Last Post On the PIU Graduation

Here are a few more pictures of the post-ceremony celebration....

With grandma graduating it was a big family event!

That included lots of nephews.

And PIU students

And Friends

And somehow our cute baby always seems to get in the pictures too.

Please pray for Michael's Knee Surgery Today

From Michael and Samantha's Blog this morning...


Hello!

If you haven't heard, Mike has been unable to straighten his left knee for about three weeks now. After x-rays and an MRI, it was determined today that Mike would go under the knife...tomorrow!

Dr. Fitzsimmons, the orthopedist who will be performing the surgery, met with us today and confirmed that there is in fact a fragment of bone that has come off and is lodged in the meniscus of Mike's left knee. This is what is preventing Mike from straightening his knee. Surgery tomorrow will remove the bone fragment. That is likely to be the easiest part. After that, Dr. Fitzsimmons will determine if the bone fragment is still good/healthy enough to attempt a reattach. At this point, he is banking on that. So in our appointment he told us that he would like to reattach the bone fragment and hold it in place with two small metal screws, with the hopes that it would eventually fuse back together. All of this work will require a large incision on the outside of Mike's knee. And, post surgery, will call for Mike to be on crutches (no weight on the knee) for three months before a second surgery. Because Dr. Fitzsimmons will be using metal screws, a second surgery is required to remove the metal screws and check on the progress of healing.

Mike's knee injury is quite uncommon so there is a lot of uncertainty involved with the procedure. It is unclear how successful the surgery will be, how much function Mike will get out of the knee, if the bone will fuse, etc. But, Dr. Fitzsimmons thought that this was our best option for "fixing" Mike's knee.

We appreciate your prayers for:
A smooth, uncomplicated operation
Skill and wisdom on the doctor's part
The health of the bone fragment itself (pray that it is in good enough condition to reattach without having to scrape bone from other parts of Mike's knee)
A quick recovery
Thankful, helpful attitudes for our whole family
That Mike will heal enough to start freerunning/parkour training or at least wrestle with the kids :)

I've included the countdown clock above so you can have a better idea of when Mike will be in surgery in your time zone. The doctor blocked out three hours for the surgery with the hopes that it wouldn't take that long.

By the way, we found out tonight that a female student who is taking summer courses at PIU will be moving in with us this week...a double blessing! She will be close to campus for her classes and we'll have an extra set of hands to care for home and kids!

Thank you so much for your prayers! You are an essential part of the ministry that happens here in Guam and in caring for our family!

A few more pictures from the PIU graduation

Here are a few pictures of Joyce with her fellow graduates. In the picture on the right Joyce poses with the valedictorians Grateful Nokar and Xuefen Mei.

Here are a couple of our AA graduates, Davy Welle and Jake James. I think both of them are planning to come back and finish their BA degrees. Jake in Liberal Studies and Davy in Biblical Studies

Joyce and Elilai have been at PIU together for quite a while. 

Joyce with Machinta, Inca and our registrar Urte Scherer

Serenity is not yet a graduate. She would be the class of 2032

My Prayer for PIU

For several years God has been leading me to pray for the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant for PIU. If you have ever heard me speak in a church or give a Bible lesson you have probably heard something from me about how these promises apply to us today. God called Abram to "go out and be a blessing" by taking the blessings that God gave him and sharing them with others as he brought worship of God into his daily business. I think that is pretty much what God calls all of us to do as we fulfill the "Great Commission" of "making disciples of all nations" by using the resources, talents, gifts and opportunities He gives us to connect Jesus to people as we live out the normal day to day business of life. For me, that is the bottom line to all my responsibilities as president of PIU. Thus, it must be something that God does through us, not just something we do ourselves and that is what God is promising through the covenant with Abraham.

So, I have been praying for land. God promised Abraham a land where his people could be at rest and the world could see how wonderful a place, that lived according to God's ways, could be. Ultimately that promise will be fulfilled when Christ rules on earth but we, as Christ's body have an opportunity to, as one of my students put it, to "bring the holy of holies of God's presence wherever we go." The 3 1/2 acres where PIU sits in the center of Guam has been a place like that for many people already. As I prayed I imagined us expanding into adjoining properties but that is impossible now. We continue to pray that God will show us a place where we can build a place that will provide "excellent higher Christian education to the peoples of the Pacific."

I have been praying for "seed" or people that God will bring alongside to accomplish the vision He has provided for PIU. Many people have come and gone from our staff in the almost 20 years I have been at the school and most have been great blessings to us and our students. God also has brought us amazing students that continue to serve him all over the world today. This year, for various reasons, we are losing a good portion of our administration. I am praying that God will bring in the right people to lead our academic, advancement, and other departments so that we truly can be the Christian university in the region, with people who bring their relationship with God into ministry, work, education (Bible, Liberal Studies and even scuba) and life.

I have also been praying for "blessing." I have to admit that most of the time to me that meant resources and finances. And believe me we need them. But as I read the story of Abraham it is clear that the greatest blessing promised here is the presence of God in relationship. That most important part of the covenant we have at PIU in abundance. It is evident as we sit in chapel sharing how the truth of a biblical passage applies to our lives. It is evident when a staff member prays with a student for resources to pay their school bill or for an issue in their lives. It is evident when we see students fired up about going to the mission field or serving in the community. I see it in the faces of our staff as they keep working hard (with a smile) even though there is no money to do it - really living out their faith in front of the community.  I often hear the comment when people come on our school property that "God is really in this place." That is the greatest blessing and that is why I am confident that the resources to keep it going and to make it grow have always come in the past will come in the future.

So, I am continuing to pray for land, seed and blessing for PIU. I would appreciate it very much if you would join me.

Graduation Ceremony

Here are a few pictures from the graduation ceremony. This is my 9th graduation ceremony as the president of PIU. This is the 3rd ceremony we have held outside at the PIU campus. This year we had 17 graduates. It is not the largest graduating class we have ever had, but this year's ceremony may have been the most colorful with the banners and flags and with the faculty in full regalia. The graduation planning committee did a great job and I think the ceremony honored God, the school and the graduates.

The graduates walk in with nervous smiles

The graduates are obviously enjoying the speeches. 

Lieutenant Governor Tenorio talked about the importance of faith based institutions for building character and providing another option for higher education. 

He then posed with our valedictorians Xuefen Mei and Grateful Nokar.

As is our tradition the faculty and staff sang a hymn chosen by the graduates. This year's hymn was "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Board member, Mary Johnson and I handed out the diplomas. 

Our first Master of Arts in Religion graduate, Peng Li Johnson was hooded by Seminary Dean Eric Sorenson. We first met Peng Li on a ministry trip to Harbin China back in 2004. 

Faculty member Iotaka Choram closed the ceremony with prayer. Ladies and Gentlemen the graduating class of 2011! 

Graduation Preliminaries

In many ways this year's graduation was a microcosm of the 2010-11 school year. We had a host of logistical difficulties but the main result was fantastic. Before the ceremony we prayed for no rain and that things would go smoothly. Instead, we got bucket-loads of rain, an island-wide power outage that lasted from about 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the ceremony to about 10 minutes after the ceremony concluded, and a key speaker was held up and arrived late. At least, this year the graduation caps and gowns arrived in the mail on time. Nevertheless, we had our donated canopies which kept the rain off of us, our generator cranked up and kept the sound system and everything else running smoothly and the lieutenant governor arrived just as we were ready to start. According to everyone I talked to the graduation ceremony was a great success, people were blessed and the graduates were honored. Just as, though we had some great financial and personnel difficulties this year, we saw amazing growth in our students and that is what really counts. Here are a few pictures of the events as we got ready for the graduation ceremony. Next post will be pictures of the actual ceremony.

Joyce tries on cap and gown before we head to school for the ceremony and then we get a picture together in our regalia.

The Pacific Daily News photographer snaps a picture of Joyce before the ceremony. The picture is a little dark because the power was out throughout the building.

Graduation Practice

Over the next few days I will be posting some pictures of our PIU graduation. We took a lot of pictures and, I thought this year I would post more than just a sample, so I'll break up the pictures into several posts. Here are a few pictures of the graduation practice on Monday morning the 9th. Practice is always kind of a bittersweet time because we know most of the students will be moving on from PIU. We are happy for them but will miss them. Also, at this point, we always have logistical problems pop up, which always seem to get solved before the ceremony. It was just nice, for me, to have some time to sit and talk with students about what God is doing in their lives and hear their future plans.

Melody Plaxton gives the staff and faculty instructions about the program. While we were practicing the staff song, students were setting up the chairs that we borrowed from UOG. The rental for the canopies was donated by the Lutheran Church of Guam. Thank you to UOG and LCG!

Dr. Bill Wood demonstrates to the grads the proper way to do the "pomp and circumstance walk" 

Looks like they got it!

The grads do one last practice of the class song. The song was written by one of the graduates.