The end is near

This is the final week of the semester at Pacific Islands Bible College. Most classes will have finals. Some students will actually study.

I think things are pretty much under control for the conclusion of my first semester as a teacher. We're positioned for a smooth landing. And I'm already starting to work on getting ready for the second semester. I'll be teaching a preaching practicum and the soteriology (study of salvation) segment of the theology sequence. Soteriology should be fun since the text the class uses for the whole sequence is written by a staunch, occasionally annoying, and pretty rigid Calvinist. I'm a way more mellow and flexing Arminian-Lutheran hybrid. (Don't look at me that way. Philip Melanchthon, the author of the Augsburg Confession, was an Arminian Lutheran, too. It happens every once in awhile.)

I'm also trying to keep on top of the $250,000 US government grant that has been approved (but which we haven't yet begun to draw on) to develop the school's distance education classes. We'll be buying computers, cameras, and production equipment so we can deliver some of our content to the more remote islands. We also hope to develop more Internet-based content that will be accessible to the less isolated islands.

We finally got Cheryl's desk moved into her PIBC office today. One of the German volunteers has been working on the computer and phone system. We think that she'll now be able to work from the office she'll be sharing with Karin Schulz (German Liebenzell missionary who keeps PIBC's finances straight).

Most of the students will be going home for the holiday break. Some will stay with extended family on Guam. Ten students and three staff members are going to the Yap islands on a mission trip that will last most of the break.