Staff and Faculty Prayer Meeting at PIU

We believe that prayer should be a very important part of the daily lives of everyone at PIU. So, we have a habit of regular prayer together. Besides the Days of Prayer and the informal times of prayer, the PIU staff and faculty meet twice a month for corporate prayer. On the first Sunday of the month we meet just for prayer and on the 3rd Sunday of the month we enjoy a fellowship meal along with the prayer time. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember at PIU and I believe it is an important part of what we do here. Staff, faculty and guests join together to pray for each other, the students and for the school’s ministries. We also pray for each others families, supporting churches, island churches and other issues in the islands. We pray at 6 PM on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. If you are on Guam we would invite you to join us or, if you are in another part of the world, just join us from where you are.

A Trip to Underwater World

Guam has a very nice indoor walk-through aquarium called Underwater World. We have been there several times but we always enjoy taking visitors there. A couple Saturdays ago Joyce and I took the Benson’s there. As usual, this was one one of the most, if not the most, popular of our outings. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon looking at the great collection of fish there. We even got to see the sharks feeding.  Visitors walk through tubes that allow you to be under the fish which provides a really different perspective.

The grouper is humongous.

 

There are some pretty strange and exotic fish to see.

And some colorful ones

They even have a “petting zoo.”

At the Inarajan Pools

Another nice spot to go for a swim on Guam is the Inarajan Pools. These natural pools provide a great place to swim, dive and, on the shallow side, do some snorkeling. It is amazing how many different kinds of ocean life you can see in that shallow tidal pool. Joyce and Daisy took the Benson’s there on a beautiful day. I took the Edwards there a week later, but it was raining and we weren’t able to get out and enjoy the place. So all the pictures are from Joyce and Daisy’s cameras. 

 

The diving platform is one of the most popular features of the pools. The picture on the left provides proof that missionaries can walk on water.

Taking guests on these tours and hikes is hard and grueling work, but someone has to do it!

Guam has a lot of cool stuff for a kid to do. We even have our own monitor lizard in our driveway.

At the Beach

Life on Guam is not all work for our guest teachers. This time Matt Benson brought the rest of his family with him to Guam, and they were able to go on several fun excursions. Here are a few pictures from a day at one of Guam’s popular swimming, hiking and snorkeling areas, Shark’s Hole.  Joyce and Daisy were tour guides and the group also included Samantha’s mom and one of Joyce’s coworkers from the Japanese School of Guam.

Ransome and Davey volunteered to stay behind at the parking area and watch the car. They were able to get some studying done under the shade of a coconut tree while they waited.

Joyce, Jonathan and Joshua enjoyed the warm, clear water

It is a great place to enjoy the scenery, collect shells or play with the small creatures.

Tuesday Chapel

At PIU we have chapel every Tuesday and Friday at 11 AM. (You are welcome to join us if you are able) We always enjoy a guest speaker and so we get our guest teachers into chapel whenever one is visiting. Matt Benson spoke to us last Tuesday on making our lives a message for the Kingdom of God. We often think of the Gospel just in terms of what we say, but we also communicate the message through what we do and how we live. The message was a real challenge and encouragement to all of us.

Some Family Pictures

Late last month we had two big family events – Titus’ 5th birthday and Samantha’s parents moved to Guam. That was an occasion for some family pictures a few of which I include here. The one on the left we had taken after church at Bayview Baptist early in October. On the right is a picture I sneaked in while Mike and Sam were having a studio family picture taken. We had pictures taken including all the grandparents too. We will have to wait until Christmas for the professional portraits.

We took a couple other pictures out at Bayview. The kids were having a great time on the new playground equipment. The grandparents enjoyed watching them having a good time.

Airport Pickups and Dropoffs

Wow we have had a lot of activity around PIU lately. Maybe you have been wondering where I have been, but I promise to get my blog caught up on the last couple weeks of activity here. I have plenty of pictures and to post and I will try to get them up here as I travel the next few days. One of the things Joyce and I really enjoy about living here on Guam is the opportunity to have so many visitors. We do a lot of airport runs (as many as 50-75 in a year) and have had people from all over the world staying at our house. So many interesting people and so many good discussions! In October we have been privileged to host the Bensons from Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee and Kent and Nola Edwards from Talbot Seminary in La Mirada California. The students also like to come out and provide a melodic welcome to our visitors.

The Benson’s arrived soon after the beginning of October and stayed at our house for a little over two weeks as Matt taught the Introduction to Missions course for our Pacific Islands Evangelical Seminary. We enjoyed getting to know Matt, his wife Melody and their three children Jonathan, Joshua and Emi. Matt not only taught his class but helped us quite a bit as an administrative consultant. We hope we will be able to get the whole family back out here again soon.

This  week we enjoyed having the Edwards with us for the preaching conference. I will be posting several times about the conference soon. On Guam many of the flights come in at odd times, especially the ones from the Micronesian islands and sometimes the ones from Japan. The flight that the Benson’s and Edwards flew in on landed at 11.45 PM. Nevertheless the students really enjoy coming out to properly welcome our guests. See below…

 

 

Joyce, finds a good way to relax while waiting for the late-night flight!