PIU Ministry Team on Yap

This morning I received a surprise visit from Pastor Asael Ruda. Asael is a graduate of PIU from Chuuk who has been serving as a pastor and missionary on Yap since the mid-1990’s. Last month Pastor Asael hosted nine PIU students for six weeks as they worked with the Yap Evangelical Church and the Pacific Missionary Fellowship of Yap. I was very pleased to hear a glowing report from him about the outstanding work the team had done. The team consisted of PIU staff member Billy Edwin and students Josh Ladd, Jesse Hart, Grateful Nokar, Erten William, Lucy Aunu, Joni Jones, Sophie Lucido,and Jaynee Sam. Drew Phillips and Nathan Cobb, interns from Beeson Divinity School also joined the team for a couple weeks. (The pictures and a lot of the info come courtesy of Billy Edwin).

The team was able to go to most of the churches in Yap including Colonia Church, Maap Church, Tomil Church, Rumu Church, the Palau Yap Church and PMF. The group led Sunday services in these churches. The students also had the chance to visit several other places for ministry- like the Yap High School, Yap Prison and throughout the town of Colonia. According to Asael “the church members were blessed by the depth of Bible knowledge and ministry ability of the PIU students,” but were even more impressed by how “the PIU students got right down in there with the people, including the kids.”

A lot of youth ministry was done during the time in Yap.The team led a week-long youth retreat. The theme for this retreat was based on I Timothy 4:12. Several practical topics were worked into the main theme of the retreat,“the Power of personal influence” including setting an example in speech, life, love, faith and purity. The team also led a week-long Vacation Bible School for the children.

The PIU team was joined in ministry by several of our PIU alumni who live in Yap. In fact, much of the pre-planning and logistics for the retreat and VBS had been done by the alumni so the team would be ready to roll when they arrived. Billy shares that they “met with some of the PIBC/PIU Alumni from Yap at the ESA restaurant. We had a great time of fellowship there and I was able to give them updates on the school and some of the ministries of the school. I was able to hear them sharing some of their goals as the Alumni from Yap. I was able to encourage them as well as being encouraged by them as I saw them all being involved in the ministry of the churches here in Yap.”

Billy’s assessment of the trip, “There is still much to do here in Yap. I see that there should be more teaching and discipleship so that they are able to understand and truly commit their lives to the Lord and be genuine in the work for the Lord. There are many that claim to be followers of the Lord but still need to be discipled in their walk with Him... We see that there are many areas that still need to be reached by the gospel of Jesus Christ and we believe that we are the ones that can be used. This is our time to make a transformation in the islands and even beyond our Micronesian horizons.”

I close with Pastor Asael’s assessment, “this is the best mission team we have ever had in Yap!”