OCTOBER 2019, Does this little place matter?


Coffee with the

President:
A bit of a geography lesson.
Those of you who live out here can check me to see if I get this right. I am still a relative newcomer to this lovely part of the world.
You can notice a few things just by looking at the picture on the left.
  • Blue dominates. "Micronesia" means tiny islands. Kathy and I live on the largest island in the region, Guam. Yet, it doesn't even show up on the map to the left, just blue.
    That blue not only dominates the map, it permeates the culture. For most of my life, I lived with people who who are close to the earth. The people here are close to the sea.
  • If you look at the outline that marks what is called "Micronesia" and then let your eyes travel east (to the right) you'll notice that Micronesia and the continental United States are about the same size. But, go back to my first point; the land in Micronesia, all put together, is smaller than Rhode Island. Some of our students come from islands where only a few a hundred people live. Some live in homes where you can see the ocean to both the right and the left. If you do a search of the smallest nations in the world, you'll see The Federated States of Micronesia, The Republic of Marshall Islands, and the The Republic of Palau in the listings. Though the Island of Guam is a territory of the USA (like Puerto Rico), the common response I get when I tell mainlanders where I live is, "Where's that?" And, don't even bring up Saipan and the rest of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (another US possession and our near neighbor). All together the whole region has fewer than half a million people.
  • Note that Guam is about the same latitude as Nicaragua. It's a tropical climate. We talk about the four seasons, but that terminology is mainly just a way of referring to what time of the year it is. Right now we are in the rainy season.
What does all of this mean to you, my "Coffee with the President" partners?
Many (thankfully not you) would say that Micronesia is an insignificant place on the globe, that the people-groups of this region are tiny and probably won't have much impact in the global scheme of things, I very much disagree. People, wherever they are, are precious to our Lord. It is a privilege to serve among these tiny islands, where lovely people dwell. I'm thankful that God has laid it on your heart to make excellent, transformational Christian higher education accessible in this region. I ask you to pray for us, here at PIU as we undertake a huge project. Last Friday we launched the Dr. Dave Owen Memorial Fund. Briefly, it is a year-long campaign to raise $200,000 for three purposes:
  • A memorial prayer-spot,
  • Much needed work on our main building which will be named in Dave's honor, and
  • A presidential endowment.
I won't take any more of your time in this email. I encourage you to look at the Dr. Dave Owen Memorial Fund blog. Among other resources linked on the blog, you'll find a video, How Do You Honor A Man Like Dave Owen? In addition to this being an integral part of this capital fund-drive, this video also serves as the latest "Coffee with the President" production. I encourage you to use the material available there to let others know about PIU and this opportunity to help PIU move into the next decade with greater vigor. It may be the DDOMF, but it is still an opportunity to have "Coffee with the President." If you click on the link to go to our Crowdrise site, you'll notice that one of the options is to "Join." If you click that option, you will become a fundraiser for this project. I hope you will join me in doing so.

One other thing:
Please pray for me, as I'll be a on big trip in October and November. Among the stops I'll make will be an appearance before the TRACS Commission on November 5. We hope this is the final step in the process of PIU receiving the reaffirmation of our accreditation. I'll let you know.
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Hey, share the video with a friend. We'd love to have more folk join us for Coffee with the President.

By His Grace,
 Howard Merrell, President PIU

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