On to the Carolinas

The last stop on my trip was 5 days in the Carolinas. I arrived in North Carolina on Tuesday night and met old friends Ernie and Annette Ladd. Their son Josh is a student at PIU. Then Wednesday afternoon I headed down to Columbia SC to do some teacher recruiting at Columbia International University. I had not been down there in a couple years, so it was good to see Don and Melissa Howell. They are always very gracious to allow me to stay in their home and help me arrange meetings with strategic people at CIU. My main focus at CIU was to find English and liberal arts teachers. CIU English prof Dr. Joe LeTexier invited me into one master’s level English class and one undergrad class. I met with several interested students and we have some prospects for future English teachers in the islands. We were also able to Skype in our PIU English prof and CIU grad, Sarah Brubaker, into the undergrad English class to encourage the students to consider a ministry at PIU. In addition I met and talked with several teachers and administrators at CIU.

On Friday I headed back up to North Carolina after lunch at the Cracker Barrel with Steve and Philip Bradley. We had a great time getting caught up on each others’ lives and it was good to see how far Steve has come from his stroke last Spring. We will really miss having Steve at his usual spot in PIU this Spring and miss Philip and family at Agana Heights Baptist Church. It was a very nice to be avail myself of their wisdom at lunch. Back in North Carolina I had the opportunity to meet with a couple donors and make a PIU presentation at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. I will be following up on several prospects and opportunities from my time in the Carolinas. On Monday morning I got up early to head to the Greensboro airport for the 26 hour flight through Chicago and Tokyo and then back to Guam.