Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year from Guam! Joyce and I have been enjoying the holidays. Even though we are so far from all our family, we have enjoyed having our PIU family over for game nights and fun times and going out with friends. We have also enjoyed the time to do some serious relaxation. It has been very nice to have some days to just lay around at home and read novels. I even took a whole week off from blog posts and answering e-mail. I am now back in the office and getting ready for the upcoming semester and Saturday’s Bible Run. It is not too late to sign up. I plan to keep the blog going for 2013, keeping everyone up to date on what is happening in our lives and in the ministry at PIU. I am also hoping to have time to add in some biblical and theological commentary occasionally. For now, here are a few random pictures from 2012 that somehow did not make it on to the blog yet…

We had our PIU co-workers over for Christmas dinner and game nights during vacation. Joyce, Pete, Daisy and Sarah enjoyed the Christmas dinner. The picture on the right is proof that I did not get cheated out of any of the important Christmas food groups.

We appreciate the students helping out. When the refrigerator at our house gave out (after 13 years) some of the guys came over to help Joyce install the new one. The girls helped Joyce with Christmas decorating.

Serenity and Courage got their faces painted before Christmas vacation

And then posed for some cool pictures

No, we did not get a new dog. But Joyce went with Sarah and Daisy to the animal shelter to get their new dog. Samson spent a couple days with us while he was getting used to his new situation.

Merry Christmas from The Owen’s

Merry Christmas 2012. We just returned from the Christmas Eve Service at the Lutheran Church of Guam, where we had a good time meditating on the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I was thinking that we have a tendency to make Jesus over into an image that fits what we like him to be instead of what he really is. The identity of the real Jesus is quite clear in the angelic announcement in Luke 2.11, “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”

• He is the Savior who has come into the world to make things right. He would pay for sin at the cross and defeat it in his resurrection, ascension and return. He fixes what is wrong with the world as he “raises the lowly” and judges the oppressor. He heals His people and brings peace.
• He is the Messiah, King who will fulfill the promise to crush the head of evil and “rule the world in truth and grace.” Even now he rules from the right hand of the Father and waits the day when the “kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God and of His Christ.”
• He is the LORD, God come in the flesh. Everything that makes us human was assumed and redeemed by the 2nd person of the Trinity and God entered into our world and into our lives. God is truly a God of love and relationship. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.

So let us be merry and announce the Gospel with our words and with our lives. The real Gospel: Jesus Christ is LORD!!

Cantate Christmas Concert

Recently Joyce and I decided that we needed to do something fun together as a couple,so we (she actually) decided we would join Cantate Guam, a community choral organization, for the Christmas season and performance of the Messiah in January. So we started at the beginning of December and had our first concert with the group last night. We did three Christmas songs with the Guam Territorial Band at St. Jude’s Church and we will perform again on Saturday night for the “Lessons and Carols” concert at the St. John’s Episcopal Church. I have really enjoyed getting back into singing in a choir and getting to meet a lot of great people. I have even been enjoying the practices, though I need to get my voice back into shape. Last night was fun, even when the PIU students tried to distract me from the audience while I was singing. If you are on Guam come out and see us on Saturday night.

PIU 2nd Annual Bible Run Coming January 5th

January 5^th, 2013 is the second Bible Run Around the Island presented by Pacific Islands University.  Participants join in by relaying 2 copies of the Bible along routes that cover the perimeter of Guam.  Everyone who supports this endeavor is encouraged to pray for the island of Guam, especially the village they are passing through, the people and leadership of the island.  We seek to proclaim that Christ is Lord and join as many people and churches as we can across the island.  This is a tremendous opportunity to help us make an impact on the island for Christ and to raise awareness on island about what is available at PIU. Please see the PIU website (www.piu.edu) for more information on how to support the Bible Run whether or not you are on the island of Guam.

We are looking for people to be either mile supporters, major program supporters or runners to participate in the event. The relay run will cover 73 miles around the perimeter of the island. We are trying to get a $100 mile supporter for each mile of the route from on-island and off-island. Each mile supporter can designate as many runners as they want to run in their group. I am sponsoring mile #14 on the Northern route. Joyce and I are asking our family members, off-island friends and mission supporters to sign up as runners on my mile (suggested donation $5-25 and you get a T-Shirt) and symbolically run/walk a mile wherever you are on January 5. (Milo and I did this last year when I was in San Diego). During your run we would ask that you spend the time praying for PIU and the kingdom work in Guam and Micronesia. You can sign up and pay registration right here: http://www.piu.edu/2013-bible-run-for-off-islanders/ if you would like to be part of this. Of course you can also sign up to be a mile supporter or to be one of the major supporters of the event at the link above.

If you do this, I would also love to get a picture of you running your mile so that I can post it on my blog (only with your permission of course) so we can all enjoy it together.

Thank you very much for praying for us and the support you are to us, Mike and Samantha and the kids, and this students and staff at PIU.

Cute Christmas Pictures 2

Continuing from the last post – since I had too many pictures for one post. The night before Mike, Sam and the kids left for California (they are safely in So Cal now) we had a little family Christmas celebration at our house. Here area few pictures from that.

They enjoyed the funny Christmas hats and were quite happy with the rolling travel bags we got for them. Hello Kitty and Dora the Explorer were for the Courage and Serenity and Titus got an Avengers bag.

Each grandchild also received a Christmas shirt to wear on the plane. Here Serenity tries hers on.

Then I helped Serenity pack her stuff

Serenity and Courage distributed presents to grandma and grandpa

The next morning, before sunrise, we took the kids to the airport to catch their flight. This picture was taken in front of the airport Christmas display

Christmas With the Kids

Since Mike, Sam and the kids will not be here for Christmas (they left yesterday and are now in California) and we will be staying on island this year, we will be having our first Christmas in several years without any family around. We will stay quite busy with several activities but, yea, it won’t be as fun. Nevertheless we did get to have a family Christmas this past week with the kids. We took Titus, Courage and Serenity out to see the lights on Sunday night and then had a family Christmas time on Wednesday night to open presents before they left. Here are a few pictures of our adventures. (I could not resist posting the picture here of Courage as the Christmas Pirate/Fairy Princess)

The first place we went Sunday was the Micronesia Mall to ride the Christmas Train.Titus got to ring the bell in the engine on the 2nd ride.

After some pizza and frozen yogurt we headed down to Tumon to see the Christmas lights

More Christmas lights

Santa wasn’t there so the kids sat in his chair

They also enjoyed the displays. They actually became part of the displays

They got to be up close to everything

Again, part of the display…

We then went over to the Hilton to look at the model trains

Then it was time to say “Good night” to Frosty and head home