An Unexpected Journey to the Hospital

On the Monday before Christmas I was excited about our trip to see an NBA game that evening. Joyce was coughing a lot but she still thought it was “just a cold.” I know, I should know better, right? That night as I was headed home from the game we got the call, “Joyce is in the hospital and has been diagnosed with pneumonia.” So we headed straight to the hospital and I spent most of the night with Joyce in the emergency room. They told me she would be in the hospital for at least 3 days. I had to cancel our Christmas evening flight to San Diego and reschedule it for Saturday. On Christmas Day, most of the Owen family, joined Joyce in the hospital courtyard to open her presents. The doctors and nurses seemed pretty confident that she would be out of the hospital soon. That was until they found some “effusion” (leaking) in her lungs. The doctor was very concerned about it and ordered an ultra-sound for Friday. If they had to remove the fluid she would be in the hospital for several more days. I waited for her in the room while they took her away for the testing. She was supposed to be gone for over an hour, but I was surprised when she came back after only 15 minutes. The doctors and nurses were surprised to find that the effusion was “only a trickle” and she was good to go. I consider it a minor miracle and attribute it to the many prayers that were going up for her. Within an hour we were leaving the hospital and headed home. As we left many nurses and hospital personnel told Joyce goodbye and expressed how much they enjoyed having her in the hospital. We are now in San Diego enjoying our grandkids and looking forward to 2014. Thank you everyone who prayed for Joyce. We appreciate your prayers.

Vacation #2–El Dorado

After a week in Redding we headed to El Dorado to spend a little time with my parents. While we were there (see next post for more details) Joyce contracted pneumonia and spent 4 days in the hospital, which extended the time we had planned to be there. Nevertheless we had a good time with family and our friends at Gold Country Baptist Church. My brother was able to come up from the Bay Area and we were able to take a full family picture with mom and dad, brother and sister for the first time in two years. It was great to have a day with them (last Sunday) just to sit and talk with each other.

A couple more family pictures.

We also took our annual “guys trip” to the Sacramento Kings game. This time they lost to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Vacation #1–Redding

We are in San Diego now after enjoying the first couple weeks of our vacation in Northern California. Our first day of vacation we spent with Jim and Kay Sawyer in the Bay Area. They graciously loaned us their Volvo so we could get around in Nor Cal for the first few days (unexpectedly we spent 3 extra days in El Dorado, more on that later). Jim teaches for our PIU Seminary and will actually get back to Guam a few hours before we do to begin his Spring class. We spent the rest of our first week of vacation with Joyce’s family in Redding. It is really a blessing to see how well Joyce’s dad is doing. We had a relaxing time just “hanging out” there for a week.

We had an early Christmas with Joyce’s parents and sister Judy (and family).

We went out and saw some Christmas lights. It was coooold!

We were able to have some good fellowship with our friends at First Baptist Redding on Sunday

Merry Christmas from Dave and Joyce

Yes, I know it is two days after Christmas, but Joyce spent this last week in the hospital and just got out today. (The picture was taken before we left Guam.) Nevertheless we wish you a merry Christmas, Happy New Year and pray God’s blessings for you as you serve Him. We are headed to San Diego tomorrow and will post some pictures from our past couple weeks of vacation in the next couple of days.

PIU Staff Christmas Party

I am here in California for the Christmas holidays and I will make a couple posts about what we are doing here (and our unexpected adventures), but first one more about what we did on Guam before we left – the PIU staff Christmas party. Our last big event was the annual staff Christmas party held, this year, at the Palmridge hotel. It was a great time to relax, laugh and enjoy one another’s company after a very stressful few weeks ending the semester. Here are a few pictures of the event. It was very good to see the smiles and hear the laughter.

It was fun to get dressed up and enjoy the night out with everyone.

The food was excellent

Nino, Samantha, Sam and Celia did a great job planning the party and collecting the many prizes that were donated from the Guam business community. I think it was a real encouragement to all of our PIU staff that worked so hard all semester.

I won a turkey deep-fryer as a prize for winning one of the games. We also provided our own musical and other entertainment. It was a very enjoyable night.

Advent Chapel at PIU

Joyce and I are on our Christmas vacation and the students are gone home for a few weeks. We will start school again on the 13th of January. We are visiting our parents now in Northern California and will visit our kids in San Diego after Christmas. I do have some pictures and stuff to post from a couple of our end-of-semester activities at PIU. One of my favorite end of semester activities is our customary Advent chapel. The whole campus joins to together to tell the story of the birth of Christ in story, song and activity. For me it is a great start to the Christmas season. Even though we do it every year, it never gets old.

It also provides opportunity for some Owen family Christmas pictures

And some PIU family Christmas pictures

The band played Christmas songs; some very traditional and some were loud and fast

I think everyone got into the spirit of the season

The Advent Candles were lit

The Christmas story was read.

And more family pictures were taken.