Fall is Falling and so is the Rain

The past few weeks have been exceptionally busy! The first weeks of classes are always hectic, but for some reason this year, they were relatively peaceful! Tim has been kept busy getting office space set up for a few here on staff as well as getting vehicles safety inspected and registered for the year as well as developing a campus vehicle use policy. (Yes, it's as boring as it sounds, but necessary!) Here you see him and one of his "right hand" guys, Mo, working on finishing up the installation of a smoke detector in the office's hallway.




I have gotten settled into a good routine with teaching. I have my usual large crew (22) in English writing, and a great smaller group in sociolinguistics. I have really hard-working and thinking students from three island groups which leads to very well-developed discussions. Sociolinguistics is the study of how language and culture are intertwined and I am learning as much from the students about their cultures as they are learning about each others' cultures and other groups throughout the world!



However, our year's start was missing one very important person: our dean of women! Melissa could not return to campus until partway through September, and we were all so happy to see her return! The day before she came, one of our office staff made sure many students and staffers blew up balloons and wrote her some welcoming messages.









The next part of the story is the best: A bunch of us (some students included) got up and went to greet Melissa at the airport at 2:00 on a Wednesday morning . . . yes, that is 2:00 a.m.! Here we are at the right - Melissa is the one with dark hair and a light shirt standing in the center of a very happy group!



Shortly after this, we had a baby shower to celebrate the addition of a beautiful young one-year-old, Jirehlynn, to Pastor Hiob and Leah's family (staff members here at PIBC). Jirehlynn loved the cake and all of her pretty new gifts and Leah was most appreciative of the celebration. It was a great opportunity for us ladies on staff and a few students as well to get together and laugh and celebrate a wonderful occasion!




Another huge blessed gathering this past weekend was one of our twice-monthly PIBC prayer meetings. One of those two meetings is always a shared meal - but this month we had another reason to add to the celebration: Bill Wood, PIBC's former president (semi-retired) turned 70. His wife, Christel, insisted on having us all come have the PIBC prayer meeting at their house and she provided dinner and dessert for us all. As you can see, there was a huge crowd! Over 40 of us crammed into the Wood's home after dinner (some ate inside and some outside) for an evening of song and then prayer for PIBC. We are thankful for Bill and Christel and their commitment, even in retirement, to continuing to teach at PIBC!


Tim and I have also been involved in PIBC's Evangelism class, operating in conjunction with the "Alpha" course, a ten week class on different aspects of the Christian faith. Our students are learning how to use practical discussion and relationship-building to share their faith in Jesus Christ and how to explain complex biblical doctrine in simple ways. Each week we meet with several other people in the community at a church about 4 miles from PIBC; we start with a shared meal, followed by a 45 minute video presentation. From there, the crowd of about 80 people breaks up into its designated discussion groups and discusses the topic for the evening for about another 45 minutes to an hour, followed by prayer in our small groups. Pray for our students to learn much from this course that they can put to use.

Each week a different small group prepares the meal for the others . . . yes, that means we feed about 80! But it's so fun and well worth it!

I started prepping on the weekend by baking 150 cookies; then I made a huge pan of spaghetti sauce on Monday, and 14 pounds of cole slaw and two large pans of bar cookes on Tuesday evening. Wednesday after work, I headed over to Faith Church to cook 2 big pots of noodles . . . and the other folks in our group were equally industrious!!!

We had a great time getting the food ready and put out for the group! Here is our group in the kitchen at the end of the evening.









Another oportunity we had recently for fun, food, and fellowship was having fellow missionaries Karyn and Eric Sorenson and kids over for a barbecue and some home-made ice cream. We also invited Austin Evers, a new missionary here from the Southern Baptist denomination, working at developing a Christian "campus fellowship" group at the University of Guam. He has been involving some of our PIBC students in this as well. Austin also frequently attends chapel at PIBC and happens to be our group leader at Alpha (the evangelism course). Here you see him helping Tim with gathering up the barbecued meat for dinner. Pray for Austin to adjust well to this new cultural environment and that God would bless him as he ministers here.


Life on the mission field still has its "homeowner" moments. Since we do not have a carport or garage here, we find we must work hard to make the most of any and all available space. Fortunately, we have high ceilings in our home, so Tim has been working on installing shelving in our laundry room for extra storage. You can't see Tim very well in this photo, but you get a great view of the "wrap around" shelves he has put on three of the four walls up high in the laundry room. He put another shelf on the wall to the left at about eye-level (mine, not his!) for more storage. I can hardly wait till they're painted and I can put things away on them!


While Tim was working on this project, I put a primer coat of Kilz on the bathroom walls and ceilings in both bathrooms and then rolled a coat of light blue semi-gloss on the walls. I am almost done! I only have a little "edging" to brush on! Mary Lou Carruthers, our friend from our home church (Gold Country Baptist) will be arriving in a little over a week - she'll have a nice, clean, freshly painted bathroom to enjoy! Mary Lou was here this past February and March, and God has called her to come and serve here part time at PIBC doing our IT support work. She'll be a great addition to the staff! Pray that God would raise up a strong financial and prayer support team for her, meeting all her needs, and that she would have safe travel and a good transition to life here on Guam.


Well, here we are, all cleaned up! Actually, this is our new church directory photo taken outside the church just a week ago. As fall has fallen here (and in spite of the sunny photo here from 10/5), the rainy season has picked up the pace and has turned more toward monsoon season. We pray that God blesses you and keeps you all with your eyes, minds, and lives focused on what He would approve of: that which is good, and right, and noble, and pure, and lovely . . . and if you want more, see Philippians 4:8 - but also it is our prayer that our students here could see Jesus at work in us so that we can honestly ask them what Paul asks of the Philippians in the next verse: "The things that you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you." Pray for us, that our students could see Jesus' love at work in us as we serve Him by serving them. God bless and keep you in His all-sufficient care. Melody and Tim