A little bit of this and a little bit of that . . .

Many of you might know that PIBC president (and our friend) Dave Owen has been stateside for several weeks recruiting teachers for PIBC Guam and Chuuk, attending our TRACS convention (the Christian schools organization through which PIBC is accredited), meeting with Liebenzell USA , and seeking other supporters for the college. One of the first things he did was stop in the L.A. area and visit with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, Titus . . . and he promptly sent this photo back to Tim (who misses his grandchildren and Starbucks)! Naturally, we had to come up with a response to Dave's nose-thumbing photo which we promptly sent back to Dave (pictured at right). For the record, Dave expressed deep regret and remorse for his actions; Tim is in therapy, recovering from the emotional blow - he should be fine in a month or two!

While Dave has been gone, his in-laws have arrived! Pastor Dale and Marion Cundall, Joyce's parents, arrived Monday night. Pastor Dale was our pastor at our home church for the nearly 20 years we were there. We had a great group of staff and students on hand to welcome them; the students sang a couple of greeting songs and Joyce presented them with leis. They are here for a three month long visit and we've really been looking forward to having them here. So for those of you at Gold Country Baptist Church reading this, thanks for sharing a little bit of California with us! PIBC and we are so blessed to have them here! Dale and Tim will be working together quite a bit on campus projects while we ladies get to enjoy some fellowship with Marion!

This being the week for "arrivals," we were blessed with another one! Suzanne Bratcher arrived from the states on Tuesday night and we were on hand to welcome her as well. Suzanne is a published author and retired teacher from Northern Arizona University and she has come as a volunteer teacher; she'll be teaching Christian Literature while working on a writing project. Left to right you see Mary Johnson (English), Suzanne, Joyce Owen, and Cheryl Boydston (office staff and wife of Brad, one of our biblical studies/preaching profs.) Cheryl and Brad are the couple Tim and I stayed with when we first arrived here.

One last bit of news, and it's HUGE news for homeowners on Guam: HOME DEPOT opens today! The other evening, we drove by to see if they were nearly ready for their grand opening. The security guard was very nice - he said yes, the store is going to open on schedule. He let us take a picture of Tim and Joyce, who are both eagerly awaiting the opening of this store! It will be such a blessing for Tim to (hopefully) get everything in one stop! Currently, he spends more time driving around looking for parts to make repairs than he spends on the actual repairing! THANK YOU, GOD, FOR HOME DEPOT!

You may notice that we have made our blog entry a day early; that is because the staff, faculty, and student body of the college are preparing to leave for a two-day-one-night retreat at a local beach. Keep us all in your prayers, especially the students. Our focus this weekend revolves around drawing closer to God and developing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, studying God's word, waiting on and listening for God to speak to us, and memorizing scripture. Pray for our students to grow in their relationships with the Lord this weekend, and for our staff and faculty as well. God's blessings to you all! Love, Melody and Tim

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