Catching up With Sharing our Activities

I thought that today would be a great day for logging on and catching all of you readers up on what we have been up to for our first month on campus. When we first arrived, I was told that I would be teaching only 2 classes this semester to give me time to get settled in and acclimated. However, when the Freshman Writing class enrollment dust settled, I had 30 students in my ESL Freshman Writing At the right, you can see that we were cramped in a class setting made for more like 18 students! Hence, I am now teaching 2 sections of Freshman Writing and one of Public Speaking. Splitting the class has made it much easier to meed student needs in class and gives them more opportunities to share in class.

Some high points in our stay thus far:

Our car arrived and to comply with local requirements, we registered it within 5 days of its arrival . . . and promptly were presented with unclaimed "personalized" plates since the government had run out of regular license plates. Brad Boydston told us it must stand for "Plaxton Street Machine!" I prefer to think of it as an abbreviation for one of my favorite books of the Bible: Psalms. At any rate, it was great to have "wheels" of our own again!


We truly look forward to our monthly potluck/prayer meeting with faculty and staff. Our first one in August was at Jeff and Mary Johnson's home, the parsonage over the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Mary is an English teacher and Academic VP here at PIBC.) The food and the fellowship were wonderful . . . and the singing and prayer time afterward were wonderful as well. The church and parsonage sit on the northwest edge of the island and it has marvelous sunset views to one side, as you can see!



We had our time of sharing in the church sanctuary, which is below the parsonage, and there was quite a crowd, including faculty and staff members, some local missionaries who pray for the college regularly and for whom we also pray, and a few local church members who also come help at PIBC with teaching students seminars (like Lifeskills) and share during chapel times.




In addition, a few of our staff members have "little ones." Joel is the son of Ned and Marisol Farnsworth, missionaries temporarily wiht us from Ecuador. (Ned is one of our English teachers). Micah's father, Hiob, is a Palauan pastor and currently is our dean of men. We are blessed by having these little guys around! They are so fun!



Lastly, I have for you an "O.O.G." ("Only on Guam") special - SPAM, you see (the kind you eat, not the kind you get in your email inbox) is VERY big on Guam, as you can tell from the advertisement. At Kmart, you can find Garlic Spam, Teriyaki Spam, Tabasco Spam, Turkey Spam, Spam Lite, and a few other varieties to boot! Only here would you see a banner asking you to join in "Spam's 70th Anniversary Celebration!"


I hope you have enjoyed this random, meandering memo.
As always, we welcome your comments and emails: meltim3@gmail.com
God bless! Melody