Meet our Board members: (Back Row left to right) David Owen, PIU President; Martin Auch, Liebenzell Intern'l Missions Director; Harald Gorges, Liebenzell; Micronesia Director; Bill Schuit, Liebenzell, USA Director; Howard Merrell, pastor from Covington, Va.; (front row) Mary Johnson, pastor's wife and former PIBC Academic Dean, Guam; Vincent Parren, Yap Evangelical Church deacon; and Marcellus Ngiraingas, pastor of Koror Evangelical Church, Palau.
They survived 3 days of intense meetings and still came out smiling. Howard's wife Kathy also was able to join him this year and Anne and she and some other ladies got to tour the island a bit and have some sweet fellowship.
Why are Steve and Dave smiling and holding an envelope between them? Because the day this picture was taken was a historic moment in the journey of PIU. We have been praying and trusting and working hard at developing funding sources for this ministry in addition to the tuition the students pay. In order for the school to grow and train more people we must have additional funding. Most colleges and universities have an annual fund to which supporters of the school can donate. The Rising Tide is the name of PIU's Annual Fund and in the envelope being held is the first donation designated specifically to this fund. If you would like to donate to PIU's annual fund please visit the PIU website (www.piu.edu), click on the Advancement tab, then on the donate tab.
Grant writing is a slow and arduous process. Katherine Currie, our grant writer, has been working for most of this year on the process. Gaining small grants leads to bigger grants. We are in dire need of several new buildings to house classrooms, more dormitories, a student center, faculty housing and our growing library and are working towards several grants to do so. Pictured below is our head librarian, Lisa Collins, opening the box containing books from our first library grant. Please pray with us that the Lord will provide the funding to indeed build these much needed buildings.
February also saw the arrival of several guests visiting our campus. Below, picture with Kalvin Assito (with cap) are three pastors from Central Peninsula Bible Church in California who were investigating ways their church can partner with PIU and have a part in helping provide training for pastors and missionaries in the Pacific Rim. Yes, coconut "water" is more refreshing than coffee.
Roger Doriot, long time missionary and Bible translator to Papua, Indonesia came to PIU to talk to our students about the exciting vision of translating the Bible into all the remaining lanugages in the world by 2025. With new technologies, Wycliff and other groups that do translation work have found ways to accelerate the translation process, called Mother Tongue Translation. This process involves training native speakers from unreached people groups to do the translation themselves from English back into their native languages. In the past, this process would take a life time. Roger was presenting this Mother Tongue Translation strategy to our students. Steve and Kalvin will travel to Papua to look into short and long term mission opportunities for our students in this area of the world in the near future. This is another answer to prayer.
It was our great joy to have Caleb Ludwig visit us and PIU. Caleb, from Pohnpei, was one of the men that Steve discipled in our early years on Guam. He went through the Campus Crusade Great Commission Training Center here on Guam and join CCC staff and served several years ministering at the University of Guam. He later attended the CCC seminary in the Philippines and now he and his wife, Rose, and their three daughters serve the Lord in Fiji. He came to PIU and shared with the students that Micronesians can in fact reach the world for Christ. He shared about his past and current ministry opportunities.
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