Owen November Prayer Letter

I know December has already begun, but here is the prayer letter we sent out last week…

At our last staff meeting I talked about how PIU is both a professional academic community and a spiritual community. While this does create come tensions in our mission and relational community I enjoy the challenges of a community that thinks seriously within a context of Christian relationships. Our recent 5^th annual Ministry Equipping Conference - our theme was “Taking Theology to the Streets” - brought this combination out the church community and our recent K2 student retreat brought this discussion to our PIU students. All of this is powered by prayer. The picture here is of the campus student leaders praying over me in chapel to prepare me for sharing with the students. God calls us to excellence, but He also calls us into dependence so that He can work His excellence into our dysfunctional lives.

This is all powered by prayer so we value your prayers for the following requests and praises.

1. We have been very busy lately with our Dine with the Tide event, the student K2 Retreat and the Ministry Equipping Conference all within a 2 week period. We are thankful for the way God worked through each event. The Dine with the Tide fund raiser gave PIU some great exposure in the community and raised over $3000 for the PIU Rising Tide Fund. The K2 retreat was a nice break and God did some work in the hearts of our students and staff. Finally the ministry equipping conference was well attended by the community and I think that they received some encouragement and valuable tools for ministry. For more info and pictures of these events see Dave Owen’s Guam Blog.

2. Our most urgent personal prayer request concerns our Liebenzell Mission account. During 2014 our mission account has steadily gone into the red. On the average we are short about $600-800 in monthly support and our account now has a ~ $7500 deficit. Normally, the mission would require us to come home and raise support for a year, but with our responsibilities at PIU this would be impossible right now. Please pray with us that God will bring us the financial resources we need to keep us on campus at PIU.

3. A second issue for us is health. I (Dave) have been struggling the last few weeks with a persistent ear infection. Joyce has been dealing with seven skin biopsies checking for skin cancer. Both of us have many responsibilities and, though these are minor health issues, they do slow us down. We would also appreciate your prayers for our colleague Steve Stinnette who is home from the hospital recovering from a more serious procedure. We are praying for restoration to health and ministry.

4. Please keep our students in prayer. As we move into the last three weeks of the semester some of the students are a bit overwhelmed with academic issues. Others face financial shortfall. Others struggle with family and personal issues. Please pray that our students will learn to place their trust in God’s provision and cooperate with God’s work within them as they respond to Him.

5. PIU is in the middle of our midterm accreditation review. This month we submitted our report to TRACS and we will have our campus visit from the TRACS representative in January. This was a huge undertaking, by our already hardworking staff and we are thankful to have the report in and ask for your prayers for a productive, successful visit with our TRACS representative.

Joyce and I have been ministering in Micronesia now for over 30 years and have now been at PIU for 21 years. We are so thankful for our faithful ministry partners who pray for and partner with us. May God continue to bless you as grow in your knowledge of Him.

Blessings

Dave and Joyce