Fall Trip–the Carolinas

After Kansas I headed for North Carolina. I had planned to arrive Monday and then leisurely head over to Southeastern Seminary to meet with a seminary class there and some administrators to talk about opportunities for ministry at PIU. Bad weather in Kansas City grounded me overnight and I ended up in a rush to get to Southeastern. (I did get to see the 49ers beat the Rams on Monday Night Football while grounded. I also met PIU grad Rodney Mickey (right) while I was in the KC airport. He works there and helped me get through the airport to my hotel.) Though I didn’t make it to Southeastern in time to talk to the seminary class, I did meet several faculty and administration members there who were very interested in some cooperative ministry and sending some doctoral students as interns our way. Please pray for us as we explore the possibilities. Thanks to my friend Dr. Ken Keathley, who I met at the Gospel Day Celebration in Palau for great hospitality and making so many connections for me.

My second stop was at Columbia International University. CIU and PIU have had connection for a long time. Our current Student Life Director, Sarah Brubaker, is a graduate of CIU and I have been there many times to recruit teachers. CIU English prof Joe LeTexier has always been so gracious to allow me to speak in the TEFL classes there. I was able to talk with several about-to-be graduates from the Master’s in Teaching English as a Foreign Language program and from the Seminary. Two couples are seriously considering coming out to PIU. Please pray with them as they consider this. As always, thank you to Don and Melissa Howell who allow me to make their home my home while I am in Columbia. I also had a great time of fellowship with Steve and Philip Bradley at lunch while I was there.

After CIU, I headed back up to Winston-Salem NC for some down time with Ernie and Annette Ladd, parents of current PIU student Josh Ladd. Ernie was one of my first teaching colleagues at Emmaus High School in Palau back in the mid-80’s. It was a good time to relax, watch a little football and rest before I headed down to the TRACS conference in Orlando Florida. The picture on the left was taken as I filled up with gas in S. Carolina. It is a little fuzzy but the price of gas there was $2.89 a gallon. The cheapest gas I saw in the States was $2.79 in both Kansas and South Carolina. I know I should have taken more pictures. Maybe next year….