PREPARATIONS FOR GOING BACK TO GUAM

It does look like we'll be leaving pretty soon to go back to Micronesia.  We only need $200 more in monthly support, plus a car.  We are praying for either the finances to buy a car when we get to Guam, or if the Lord provides one here in the States, we would drive it to California, and ship it to Guam.  

We have not purchased our tickets yet, but we should be doing that in the next few days.

We mailed 22 boxes to Guam three weeks ago, so there is evidence we are really actually leaving soon!

NO LAPTOP, NO PICTURES!

As you may have suspected, we survived the frozen typhoon with only a little difficulty!  Four days without heat, power, or water (especially hot water) has made us appreciate heat, power, and water (especially hot water)!  We successfully moved down from Schooley's Mountain after some sad good-byes, and landed in Virginia, where...

...one day later, we were off to Nashville, Tennessee, where Steve had meetings with PIBC's President, Dave Owen and Liebenzell Mission's Global Missions Director, Bill Schuit.  They were in town attending a conference sponsored by PIBC's accrediting agency, TRACS.  We stayed with my brother, Sam and wife Nancy, and their two adopted Chinese children, Samuel and Rebekah.  We had a great time with them!  Back to Virginia, where...

...one day later, Steve was off for Winston-Salem and Clemmons, NC, where he met Dave again, and together they went to Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, to meet with faculty and graduating seniors about the possibility of coming to PIBC for ministry.  Back to Virginia, where...

...one day later, both of us take off for Elizabeth City, NC, to visit one of our supporting churches, Weeksville Community Church, and long-time friends, Greg and Melanie Owens.  We had another great time!  Back to Virginia, where...

...it's today!  But tomorrow, one day later, we take off again, this time to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with our son, Jason, wife Kristy, and daughter Kelsey.  

Now the reason this entry is labeled "NO LAPTOP, NO PICTURES" is because my laptop broke - literally.  It broke at the hinge, with plastic pieces falling off and stuff hanging all out.  So, no laptop, no pictures.  And we have some good ones, too.  As soon as the Lord provides me with another laptop, I'll post some (I did manage to save everything on an external hard drive before the great break occurred)!  But many, many thanks to my mother-in-law, who is letting me use her MAC.

FROZEN TYPHOON!

When we woke up Tuesday morning, it was snowing. We were surprised. Everyone else was, too. And caught off guard. But the adventure was only beginning! The snow turned into a once-every-decade blizzard! You see, we live at the top of a mountain, which is higher in elevation than the surrounding areas. When there is bad weather, we generally experience the worst of it. And this was to be one of those times. We stared in awe as it snowed and snowed and snowed.

As we were walking back to our little apartment from our regular noon-time prayer with the Global Mission staff here, we could hear trees and large branches snap, pop, and crack under the weight of the newly formed snow.

Because the trees had not yet lost their leaves, they acted as gloves, and caught the snow as it fell. For many trees, the weight of the snow became too heavy, and they fell to the ground, each sounding like a rifle shot as they broke. It sounded like a battle outside, as shot after shot echoed through the woods. And the snow piled higher and higher. All over the mountain, hundreds and thousands of trees and branches crashed, some on power lines.

A typical scene around the Liebenzell Headquarters property the next morning.

Notice the large branches on the power lines and on the ground. This scene is behind our little apartment. Two and a half days later, nothing's changed. At noon, our power went off. At 2:00 in the afternoon, Anne and I ventured outside to measure what turned out to be 11 1/2 inches of snow - and it was still coming down hard.

Here is Anne with a 12 inch ruler.

Anne after placing the 12 inch ruler into the snow next to her. See the top? Only 1/2 inch is sticking up. Eventually, we lost our water. Then as evening fell, 45 to 50 MPH winds started whipping through - just like in Guam when a typhoon blows through! Only this time, IT WAS COLD!!! FREEZING!!!

Staying warm has been on our minds the most since last Tuesday. So we slept that night under all the blankets we could find, and in as many clothes as we felt comfortable. In the morning, when it's cold outside the blankets, and there's no heat in the house, most people will get up and build a fire in the fireplace. We don't have one! The only way we can stay warm is to throw on a few more clothes. Eventually, we even throw on the winter coat, the stocking cap (called by some a toboggan), gloves, and a scarf. And at some times since then, we've passed the time reading while sitting on a coach under a blanket.

So, it's been a little bit of a challenge to stay warm enough to keep on packing, find a way to eat, while trying to stay warm. And did we mention trying to stay warm?

So, there's been a small number of us here on the mountain who have spent time searching for a way down the mountain and a place with the Internet. A way down was found the next day. But it's taken a little while longer to find the Internet. Bill Schuit, our Global Missions Director, just called a few minutes ago with the word, "There's a warm fire in the fireplace and the Internet at Panera Bread at..." then he names the place. It's not too far away. So we jump in the car. wind our way down the mountain, and here we are! We still don't have power, water, or heat, but we have plenty of God's grace to keep us going!

We're planning to move down off the mountain this weekend to Virginia to begin our slow crawl back to Micronesia. Who knows, maybe we'll even have a chance to get a warm shower before we leave!

Where Did This Come From?

So you can imagine our surprise when we woke up this morning and looked out the window to see it snowing like crazy! We were just beginning to enjoy the colorful leaves of the Fall season when Winter shows up!

This is what it looked like around here last week when we went biking along a lazy river just down the mountain where we live. But no more! You'll have to forgive us if we seem overly amazed. As ones who have lived in the tropics of the Pacific for the last 30 years, snow seems so unreal. We still have to get used to it.

Packing Out

The time has arrived for us to pack up and ship out! At least, from Schooley's Mountain. We spent practically all day yesterday packing and boxing and taping and addressing. If you've read a copy of our last prayer-news update, you know that we plan to move down from the Liebenzell Mission headquarters here on Schooley's Mountain to Daleville, Virginia, for the last two months of our stay in the States. This is an approximate time table only. Steve is done with his degree and his eye issues are under control. So we've decided it would be better to move closer to our families, friends, supporters and supporting churches before heading back to Guam. We also need to concentrate on raising the remaining support we need, and it's easier to do that when we're closer to the people who know us and our ministry a little bit better. We have wonderful supporters - supporters who give, not only their finances, but also their time, ideas, commitment and love. We appreciate them very much.

Links to Bryan College Chapel Messages

While Steve was at Bryan College two weeks ago, he spoke in their chapel services, once on September 8 and once on September 10. If you would like to listen to those messages, just click on either of the above highlighted dates, and you will be directed to the Bryan College website where you can then download the message to your computer, or click the play button to begin listening.

What's Steve Been Doing #3

My most recent trip was to Bryan College, in Dayton, Tennessee. This was one of my most favorite ministry activities of my entire time here in the States. I simply love visiting the Bryan College campus. I was invited down by long-time friend Matt Benson, the Director for Spiritual Formation there. Bryan College has sent out two mission teams to Micronesia in the past years. We even have a Bryan College student doing a 4-month ministry internship with our PIBC missionary in Palau, Rob Watt (see below in "What's Steve Been Doing #1"). This is also the school Amy first attended before she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The campus is beautiful, nestled among mountains, and is itself located on a mountain. I always enjoy my time here.

Here is Matt (left), along with two of his three staff, Bryan graduates Danielle Rebman and Jessica Hundley. Jessica's boyfriend Joel, also a Bryan grad, is at the right.This is the third staff, another Bryan grad, Ben Norquist, with his expecting wife Ariel. Ben and our Amy were classmates several years ago, and met on a mission trip to Spain and Morocco. Ben invited me to speak in one of the classes he teaches, a Worldview class, which compares and contrasts differing worldviews with the biblical worldview. My stories from Micronesia provided a real life context for many of the concepts there were learning. Together, Matt's team is responsible for creating an atmosphere for spiritual formation in the lives of the Bryan students, mainly through chapel programs, student-led ministries (local and international), and student-led small groups with incoming Freshman. They train student leaders to assist other students in growing spiritually. One of the reasons Matt invited me down was to speak in a couple of their chapel services.

My theme was "The Power and Beauty of the Gospel" as lived out in the context of my life and ministry in Micronesia. I taught on 2 Timothy 2:15 illustrated with lots of stories about life and ministry in Micronesia. Real-life story lines, especially from the mission field, grab attention and provide the context for memorable application of biblical truths against the backdrop of post-modernism.

The auditorium was filled with 750 students and faculty. The second day was a great challenge for me because I had an enormous headache that kept competing with my concentration and focus. But the Lord proved He was the dominant power. My favorite part of the whole trip was interacting with students and faculty alike afterwards in the dining room as we ate lunch and discussed spiritual issues together.

Some of you will recognize Pam Davis at the left. She was one of the Bryan students who came to Micronesia on its first mission trip in 2004. She returned to Bryan, graduated, and came back to teach English at PIBC in Guam and on our Tol island campus for one year. She's currently pursuing her Master's degree and is teaching at Bryan's writing center. Here she is seated with three other Bryan faculty. One of the other things I enjoyed was interacting with Bryan's President, Steven Livesay, Academic VP, Cal White, and the Development Director, Jim Barth. They provided great fellowship and insight into improving our operations at PIBC. One of the things we talked about was inviting Bryan faculty to take a sabbatical and come teach at PIBC for a semester or a year.

I can't tell you how blessed and excited I was to see Emily Cook, a 2007 Bryan grad who also came to Micronesia on the 2004 mission trip. A Freshman at the time, Emily shared with me about her spiritual journey since that time of discovering God's goodness. She has since graduated, has spent 6 months in Peru teaching missionary children, and is back in the Dayton community following hard after God's heart and teaching English as a Second Language in a local school. I stayed with Matt and his wife, Melody (and their two sons, Jonathan and Joshua, and as of yet a third child, an unborn daughter!) in their home. My last evening there found me on their back, screened-in porch, amongst 15 or so student ministry leaders. I was asked to share with them a little bit about how they could develop leaders under them to take responsibility for their ministries after they graduate next year, since they are mostly seniors. Again, I cannot possibly communicate with you all the excitement and joy I experienced sharing what I have been learning in the mission field with the Bryan community, and all that I learned from them.

When my time was done, I boarded a plane and headed once again to Winston-Salem and Clemmons, North Carolina. My main purpose was to meet with a fund raising consultant to discuss a plan for private funding for PIBC. Then I met Walter and Teresa Falardeau for lunch at Salem Village. It was Walter's birthday. No age given!

And helped celebrate Anna Mayer's 13th birthday (she's in the green jacket next to me) with her family.

And Sonia Talato's birthday with her family and friend, Jeanne Runyun. Again, no age given!

What's Steve Been Doing #2?

One of the things I also did was attend a Fund Raising Conference sponsored by PIBC's accrediting agency, TRACCS, in Lynchburg, VA. PIBC needs to expand it's base of private funding and this conference provided some training on how to begin thinking about this.

We had another visitor from Guam - this time our daughter Evelyn came. She was here to take her final comprehensive exams for her Master's degree at Liberty University in Lynchburg. She studies and prayed and studied and prayed some more...and passed! We're proud of her. While she was here, we took her to New York City...

The skyline from a boat on our way to Staten Island.

After our arrival at Penn Station, Evelyn stands in front of her favorite store (way in the background) - Macy's!

At McDonald's inside Macy's.

Anne and Evelyn in front of a small waterfall in the plaza at Rockefeller Center.

Now I don't want to lose you here. It gets little complicated, but here goes. Even though the eye doctor has released me from seeing her and has given me clearance to return to Guam (as long as I can come back to see her once a year, and can see an eye doctor on Guam 4 times a year), and since I've finished my degree, the only thing that remains is raising a little more financial support. Maybe you "picked up" on that from some of my previous posts. Only the Lord knows when the support will come in. Until it does, I will be working for PIBC full-time, only from here in the States. How do I do that?

From a distance! I have meetings with the leaders on site in Guam via the Internet, conference calls via a program called Skype, via long distance phone calls, and emails. I have been given responsibility for two major areas - everything related to the students at PIBC (including equipping them, mobilizing them, and placing then in other countries on short-term and long-term mission trips), and everything related to the staff (a Human Resources function). In addition, I've been given the responsibility of helping develop PIBC's Fund Raising strategy. One of the things I did was travel to California, not only to visit with Matt and Amy, but to interview a man for the Fund Raising position, and to meet with my assistant, Hollie Schaub, who will do things on the ground on Guam while I help coordinate things with her from here in the States. Make sense?

So, here I am with Amy and her husband, Matt, in Sacramento. They also helped me try to raise some financial support. They arranged for me to speak in the church where they work, Matt as a Youth Pastor, and Amy as a young women's discipler. Here we are at a wedding ceremony in Redding that Matt performed. For those of you who are familiar with it, notice the "David Crowder" look.Maybe it's more apparent here. Matt is becoming a good worship leader as well as a youth pastor. His preferred instrument is the bass guitar, but he's also teaching himself to play the guitar. When I was there with them, I got to play the drums. Amy took me around to a few new places. Here we are in Old Sacramento.

This is Hollie, my "right-hand-man" I referred to above. One of the staff for PIBC, Hollie Schaub, has been working on her Master's degree from BIOLA in Los Angeles this summer. After her classes, she drove up to Sacramento and stayed with Matt and Amy for a few days so she and I could meet together. Her husband is a helicopter pilot in the Navy, on deployment somewhere in the world. They've stationed on Guam for the past almost 3 years.

One of the cool things that Amy did for me while I was in California was take me to my first ever professional sports event - an Oakland Raiders football game.

I had told her that one thing I'd like to do before I die was go to an NFL game. It didn't matter which one. Well, the Oakland Raiders were playing a pre-season game with the Arizona Cardinals that weekend, so we went. It was great!

I know it doesn't mean anything in light of eternity, but the fact that my daughter and I got to do something like this was priceless. As you can see, I'm also speechless!