Goodbye Perry

This afternoon the staff and students gathered to say goodbye to Perry Webb. Perry joined us on the PIU campus from Oregon about 4 weeks ago as a volunteer to work with our maintenance director Tim Plaxton. Perry has completed several much needed projects and we have been thankful that he has been able to get to so many things that we just didn't have the manpower to do. In addition he has been a real encouragement to the students and staff as he worked, hiked and hung around with staff and students. Even with all the work he put in, Perry also got around the island quite a bit and was able to take in Guam's beauty above and beneath the water line. Thank you Perry! We hope you will be able to come back and see us again.

There are several opportunities for short or long term volunteers at PIU. We could use one or two office workers or bookkeepers and are always in need of people who can fix things that 120 students (and occasionally staff) break in the course of a semester. If you are interested to check out volunteer service at PIU send me an email at dowen@piu.edu

PIU Super Bowl - Birthday Party

As is our annual custom we canceled our Monday morning administration meeting to meet at our house for the PIU super bowl party. In the Guam time zone, the live Super bowl broadcast began at 9 AM on Monday. Since the Super Bowl is usually the same weekend as my birthday we make it a combination Super Bowl and birthday party. Mr. 49er potato head pictured here was my birthday present. Since our assistant Dean of Women, Daisy Murdock, also has a birthday this week it was a birthday party for her too. Joyce made my favorite triple chocolate cake (with chocolate pudding, chocolate chips and chocolate icing) which she only makes once a year for this occasion. This year the addition of Rob Watt's chicken wing cooker brought much more variety to our wings for breakfast tradition. We were pretty much evenly split between Saints and Colts fans. Here are some pictures from the celebration...

 

Daisy and I pose for a picture before we open our presents. 

 

I love my 49er Mr. Potato Head. The 49ers are #1 and Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback of all time. 

 

Everyone had a great time and enjoyed another highly entertaining Super Bowl

Tim Plaxton enjoyed the game but is still disappointed that the Rams moved out of LA. Jo Romaniello was disappointed that Guam does not get the American commercials. 

 

Joyce's birthday was two weeks ago but she is still opening presents. 

PIU Challenges for 2010 #2 - Accreditation Responsibilities

A few weeks ago I began a series of blog posts on the challenges we face at PIU in the year 2010 with a post on the challenge of student development. I promised future posts on other challenges, but challenge #2 - accreditation responsibilities- has been occupying so much of my time lately I have not had time to write the post. We began the accreditation process with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) back in 1999 when we became a candidate for accreditation. Since then we received full accreditation in 2004 and were reaffirmed for accreditation as an  undergraduate and graduate degree granting institution in 2009. Last year we had an evaluation team from TRACS come out to Guam to thoroughly assess every aspect of our program. They left us with 39 "recommendations" for areas of deficiency that we needed to work on before we met with the accreditation commission in November. We completed our response to the recommendations and met with the commission where we received our reaffirmation. However, the condition that TRACS placed on our accreditation was that we continue to work on 33 of the 39 recommendations and send them a second response on February 15th.

So we have been working hard the last few weeks on revising Handbooks, Catalogs and other documents, working on long range plans, recruiting and hiring for positions that TRACS is asking us to fill and getting our written response ready for February 15th. I am happy to say that we are about 95% ready and should have no problem getting everything emailed with hard copies in the regular mail before the deadline. God has given us some great staff and administrators who have done great work to make this happen and I am thankful for their hard work.

A couple weeks ago I was talking with a Christian leader about what we are going through to get this accomplished and he questioned me about why we are doing it. He felt that accreditation was a waste of time. I thought about it a bit after he asked me. After all it is a lot of work. The easy answer is that it provides our students with eligibility for federal programs to finance their tuition and makes the school eligible for federal and foundation grants. This is a very important part of our strategy to make higher education accessible to the people of the Pacific islands. But there is a much more important reason that we maintain accreditation. Accreditation holds us accountable to provide EXCELLENT higher education to our students. We believe that our students are just as capable as those from any other part of the world and deserve an education that stretches and challenges them just as much as any school on the US mainland. We do not believe that "Christian" education should equal "second rate" academics. We have improvements to make in this area but I am amazed at how far God has brought us since 1999. I am also proud of our graduates who have gone on to advanced degree programs in the US and done well. Even though it is a lot of work, I believe that this is the best way to serve our students and the communities where they live.

An Average Day for a Birthday

So today was my birthday and of course everyone is asking me how it feels to be a year older and, of course I am saying that I don't feel any different. I guess when I think of the years in chunks of 10 I do feel different. (36 years passed between the times these 2 pictures were taken) 10 years ago I was playing basketball 3-4 times a week and pastoring a church, neither of which I do now. And even though I am still one year away from the senior citizen discount at the movies, 54 is not a bad age to be. Even though my knees hurt for days if I try to play basketball (it was 10 years ago when I tore up my knee) I am not really limited at all physically from what I want to do. I have a great job/ministry here at Pacific Islands University where I get to interact with young people every day and have co-workers and friends that are like family to me. It is such a blessing to know that what we do has eternal meaning and purpose, even when I am stuck in the office for a couple weeks like I have been getting handbooks and 5 year plans completed. Joyce and I have had a few years now without kids around to get to know each other all over again and are more in love than when we married 30+ years ago. We'll go out tomorrow night to celebrate both of our birthdays, have a steak and salad, and take a walk on the beach. So on my birthday I spent the morning in the office (budget meeting, board meeting preparation) went to the Guam minister's meeting for lunch, did some class prep in the afternoon and attending a student meeting in the evening. It was pretty much an average day for me. But an average day in a place you love doing what God made you to do is a pretty good day. So, I suppose, happy birthday to me!

February Prayer Requests

We are already into our 3rd week, and already past our 5th or 6th barbecue I think, of the semester. As I shared with our staff last Sunday night at prayer meeting, I am very excited about how God has been working in our students and the new staff and faculty he has brought our way. There are a lot of exciting things happening on campus that I will be blogging about in the near future. We are thankful for your faithful prayers for us and I know that a lot of what we have already seen happening here is a result of that.

Here are a few of our urgent prayer needs for the next few days and weeks....

• Students: We have several students who are struggling with their school bills. We are praying for God's provision. We are thankful that several of the students have seen God provide already.
• PIU Traveling Team will be ministering on the US Mainland this summer. They are beginning the fund raising process and need to raise their airfare to the US (about $1800 each) by the end of March.
• Immigration: We have one staff member for whom we are working to get a visa. We hoped to have him here already but it looks like we may have to wait at least 60 more days. We also have one student who is struggling with visa issues. They both want to be here and we would like to see both of them here.
• Accreditation: Our response to our accreditation evaluation must be turned in by February 15th. We are about 90% ready to send it but we are still racing to get every paper in proper order. Pray for our staff who are still doing all the normal daily running/teaching/discipling and working on this on top of that. Our staff is doing great work but we all need an extra dose of Divine strength. 
• Partners: We are looking at some opportunities to partner with other schools and organizations. We would appreciate prayer for wisdom as we discuss how we can partner for God's Kingdom with these groups. 
• Board Meeting: Out PIU annual board meeting will be February 24-27. Please pray for our board as they make several important decisions for the future of the school and for the administration as we prepare for the meeting. 

We believe that God has called us to serve at PIU and we desire to be guided and empowered by the Spirit of God as we move forward.  Thank you to everyone who is praying for us. You are an important part of what God is doing here

Video Post About the PIU Traveling Mnistry Team

One of our volunteer teachers, Jo Romaniello who has been staying at our house the last couple weeks, got to experience a fellowship/preparation meeting of our community group, the PIU Traveling Ministry Team on Friday night. She took some video as they sang and posted a video about the team, with lots of great singing by our students. Click on this link to her blog and enjoy.

Friday Chapel - God's Provision

Yesterday's chapel, after some lively action songs, was devoted to faculty, staff and students sharing their stories about how God had provided for them in the past. Even though PIU does its best to keep costs just a few hundred dollars above what the Micronesian students normally receive in federal and state financial aid, many of them struggle to pay their bills. Thus the purpose was to encourage students, who have school bill payments coming due soon, to trust God for provision and, at the same time, look for opportunities to be responsible for their own finances. Joyce and I were asked to share our story (ancient history I know) about how God provided for us through our time at Dallas Seminary back in 1988-92. We shared about how God gave us both opportunities to work to support ourselves and how God a few times "dropped money out of the sky." It was a good reminder to me that God also has the finances of PIU well taken care of. Meluat, one of our students shared how God provided for him to go to Thailand on a missions trip and one time even provided laundry soap!

Anne Stinnette shared about she and  Steve raised support when they first came to the mission field and a few of the minor miracles that God did as he brought them out to the islands. Hopefully all of this encouraged the students to keep trusting God through the difficulties of studying while being on the financial edge all the time. As they learn to trust God through this, they are being prepared for future ministry. So many times in the past we have seen God meet the students needs in amazing ways and we are confident that He will do so again.

We were also excited to receive our first Rising Tide annual fund contribution this week. The purpose of our new Rising Tide fund is to supplement the PIU annual budget so that we can hire needed administrators, faculty and staff that cannot be covered by tuition revenue. About 1/2 of our staff are supported missionaries or volunteers, but as PIU grows and widens our class offerings our need for more staff grows. Our goal is to find 500 Rising Tide team members who will give an average of $1000 per year to enable us to bring in the people we need to do the work God has called us to do. If you would like to contribute to the Rising Tide fund or the student scholarship fund and help us keep excellent Christian education accessible to the people of the Pacific islands send me an email at dowen@piu.edu for more info.