Further Update on What's Happening with DDOMF:

 Our campus improvement projects keep on going.

This video will give you an idea of what is happening. To get the whole picture, watch the March video first.

Let's keep the momentum going!

What's Happening with DDOMF?

 As we mentioned in the last post, PIU has started doing something with the funds that have been given to the DDOMF. We won't be done, but we are working hard to get to a major point of improvement on the building that will be named the "Ezra 7:10 Building," in honor of Dr. Dave Owen. The latest video that we posted shows how we are combining the impact of DDOMF giving, funds made available by the government, and the investment of volunteer labor to make major improvements to the campus's main building. 

On May 1, we'll be dedicating the building in Dr. Owen's memory. Join us in person, or online. Be watching for more details. Right now, though, take about eight minutes and watch the slideshow. Gifts given to DDOMF aren't just vacationing in Guam. They're hard at work. See giving options to the right to help keep the momentum going

  

Continued Progress . . .

 Just ask me if I'm excited.

The work on the roof of our main building has reached a new phase. The first of two coats of elastomeric coating is going on.

It's beginning to look nice.

Let's keep the momentum going. Look at the links on the right to see how you can be part of giving this building a much needed facelift. It is the building where those of who are privileged to follow behind Dr. Dave Owen continue to offer, excellent, transformative, Biblical higher Christian education.

This new decade began with the scourge of COVID-19. Let's see that it continues with a continuation of PIU offering a great educational opportunity to the people of Micronesia and beyond.

Progress on the building that will be known as the Ezra 7:10 Building.

 A quick update:

You may think that "Ezra 7:10" is a strange name for a building, but maybe not after you read the verse.

   “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, 
and to do it
and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”
(Ezra 7:10, ESV)  

You can find out more of the "Why?" of this by reading the overview, or the booklet that explains the "Dr. Dave Owen Memorial Fund" (DDOMF) in greater detail. Briefly, Ezra 7:10 was Dave's life verse. It is also a pretty good descriptor of what PIU is about.

Toward the end of last year, the DDOMF grew to the point that the Board of Trustees of PIU authorized our spending the available funds to undertake the biggest project that is part of the reason for the fund--repairing and recoating the roof of the building that will be named in Dave's honor.

People Change Things, Nehemiah, Dave Owen, the fine graduates of PIU, and YOU.

 Just changing a calendar page really changes nothing. People change things, not calendars.

I was just reading Nehemiah, taking notes for a class on leadership that I'm teaching. Clearly, Nehemiah saw a problem and rallied people to meet the need. There were setbacks, but they were overcome. In 2019 DDOMF was launched in response to a need. In 2020 COVID-19 was a major setback. Let's make 2021 the year of completion.

Here is some good news. In spite of the pandemic, three steady streams of income for DDOMF continued.

The New Year brought us a gift of $10,000. The fund is at about 28% of its goal of $200,000. (See the overview for details.)

Further, the PIU Board authorized spending from DDOMF to begin. 2021 began with the key element of getting our main building--soon  to be named the Ezra 7:10 Building--ready for this new decade of ministry.

These pictures don't really indicate the significance of what is going on overhead, but this major repair to the roof of PIU's main building will open up the possibility of our undertaking other repairs and upgrades that will not only make our campus more serviceable but will make it a more pleasant place to learn and serve.

The links provide options for donating, including the go fund me link.
Perhaps you would like to get your hands dirty and invest some sweat in this worthwhile project. I'd be glad to talk to you about it. Let's keep the momentum going.

Check out the links on the right.

You can get in touch with the DDOMF Secretary at kmerrell@piu.edu, or write me at hmerrell@piu.edu. 

Me? I'm a better man for having known Dave Owen as a friend, and I'm privileged to be able to serve for these few years after him. It would be great to partner with you in bringing this project to completion.

Howard Merrell, President PIU

 I just thought of it this morning. The weather is no longer the main topic of idle conversation.

IT'S MASKS. 

We argue and complain about them, they have replaced bumper-stickers and yard-signs as political statements, and they have become an unexpected fashion statement. On a recent trip to the US Mainland, my wife made sure that we had a couple of face-coverings that showed our "Guam-ness." 

Perhaps you have gotten so used to breathing through a fiber barrier that you have forgotten that there was a time before masks, and, dare I hope, there will be a time after. Here on Guam, the COVID darkness is beginning to lighten. We are praying for those of you who are still experiencing the worst. Without making light of the continued difficulties of those you in places where the numbers are still bad--in some cases awful--and where each of those numbers represents one more tragedy, can I offer a word of hope and purpose? If you are OK with that, keep on reading.

One of our major prayer requests at PIU, over the past ten months, has been, "Lord, let us get back into the classroom. Many of our students don't do well in this online-only environment." As we started our semester on January 18, we saw that prayer answered. My hope, and I think it is a realistic hope, is that we'll get back to a time when we can really see people smile, shake hands, sit next to one another, and even give a hug to those we care about.

What will we talk about, then?

More imortantly, what will we DO then?

In 2019, when we began the Dr. Dave Owen Memorial Fund (DDOMF), we did so not only to honor a worthy servant, but to take modest steps to move into a new decade with new purpose and effectiveness. Who knew that this new decade would begin as it did? 

You can read more about this fund in other posts on this blog, but let me give you a summary, here.

• DDOMF will remind future generations of the real source of our well-being. My
  
  hope is that Alumni participation will fund the erection of the Prayer Spot. (See this booklet with lot's of information or click here for a brief summary.)
• DDOMF will address much-needed maintenance and upgrades to PIU's main building. In honor of our third President, we'll name the building the "Ezra 7:10 Building." Even though our fundraising efforts were mostly stopped by the Pandemic, three sources of giving to DDOMF continued, along with a few one-time gifts. I'll post an update ASAP, but our fund reached about the 25% point. This enabled us to sign a contract to address the biggest need on the building that will be named "The "Ezra 7:10 Building,"  THE ROOF. (Watch for a report in a future post.)
• The third part of DDOMF will be a beginning on stabilizing the future of PIU's financial foundation.

Again, See this booklet with lot's of information or click here for a brief summary.

Before COVID became the chief topic of conversation, the transformative, Bible-oriented, God-honoring education offered by PIU was needed. 

Since the arrival of the Novel-Coronavirus, PIU as kept on offering that kind of education. Grants from the US Government helped a lot, but it hasn't been easy. We wore our masks, worked from home,
delayed trips to see family, and provided refuge for students who couldn't get home. We hired a new Chief Academic Officer, Rhonda Haynes (pictured with husband Ron, who is teaching for us), and continued to push forward wherever we could. Our launch of PIU Online, a greater outreach of Distance Education, was a timely venture, and we are learning more of the benefits of our new Learning Management System (LMS), Populi. It was introduced about the same time Corona landed. Even without the pandemic, we've been busy.

After COVID--What then?

• When we can once again receive students from our Micronesian Island neighbors,
• When we can put away the temperature checking machines, and take off our masks,
• When "normal" isn't hyphenated with "New."

What then?

We want to be ready. By God's grace we will be ready. Please help us be ready. Your gift to DDOMF will help us be prepared for the next phase of PIU's ministry.

We are dusting off some digital machinery. It hasn't been used for a while, because of the COVID obstacles we have all encountered. At this point, the best route for donating to the DDOMF is to go to https://piu.edu/resources/contribute/ and use one of the options to donate. Please note, if the option to give the information that this gift is for DDOMF doesn't show up in the process, please send a note to catoigue@piu.edu. Celia will send back a nice note.

I start with the picture on the left, not only because it is a "Praise the Lord" moment, but also because it is a visual reminder of the time we find ourselves in. One of the nick-names of Guam is the End-of-the Spear. Our island is called that because Guam is the western-most reach of the United States--closer to Asia than the the rest of the USA--and it contains a large military presence. This group is from the Guam Naval Base, Big Navy, as the locals call it.