester. It is always a very special chapel that everyone looks forward to. Since we do it a couple weeks before Christmas it always serves to get me into the Christmas spirit. Mike and the chapel team did a great job on it again this year. It was great to see so many of the staff, faculty and students participating. I took several pictures of it. So enjoy….

 

After some Christmas carols Josh began the reading of the Christmas story with the prophecy of Isaiah

After Scott lit the first candle, Samantha continued the story

Esme burned her finger trying to light the peace candle (she was Ok and was not the only injured candle lighter that day) Leeman then led in prayer and Kita continued the reading

Leeman successfully lit the joy candle and Jonie read about the angelic announcement to the shepherds

The band played a rockin’ rendition of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” before Charity lit the Love Candle

Meluat followed up with the story of the Magi

Kita lit the final candle before Mike came and finished the story and talked about the significance of the incarnation

The chapel had a surprise ending as Josh Ladd serenaded Jesse Hartt with a birthday rap. The chapel closed with a final carol featuring the birthday boy playing a banjo solo.

Final Day of the TITIP Visit

Most of the last day of the visit from our TITIP friends was spent in meetings.  They met with the administrative council in the morning to iron out details of getting their students started in our distance education program and in the afternoon met with our faculty. PIU faculty got to see a presentation about what TITIP is doing in Indonesia and we got to know each other a little better. We now have four students from Papua, Indonesia accepted and ready to register for the next semester with a potential for several others for the future and we have a teacher from TITIP coming for the January semester to work with us and build the relationship further.

  On Monday night, we went to the home of Siska and Edward Hutapea for dinner. The Hutapea’s are from Indonesia, and Siska is a member of the PIU advisory board. Edward and Siska attend the Lutheran Church of Guam and the TITIP team were introduced to them when they attended there on Sunday (left). We had a great time on Monday evening eating Thai food, talking about Indonesia and our schools, and being entertained by the Hutapea children. The Hutapea’s also have an amazing Christmas tree!

Guam Island Tour with the Papua Team

Saturday morning Joyce and I took the three members of the Papua team for a sightseeing and hiking tour around the island. Samantha’s mother had not had an opportunity to see the island so she joined us for the day. It was a mostly sunny day but we ran into light showers at most of our stops. Nevertheless, the island, as always was gorgeous. Any excuse I can get to show some island scenery, I am going to take. So here are a few pictures of our December 3rd tour.

We took our customary shot of the Ceti Bay overlook. This is one of my favorite spots on Guam. If you come visit us we will take your picture here.

We made a stop at Fort Soledad overlooking Umatac Bay and village where Magellan landed in 1521. Pak Oyang does his duty in the old Spanish guard tower

We ended the day at the home of Bill and Christel Wood where we had a great dinner and good conversation.

Welcoming our Partners from Indonesia

Last week we were privileged to host a team from the TITIP school in Papua, Indonesia. The team consisted of Larry and Willa Yost (left) and pastor Oyang Sesaray. TITIP stands for “Training Indonesians for Transition to Institutional Programs” but it also is an Indonesian word that refers to something that is left for safekeeping until the owner returns for it. This, in a way, is what TITIP does for the parents of the young people that it trains. TITIP is one of the educational arms of the “Yayasan Pelayanan Antarbudaya” a non-profit organization that assists with community development in West Papua. Pak Oyang and the Yosts were visiting PIU to explore sending some of their TITIP graduates to PIU to become students in our accredited degree programs.

For most of the first day our visitors sat with our PIU leadership team to discuss what a partnership would look like. Pictured are Christel Wood our academic VP, Hartmut Scherer, PIU distance education coordinator, Urte Scherer, our registrar, the Yosts, Pak Oyang and me. After much discussion we determined that we would start with four students enrolled in our distance education program for the upcoming spring semester. The Yosts will mentor the new Indonesian PIU students at the TITIP site there. In the future we plan to have TITIP students studying in residence on the Guam campus. Pastor Oyang was also our chapel speaker on Tuesday the 6th.

The Indonesian group also had the opportunity to meet with the Guam Minister’s Association at its monthly meeting. It was a good opportunity for them to meet several of the pastors of the Guam churches, military chaplains, and leaders of other para-church organizations. GMA members seem to be very excited about the connections PIU is making locally and overseas. We had a great time of fellowship there.

PIU Open Mic Night

On November 26th the PIU Student Council sponsored an “open-mic” night at the Guam Lutheran Church. Everyone was invited to come and share their talents in song, spoken verse, story telling or any other manifestation of vocal art. Several PIU students and many of our friends from the Guam church community took advantage of the opportunity. The result was a fun night of hearing many different styles of music from a lot of different people. It was also a good way to get people from the community acquainted with the PIU students. I think it is possible that some future artistic collaborations will result from it. All in all it was a pleasant way to spend an evening and some money was raised by the Student Council for future projects and activities. Here are a few pictures of the performers.

Faculty members Mike and Sam Owen, and Joey Charles contributed some tunes

We had men’s and women’s trios perform

Asia rapped the now famous “PIU parody” rap. The snacks were also good (as mentioned several times by MC Josh Ladd) and the ladies provided cookies, cupcakes and coffee with a smile.

Some More Pictures of the PIU Thanksgiving Feast

I  found some more pictures of the PIU Thanksgiving Feast taken by Joyce (they are much better than the ones I took) so I thought I should post these too. Enjoy.

 

 

Courage and Serenity enjoyed the Thanksgiving celebration

As did students and staff

Baby Gwen is held by her mama Glenda, while Josh “holds” Titus, or is it the other way around?

Meanwhile the bird and ham are enjoyed by everyone

The Thanksgiving feast was enjoyed by people of all genders.