Hebrews Exegesis Class at PIU

With just 2 1/2 weeks to go in the semester, it is class project time for my nine students in BNEW 403 - Exegesis in Hebrews. Every Wednesday afternoon the class comes together for an in depth discussion of the exegetical , theological and applicational issues in a chosen section of the Book of Hebrews, covering the entire book in the semester.The goal of the class is not only to teach the student the content of the book of Hebrews but to help them begin to understand the process of exegesis and interpretation so that they can study the Bible for themselves and, from it, formulate a personal theology. I want to create a classroom environment where the student can encounter God in the text and grow to be more like Him. The added bonus is that the techniques for reading, interpreting and analysis of the Bible will help the students handle other information that comes their way so that they can become effective thinkers and communicators in all areas of life.

The projects are an important part of this. Each student is required to teach the class one time and lead the discussion on one of the passages from Hebrews 11-13. For their passage they must answer questions like.. What is the big idea, main point, basic message of your passage? How does your passage fit in with the argument of the book? What is the argument of your passage? What are the main or difficult exegetical issues in the passage and what is your solution to the problems? How should your audience apply the passage? They then have to field questions and comments from the class by explaining and defending their viewpoint. This is the 2nd time I have taught this class and it is exciting to see the students have "the light go on" and hear some very profound insights that come out of the hard work they put into their presentations. I think I get blessed just as much as they do.

PIU Faculty at the George Washington High School Career Day

Last Tuesday morning five Pacific Islands University faculty members, Mike Owen, Lisa Collins, J.C. Yoon, Fred Schmidt and I, participated in the GW high school career day. We were invited to participate by Mr. Dan Tomada (right), math teacher at GW and part-time student in our Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary. The purpose of the day was to expose GW students to possible careers they could pursue after high school and explain how they needed to prepare to become qualified for them. Lisa mentioned the great need for librarians in the islands and showed the students how much fun working in a library can be. Mike talked about teaching while I tried to get the students interested in spiritual things and talked about a career in the ministry. Fred brought out the diving gear for a presentation about military and civilian opportunities for a career as a diver. J.C. networked very profitably with the teachers and administrators at GW while we made the class presentations.

The GW students enthusiastically participated in Lisa's very creative presentation. She started her presentation with a role-play about what a librarian was not - a "shoosher." She then turned the class into a living dictionaryas the students who were "words" had to find their matching student "definitions." She finished with teams of students using "story cubes" (pictured) to create original stories. I had not realized that reading was such a physical activity.

When Fred brought out the scuba diving equipment the student excitement level went up another notch. The students enjoyed trying out the equipment and were very attentive as Fred told some amazing stories about his time as a Navy Seal.

It was a great time for all of us to get to know the GW students and their teachers, and expose them to the opportunities we provide for Christian higher education on island, at PIU. We hope to do it again next year.

Dave and Joyce Owen Prayer Requests for April

I am sitting inside on a Saturday morning avoiding our unseasonable (for Guam this is the “dry” or “less wet” season) rainy weather. We are three weeks from the end of the semester and everyone here is in “busy” mode. With so much going on here, it seems like God is leading me to take a little extra time each day to pray and I wanted to share with you some of the issues that have been dominating my prayer list lately….

1. Steve Stinnette: Steve recently has had to resign from his position as VP of Advancement at PIU because of illness. Steve explains, “It has been discovered that the stress-coping systems in my body are struggling in their ability to successfully handle stress. This is due specifically to the cortisol levels (the stress-handling hormone) in his body not being at adequate levels for years, so they have robbed it from other sources. I have been experiencing symptoms that leave me weak, weary, and unable to work. We are grateful for this knowledge as it has finally pinpointed the source of my headaches and bone problems. We will be leaving for the States next week for extensive medical testing which must be done to determine how to restore the hormonal balance to get my body back on track. Please pray with us as we seek the Lord and His provision in every way.” Please join the entire PIU staff, faculty and students as we pray for Steve’s healing and to grant Anne and Steve’s desire to return to Guam to continue the work here.
2. Personnel: With the unexpected loss of Steve, and of Melody Plaxton our Academic VP, we have two large sets of shoes to fill. Please pray that God directs the right people to us. We are already talking with some candidates. Here are our present critical needs

1. VP of Academics: Melody will be leaving this summer. We need a person with academic administrative experience in higher education ASAP. We are also trying to raise the money for salary within the school, instead of relying on mission agencies to supply for the need.
2. VP of Advancement: See above.
3. Maintenance Director: Along with Melody, we will be losing Tim Plaxton this summer. We love to get missionary couples to fill needs at PIU but when they leave they leave two critical positions to be filled instead of just one. We would like to fill this position with someone that has the necessary skills and can supervise our student maintenance workers.
3. Finances: As usual money is tight at PIU. It will become even more tight as we need to replace the Plaxtons and Stinnettes, who are Liebenzell missionaries, with staff that we will pay out of our PIU revenues. However, we serve a big God who can supply the needs of the school. When I see the amazing  Kingdom opportunities, quality staff and faculty, and  great students God has brought our way, I am also confident that God will meet our financial needs through people He has blessed.
4. Mission Trips: Our staff and students are going out on various mission trips into the surrounding islands and far away countries this summer. I will be blogging in more detail about each of the trips and their participants in much more detail in the very near future. Please be in prayer for their preparation.
5. PIU Family: Please pray for all the PIU staff, faculty and students as we try to finish the semester well. We are very excited about an amazing year of seeing God work in all our lives. We have 18 graduates who will receive their degrees on May 9th, people all over the world interested in becoming new students at PIU and lots to do to get ready for the 2011-12 school year. With all this going on please pray that Jesus will be clearly seen in our lives, and that all of Guam and the surrounding islands of the Pacific will know that Jesus is alive and working on our campus.

Joyce and I are so thankful that so many of you are praying for us. God has given us a great year with our physical health and we are privileged to be able to continue to serve Him here in the islands.

Friday's Administration Chapel

At Pacific Islands University we have chapel services in our large classroom every Tuesday and Friday at 11.00 AM. If you are anywhere near us you are welcome to attend. We try to get full participation in chapel leadership from the administration, faculty, staff, students and church community of PIU. In fact, the last couple weeks of the semester will feature the students from the Preaching Practicum class giving their Senior sermons. This past Friday though, it was the administration's turn to lead the chapel. Michael and Samantha started us off with a half hour of worship music. (Okay, Mike is on the faculty not administration, but Samantha is the Executive Assistant to the President and she needed a good guitar player and backup singer to accompany her.). Then three of our administrators followed with short devotionals on the biblical basis behind the school's mission statement (see picture below) and then showed how those truths effected the daily lives of all in the PIU family.

Mike has been functioning as the coordinator for the chapel service during the Spring semester. In addition to being the MC for the service he also recruits and trains the musicians and singers for the worship music. We have been blessed with several new styles of music and exposed to some "classic" theology and devotional readings in chapels this semester

VP of Finance Tony Beckham used the story of Ruth and Boaz to illustrate the PIU core value of accessibility. He talked about how Boaz "removed the obstacles" from the Moabite Ruth's path so that she could experience the blessings supplied by the God of Israel. Though we often see the main obstacle to Christian higher education as financial, this is not the only obstacle that PIU removes from the students' path to the blessings of higher Christian education. Our goal is to remove obstacles so that we can connect students to God and help them be everything God created them to be.

I got to speak on the core value of excellence. As usual, I went to the creation story to emphasize that God is introduced in the Bible as a Creator of excellence, as everything he did was pronounced to be good. God's actions turn chaos to order, ugliness to beauty, darkness to light and death to life. As God's image, and as his redeemed people empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to do the same thing in a world that is damaged by sin. The Gospel is as wide as all creation as we bring the message of the cross and resurrection to bear everywhere we go until God fully restores excellence in the new heaven and earth.

VP of Student Life, Rob Watt concluded the chapel with a devotional on the core value of transformation. He emphasized that road to excellence is a journey and that we as a school family are here to help one another to the goal. But, transformation is the one goal that is impossible without the inner transforming power of the Spirit so ultimately transformation is a result of exposure to Jesus through the indwelling Spirit of God. Rob also led us in prayer for Steve Stinnette (our VP of Advancement) who was supposed to present the section of transformation but has been ill.

One of the benefits of working at PIU is the privilege to take a couple hours out of the work week and focus on corporate worship.  It is a blessing.

Post for Aunt Missy

Saturday is usually the day we talk to Matt, Kristin and Milo on Skype and, very often Missy on the phone. Yesterday both of them called. It was great to spend some time with all of them. Milo now talks constantly while we are on Skype and we even understand a little of what he is saying. When I was talking to Missy she asked me when I was going to post some new pictures of the grand-kids. She enjoyed her time with them when she was here in January and misses them. So here you go Missy. Here are a few pictures taken this past week. The picture on the left was taken right after chapel on Friday. The others were taken during our regular Thursday night with the kids.

Serenity is now 8 months old and quite mobile. She loves playing with the toys from grandma's toy box and I would not be surprised if she takes off walking very soon.

We love our Thursday night time with the kids even though we are pretty tired when they leave. And Missy, here is a bonus picture of your mom and dad. Treasure it! :)

Dave's Travels on the US Mainland - The Flight Back

I think I am a pretty good flyer, but this trip was an unusual one for me. Usually I jet lag worse going to the West Coast and have a pretty easy time on the return trip to Guam. This trip was just the opposite. When I got to California I seemed to have very little problem and got right into what I needed to do. Today is my 4th day back on Guam now and I am just starting to feel human again. One of the odd things that happened on the trip was that when I arrived in LA and tried to board for San Diego it seemed that my reservation was lost. I've never had that happen before. United did a good job getting me on another flight and I was in San Diego only a half hour late.

The return flight was a little weirder. First, because I had not boarded the proper San Diego flight two weeks before, all my other flights had been canceled. Continental was able to get me on another flight when I called them, but I had to fly from Houston to Guam through Tokyo instead of Honolulu. My day started with getting stuck in the parking toll booth for a few minutes when their computers froze up and the parking bar arm would not go up. That was another first for me. I then flew from Dallas to Houston. The Houston to Tokyo flight is over 13 hours long. Fortunately, the Continental service on the flight is very good  We got three meals and several snacks. Also, since few people are wanting to go to Japan right now, I had row 17 all to myself and I could spread out, sleep and not have anyone else to worry about.

I had over 2 hours in Narita airport and had an opportunity to look around. It is a beautiful airport with many things to look at and all kinds of stores. The airport also had the best restrooms I have ever seen in an airport. Since there were not very many people there in the Tokyo airport I also had a whole row to myself again for the 4-hour flight from Tokyo to Guam. They served some pasta soon after takeoff and I spent the rest of the flight horizontal and sound asleep across three seats. The flight attendant woke me up to prepare for landing. All told I spent 24 hours from takeoff in Dallas to touchdown in Guam. It was a long flight but I am glad to be home.

Dave's Travels on the US Mainland - Salado Texas

I am back on Guam now and getting over jet lag, but I thought I should note my last stop on my recent visit to the US Mainland; to the Grace Baptist Church in Salado Texas. I left Dallas at about 3 PM and arrived in Salado just as the evening service began. I had an opportunity to speak, along with the pastor, about my experiences with spiritual warfare in the islands and shared about the newest challenges and opportunities at PIU. This is my fourth time to minister at the church and each time has been a real blessing. The church people in Salado took good care of the VOM team last summer and have been good supporters of the work at PIU. The only downside to the trip was that I missed meeting with the Palauan group there in Salado. After a quick dinner at Sonic (I have been seeing the New York and Chicago hot dogs advertised on TV for months and was eager to try them) I was hosted for the evening at the Puckett's home. Thank you Puckett family! The next morning I had breakfast and some good fellowship with Dr. Steve Waechter before I headed back to Dallas to catch my flight back to Guam on Tuesday morning.