Friday is Fun Day With PIU Students

A couple of weeks ago, I promised some photos from our "Friday Fun Day" field trips with our summer program students and teachers and some of our work crew. While I don't have a picture of our trip to the University of Guam planetarium, I do have others . . . like these shots taken from our hike to Tarzan Falls. (Tim is at the left, carrying a bag.) This was Tim's first "boonie stomp" since we moved here 3 years ago and he enjoyed it!





There was a lot of standing water due to recent rainstorms, but the trail was dry enough that we didn't slip and slide too much!



After a nice, hot hike (it was over 90 degrees that day!), we arrived at the top of the falls, which was quite nice - very small and quiet. We had to continue down a trail to the left and hike more through the jungle to reach the base of the waterfall.






I was really happy to get to the bottom of the hill. This photo does not do this lovely fall justice! It goes up about 45-50 feet or more to the top!










We got a well-deserved cooling off in the water - and a nice back massage too! (I am at the far left showing off my great hairline!!!)








The scenery on the hike was beautiful. In many places, you could see over halfway down the island and then over east to the ocean.












An "end of the hike" shot was a great idea! :-) What a great group!





The following Sunday, we had our PIU Prayer and Potluck. During this time we also said "hello" to Michael, Samantha, Titus and Courage Owen (featured in the previous blog) and said farewell to Libby and Mike Stroh. Libby taught in our English literacy (CBE) program and Mike taught the General Epistles class. They were a real blessing to have this summer at PIU.







Our next "field trip" was the Guam Liberation Day Parade on July 21. Even though this was a "Fun Wednesday" rather than Friday, it was one of our outings, taking the place of our Friday trip that week. Here you see many of our students waiting for the parade to begin so they can run out and join their fellow students when the PIU group passes by.






Lin (right) helped keep us entertained with her crazy eyeball trick!






Appropriately (since Tim spends a lot of time and $ at Home Depot - his "repair supply store" for PIU), the Home Depot float and mascot were right before our PIU students. Here you see our friend, Siska, with her little boy, Christian, and then our bookkeeper's little boy, Michael, enjoying their moment with the HD Bear!

(My deepest apologies to David Mayer for this photo - hey, Dave, if you get LOWE'S to build a store here, we'll shop there!!)




At last the moment we'd all been waiting for! Our students arrived with the PIU banner! They were so excited to represent the school! I ran out (in pink) to grab this photo-op . . . but ran back to the canopy to watch the rest of the parade in the shade. I can't do a lot of midday sun here on Guam - I get sun poisoning! But it was such a blessing to see our students putting a "face" on the name of PIU!


Our last "official" Fun Day was a trip to swim and hang out for a couple hours at Ipao Beach.

Here at the left are some students posing in the water.

At the right, Meluat shows us all how to eat kimchee with orange Kool-Aid powder.


Erica, one of our English program students, and Karin, a volunteer English tutor, try to warm up after the swim.



And on the way back to campus, Leeman played the ukelele while we all sang worship songs. It was a great, relaxing day of fellowship together AND worship as we sang.







We all made it safe back to campus! This was a great way to wind up our Friday outings! Can you tell by this picture how God has blessed our summer friendships? Though we come from many places (Taiwan, Chuuk, Guam, Palau, Bangladesh, the U.S.A), God brings us together as one in Him.

We pray that your summer is full of blessings!
Melody and Tim