Happy New Year - and blessings abound!

Our last post was before Christmas - and as many of you know, while we were home for Christmas, our daughter, Erin, got engaged to Rob. They are still in the planning stages for their wedding (no date as yet!) but we are blessed to welcome Rob into our family. I think that this and being "home" for Christmas for the first time in three years with our kids and grandkids were our greatest Christmas blessings!!




The semester here at PIU has gotten off to a good start. Pictured at the right are Jo, Joyce, Me, Marci, and Anne, out celebrating Joyce's birthday in January. Not too long before this, Jo and Marci arrived on island as visiting instructors. Jo is teaching a counseling course at the graduate level (concentrated, as she is only here for 6 weeks), and Marci will stay all semester long teaching personality development. The two of them have worked hard to get a counseling center up and running here on campus where our students can sign up for biblical counseling free of charge. What a blessing!


Another great addition to our faculty this semester is JC, who is teaching our math courses. He is a very gentle, sweet man, and it is such a blessing to have a math teacher on campus! He is researching math courses and working on developing our math department so that our students will have a few different options for completing their math requirement. I will also be training him as our new Academic Dean over the next few months, a blessing for our students . . . and for me!!



Another visitor we have had here (short term for 4 weeks) was Perry. He came here from Oregon and was a big help to Tim and Mo with several maintenance and grounds projects, including building two wall-mounted cupboards into one of our classrooms for storage. Besides being very hand, Perry is also a pastor and he did a great job sharing with the students during chapel this past week. Perry has come and gone, but we hope to see him back for another visit some time!



This last entry is just for interest - those of you who have never lived in a VERY humid environment may not know what these two photos indicate:
Okay, I'll give you a clue: They are both "before" images of the pictures below. (This means that the photos below are the "after" shots.) Give up?

Okay - I'll tell you: the images are of our umbrella stand (left) and the edge of a leaf for the dining room table (right). The "before" images are what these items and many others in our house looked like when "the attack of the mold" came on! Due to lower temps and higher rainfall and humidity than usual in December and January, our house became a breeding ground for mold in all SORTS of places and on all SORTS of items! We have spent every weekend (and many week nights) since our return cleaning things with bleach, only to find more mold and/or new mold growing in new places. Wooden bead necklaces, books, any leather items, and anything made of wood (including knife handles in drawers and wooden spoons) were the main culprits. Last weekend I had to dry all the clothes in our closet as they were all damp. Dropping the temp on our air con and doing LOTS of bleaching has proven successful! What an adventure! Now THAT'S something you won't find in California!

Okay - enough drivel for this week! Now that things are settling into a routine here, I hope to make this a weekly (or at least twice monthly) event! Come on back in a week or two and we'll have a report on this semester's classes and PIU activities!
God bless!
Melody & Tim