End of the Semester

Well, it's May, and the last two weeks of the semester have flown! The students have flown as well, and we are getting ready to fly back to family and friends for several weeks. Here is a glimpse of the last part of the semester:


May 2-5, I (Melody) made my last trip to Chuuk for this semester. On Friday, I conducted a TOEFL test for some Mizpah High seniors. They were a fun group, as you can see by the photo!

Then, it was off to Tol for the last teaching session. We had our last sessions Friday night and Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, the students took their final exam. Incidentally, it poured rain that day! In fact, the temperature never got over about 84 while I was there this time, which was actually quite cool with the rain! In between the morning and evening sessions, some of our students engaged in some water combat - I have a great video clip of it, so if we see you while we are in California, ask me about it! I'd love to show it to you!

Chuukese are wonderful musicians, and they always have a few beautiful songs to share when visitors come! Click on the play arrow of this picture and you'll be treated to a short excerpt of a song some of the students sang in our worship service on Sunday morning:

While I have been busy teaching, Tim has had his hands full of all kinds of projects. It seems like several times a week, we have a plumbing disaster of some sort! One problem he had a couple weeks ago was our campus filtration system for drinking water. It just wasn't working! Everyone was pretty happy that Tim discovered it was a simple problem and he had it back up and running quickly! (Can you imagine being in a tropical climate at about the hottest time of year without clean drinking water? We have really grown to appreciate good, clean water!)


In addition, he has been kept busy running to and from Home Depot, Benson Hardware, and Ten-Tak (an electrical and construction supplier) to make sure he has the "stuff" to do all of his repair work. Of course, these stores are all quite a ways away, and apart from each other. Tim says it seems like for every hour he spends on repairs, he spends 2 hours shopping! Believe it! You can see him running around the island (well, driving, not running) in our campus pickup truck! The past week, he was not only kept busy with his regular work, but in helping to get our campus ready for graduation as well. The students really did most of the actual work, and they did a wonderful job! Tim and his guys, Mo and Ken, were also pretty busy with the preparations. You'll see the result of all the combined effort of students and maintenance crew in the graduation photos farther below.

After finals ended on May 9th, the graduation celebrating began. On Saturday, May 10, the students had a senior banquet. (Here is a photo of me and Joyce Owen as we wait for the celebrating to begin! It was a wonderful evening - the weather was mild and there was no rain!

The students were honored with musical presentations, skits, and even some Yapese stick dancing. College president Dave Owen has said for years that someone should take the traditional Yapese stick dancing and redeem it from its secular use by developing a stick dance that honored the Lord and what He had done for them. Well, several of our students got together and did just that. I was able to get a few video clips of this dancing. The story that the dance tells is of the coming of the gospel to the islands of Yap.

Sunday afternoon, after celebrating Mother's Day, we had Baccalaureate services at Faith Presbyterian Church. Student speaker and salutatorian Jayvina Chimwetiw gave thanks to God for the opportunity she and the other students have had to obtain a college education, and she challenged her fellow graduates to give their lives and abilities back to God. Faculty members offered seasoned words of advice and their prayers for the graduates, and we all sang and worshiped our Lord together with the graduates and their family members.

Two days later, on Tuesday, May 14, our largest ever Guam campus graduating class held graduation ceremonies. The ceremony began at about 4:30 p.m. with faculty members leading the graduates in under canopies. As the faculty was seated, the graduates marched up onto the platform decorated with green and white balloons and tissue flowers. Only a few minutes into the ceremony, God blessed us with a brief shower which cooled the air to a "just right" temperature. We had two valedictorians, Twinsanne Sam and Joy Hosei, who collaborated to present a lovely address expressing their gratitude to the Lord and to family and friends for the blessing of a Christian education, and then gave thoughtful consideration to how the students should go forth and honor the Lord with all they have learned. We graduated 23 students with bachelors degrees and one with an associate of arts degree. We are so proud of our graduates! And their families are too! This picture of Bradwin and Mondale is a great example of how islanders honor their family members. These leis can be made of flowers, candies tied together, dollar bills linked with ribbons, candy, or fabric, - you name it! They are fun, colorful, and so festive!

As the semester has ended, we are preparing to return to California for several weeks, as I mentioned above. Pray for us as we seek opportunities to share about the ministry of Pacific Islands Bible College. And if you or your church would like to have us share with your congregation or missions committee, just email us! We would love to see you and share more pictures and stories about how God is working in Micronesia! God bless! Visit our blog again soon for more about the college and what some of our students are doing this summer! Melody and Tim