Congratulations Hollie!!!

Hollie Schaub, our co-worker at PIBC for the last 3 years, (and the other Student Life team members) did much to encourage the students at PIBC to apply all the Bible knowledge they learn to their daily lives. The challenges she faced in this task led to her to take on the theme NAVIGATING THE CURRENTS OF CHANGE IN THE MICRONESIAN WORLDVIEW as her master's thesis. Her research will be helpful for many as they come to Micronesia and begin their ministries here. Thanks so much Hollie (and Aaron) for giving so much of yourselves to the people of Micronesia through PIBC. Congratulations on achieving your masters in Intercultural Studies at the same time you were working at PIBC and fulfilling your responsibilites as a naval officer's wife. We love you and miss you. Your legacy will be eternal.

Mangoes, Jewelry and Signs...

It's mango season on Guam and the trees are loaded with what has become my favorite of all fruit. For the 3rd year the village of Agat has hosted a Mango Festival. Joyce Owen and I headed down south Sunday after church and had a great time looking at the largest mangoes I've ever seen (about 10" long or bigger), eating mango cinnamon buns (even better than Cinnabuns), and perusing all the booths. Can you count the mangoes on this tree Joyce and I saw on our way home from the festival?Joyce purchased a very beautiful necklace and earring set made of polished coral beads with the most unique spacers between the beads. I would never dream of using such a material to make jewelry, but that's why I'm not an artist. The spacers are vertebra of the local brown tree snake! The creator of these told Joyce that if she were to bring him a snake of at least 4 feet in length, he'd make a trade with her for more jewelry. Now this is a challenge our resident snake catcher will take on! I'll ask Joyce to take a picture so that I can post it and let you see these very interesting and really very beautiful pieces of jewelry.

On the way home we stopped for gas and spied the sign below. It had us giggling, so I pulled over and Joyce got a picture of it. Not sure if I want to try their "glorious" coffee or not.

More from Thailand

We'd like to share with you part of a blog entry from one of the Thai Mission Team members, Meluat Meluat. God is answering your prayers for this team. Be encouraged and keep praying for them. "Anyways, let me continue the sharing of blessings that i have faced over here in Thailand. During the time of Erten's injury, it was suppose to be a downpoint for everyone. But because everyone's focus was on Christ, it did not slow down our work, but motivated us to work even harder. During that night of injury, I challenged my brother Erten while he was laying on the bed waiting for the doctor to bring him to th O.R. I told him that everything that comes to our lives, either joyful moment or painful moment, we have to thank God for allowing these things to happen in our lives. I explained to him of how he can consider this injury and the situation that he went through as a blessing. Brothers and sisters, Erten's injury did not only impact us alone, but also impacted Campus Crusades and this brought us more closer and motivated us to stand firm on our mission and not giving up, not making excuses, but it derived us more toward the core of our goal. After he came out from the hospital, I challenged some of my brothers and sister's one night when we were in the kitchen and i told them about Job's faithfulness toward God and compare it to the situation that happened to us. First, it was Job's animals and crobs (crops) were taken away but Job did not submit to the hands of satan. Then his family were taken away too but his faith remained in God's presence. For that, the enemy thought that attacking his physical body would make him give up. But Job's faithfulness was fixed on God. Later on that story, we knew that God doubled up the things that Job lost. Same situation that happened to us and this is what i told my brothers and sisters that night, "The enemy was trying to destroy us through miscommunications and some little insidence even until few days before we leave, but we survived because we allowed God to take charge. We are here in Thailand and the enemy try to separate us or make us give up on reaching out to the students, but we never gave up. He could not destroy our relationship and our focus to God because our mind is fixed toward God, so he try to destruct us by hurting our brother Erten. We did not give up but continued to minister and actually our ministry and our relationship got even more stronger than ever." This is what i challenged them that night. Brothers and sisters, our ministry is still strong and we will keep it that way so the fountain of blessings will continue. I believe yesterday the heaven was shaking and the angels were shouting for joy because one of the student allowed our Lord Jesus Christ to take over her life. She was sitting with us today and we continued having a good fellowship in the campus. Like what i said earlier, there are lot of blessings happening over here and i always want to share.

Changes

Though the campus is very quite at this time and most faculty, staff, and students are gone for the summer things are changing. A much needed pavilion (or summer house as it is often called here) for shade is being built near the basketball court, thanks to the foresight and hard work of one of our colleagues, Bill Wood.
It has been interesting watching the preparations and the building process. Many principles that parallel our spiritual lives can be drawn. Much preparation went into the foundation that included 4 large and deep holes filled with concrete in which the pillars are anchored. This is necessary to keep the building standing during and after our frequent earthquakes. So to, we must anchor ourselves deep in our relationship with the Lord through His word to weather the storms and quakes of life. It is this hidden preparation that will make all the difference in whether the building or we stand the tests of this world.


Another quiet change is that on July 1, 2009 Pacific Islands Bible College (PIBC) will become Pacific Islands University (PIU). This change brings about a broadening of the ministry of PIBC and the opening of our seminary (this started this last school year) and a liberal arts college to prepare Christian students to be influencers for the gospel in fields other than full time Christian work. PIBC will continue as a school of PIU for those pursuing degrees in Bible. We are slowly working on the name changes on all our information and materials. The first one to go public is our sign off of Rt. 15 (better known locally as the Back Road to Anderson). Pray with us as we follow the Lord into these new areas of ministry to the Pacific Region. Pray too for the Lord of the Harvest to send more laborers and the means to hire them.

More Guam Beauty

For the last couple of weeks the flame trees on Guam have been magnificent. In fact, more so than any year I can remember. So often the storms and the bugs eat at these majestic trees, but this year the Lord has filled them with incredible glory. I drive around just ooohing and ahhing and wishing I had a camera to capture just a small portion of their beauty (Steve has the camera with him in the States) . So thanks to the Farnsworths I was able to "borrow" some pictures from them to show you all. We saw many of these trees as we road in the open "Trolley Bus" with the Farnsworths at the request of Joel and Amelia before Steve headed "stateside". Ned Farnsworth is taking the picture so this picture is just of his wonderful wife Marisol, the kids, and us. We are so thankful for the children who are part of our PIBC family and their excitement about all of life around them!

2nd Update on Erten

More news from the Thai team:
The doctors believe the surgery went well. Erten seems to be doing well over all. He has returned to the house after a two night stay. The doctors expect that he will have full use of his hand after he heals. The doctors, nurses, Kalvin and the Thai Campus Crusade staff took very good care of him. Now he is home and we are all helping. We are praising God for that and that the expenses were only $1000 (approx.). Continue to pray for his recovery. Thank you all who have been praying.

This note came Saturday:
Erten seems to be healing well and for that we are thankful. You can follow the team's activities by clicking on Melissa Heck to the right and then on PIBC Thai Team to the right on her blog.

Update on Urgent Prayer Request from Thailand

Melissa sent this update Saturday night Guam time. Please keep praying

Just wanted to send a quick update....

Erten is still in the hospital but will be coming home tomorrow. He will need to have the hand cleaned each day of the week for a week. I am told he is in good spirits but when we went to visit he was tired and seemed sad. Kalvin (our other leader ) is staying with him. We will be excited to have him back tomorrow. Some good news is that the medical bills will only be in the neighborhood of $1200 which we have. It may leave us a bit short at the end but we are trusting that God will provide for our needs.

Another good news is that the doctor believes the surgery was successful and Erten will eventually have full use of his hand.

Please continue to pray for God's provision and protection.

Also pray for some Thailand Campus Crusade staff in the south part of Thailand. A van with about 7 - 8 people had an accident and are now in the hospital.

These things are not positive but have put us in a position where we are forced to rely on God... and we know that He is good. We are all thankful to be here.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Blessings,
Melissa

Urgent Prayer Request from Thailand

We just received (Friday night Guam time) the following in an email from Melissa Heck, PIBC/PIU Dean of Women and one of the leaders of the mission team. She says....

Although it is hard for us to understand exactly what happened one of our team members, Erten, walked into a glass door and it shattered severing the tendons in his hand and severing two veins. He was rushed to the hospital where he needed surgery to repair his hand. He is in the hospital recovering --- should be ok but is in a lot of pain. Please pray for Erten's recovery. Please pray for the medical expenses to be covered some how. Pray for God's protection over the rest of the team. Pray for God's wisdom and discernment in the ministry. The spiritual battle here is fierce. Thanks.... Melissa

Praise the Lord for another Miracle!!!

Just after midnight this morning I was awakened with a call from Steve relating what God had done on his behalf. Here is what he wrote in an email later:
"The eye appointment report: all I can say is that a real miracle happened. You know how this appointment was scheduled because blood vessels were beginning to grow into and take over my cornea. Well, the doctor looked into my eye with her little magnifying instrument thingy, gazed for about 10 seconds or so, backed away from the instrument, dropped her mouth open, gasped audibly and, as best as I can recollect, said, "Oh my goodness! I don't believe it! They're gone! The blood vessels are all gone! It's like they were never there!" And then proceeds to repeat this whole thing two more times, even taking multiple digital pictures because she's never seen anything like this before, and apparently wanted to document it.

She could see slight "shadows" where the vessels had been, and showed me the pictures. It was amazing. She wants me to gradually increase my wearing time from six to ten hours a day, and then come by and let her see me again the first week of July to see if they come back. If they do, she'll fit me with the Sclera lens; if they don't, then she'll keep in a fresh supply of the current lens."
So thank you all for praying once again and please continue to pray that the blood vessels stay away.

Good-byes

These last few days has been a time of good-byes. When you live on and island this is a way of life, so we have learned to enjoy deeply each moment we have with those the Lord brings our way whether its for a short or long time.
But not all good-byes are the same.
Some good-byes are short term -"if the Lord wills" as the book of James says:
Monday morning I said good-bye to Steve as he left for his eye appointments and a summer of trusting God for a fruitful summer of tasks involving the Fund Development parts of his PIBC responsibilities.
A few hours later, I was back at the airport to pray for a fruitful ministry with the Thai Missions team as they left for 51 days of outreach.
(part of the Thai Mission Team practicing a skit)

Some good-byes are those that tend to be harder - those in which we often say , "We will see you either here or there or in the air". Though today's technology makes staying in touch though apart so very much easier.
On Tuesday, Brad and Cheryl Boydston left for their new ministry assignment in Arizona. It has been so obvious that the Lord has been in this move, but oh how we will miss them both! However, since Brad is such a great blogger we will have constant updates on what the Lord is doing through them.
Then one more good-bye happens this week as I join with the rest of our small group to say "adios" or should it be "ciao" (they are headed to Italy with the military) to Paul and Heidi.

Good-byes are important reminders that we are only guaranteed this moment we are in right now, so reach out and touch the lives of those around you and allow yourself to be touched.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:6