Hafa Adai #14

Hafa adai from Guam where we're in the dry season (read "less rainy"). The mangoes are firming up and the tradewinds (and air conditioning!) make the humidity more or less bearable.

SPRING SEMESTER
Just two more weeks and the spring semester will be history! We have 24 students from the Guam campus graduating on May 13th -- the largest graduating class yet.

Cheryl continues to work in the campus office; her current special project is preparing a list of potential scholarship recipients -- what a joy to help well-deserving students continue their education!

Brad is wrapping up his Introduction to Bible Study Methods class on the Guam campus. His other distance education class in Chuuk and Palau was canceled. That cancellation has turned out to be a blessing because there is so much expansion going on at PIBC right now that the administrative responsibilities are taking up a lot of time and energy.

• We're working out details with the Chuuk State Department of Education to raise the education level of their current public school teachers by enrolling them in our AA programs.

• At the same time we're trying to rethink the program that we have on Tol, a remote Chuuk island, to better suit the needs of contemporary Micronesia.

• We're developing a BA in education which will be offered primarily on the Guam campus, in addition to the BA and AA degrees in Bible.

• If that were not enough to keep our heads spinning, we are also working on the acquisition of Hawai'i Theological Seminary in Honolulu. This small seminary has been having some tough times and we were approached about absorbing them, their programs, and their students into PIBC. This week we received approval to start the MA program in the fall, and Eric Sorenson, another Covenant pastor and project missionary on staff at PIBC, is now the dean of the seminary. Brad, as VP of Academic Affairs (big title in a small school), is responsible for the planning and oversight of all the academic programs and faculty.

TRAVEL
In January, we cashed in some of our frequent flier miles and traveled to tropical Cairns, Australia for two weeks of vacation. It was good to get away from the chaos of the islands to some place more orderly to charge the batteries. We enjoyed learning a new language, figuring out how to drive on the opposite side of the road, and we were amazed with the assortment of plants, birds, bats, crocodiles, and kangaroos.We're ready to go back to see more of Australia next time.

Brad will be traveling to Palau May 6 to meet with students and staff there. The following week he'll be back in Chuuk for the graduation ceremonies on the Tol campus.

But our next big excursion will be back to the States for six weeks.

We leave Guam on June 3rd.

Roughly, this is our schedule:
June 4-7 Roseville, California area
June 7-12 Turlock, California area (Brad is speaking at Cornerstone Covenant June 8th)
June 12-14 Walnut Creek, California area
June 14-17 Irvine, California area (Kent graduates from UC Irvine June 15!!!)
June 17-21 Chicago/Rockford, Illinois area
June 21-28 Covenant Annual Meeting and "Feast" in Green Lake, Wisconsin
June 28-29 Walnut Creek, California area
June 29-July 5 "Missionaries in Residence" @ Mission Springs Family Camp, Scotts Valley, California
July 5-14 Phoenix, Arizona area
July 14 to LAX
July 15 return flight to Guam, arriving evening of July 16

FINANCES
We know that we can serve here only as long as the churches, individuals, and families who provide for our financial support continue to do so. We've been overwhelmed by your generosity and the follow-through with pledges and commitments that have been made. Thank you. We have lost some supporters through death and because people's financial situations change. So we continue to seek new support and to keep our financial needs on the radar. If you would like to support the ministry you can send a check or commitment response to:
PM Support for Boydstons
Department of World Mission
Evangelical Covenant Church
5101 N Francisco Ave
Chicago IL 60625-3676 USA

Checks should be made out to the "Evangelical Covenant Church" with the clear designation "for the support of Brad & Cheryl Boydston." If possible print and include this .pdf form - bradboydston.com/pdf/responseform.pdf . The form can also be downloaded from our website -- - Guam.Boydston.us .

PRAYER REQUESTS
As we pray for each of you by name we recognize the significance of the connections that we have with people from other times and places in our lives -- and we're glad that those connections are still strong. We are blessed to have so many active friends and family behind us. Keep praying for us and our students.

• Pray for our students as they (catch-up and) finish up the semester.

• Pray for the students who are preparing to be a part of the PIBC mission teams going to Thailand and Palau this summer.

• Pray for our missionary staff and those preparing to come to Micronesia as they work to raise support. There are also several potential missionaries in the discernment process.

OPPORTUNITIES

• We need some teachers with PhDs or ThDs in the areas of theology or New Testament who could come on a mission to teach for anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks (depending on how the course is configured) next spring or summer (2009) in our new seminary program.

• We need someone with institutional cooking experience who could come to Guam for a year or two as a short-term missionary to cook during the week for our 60 residential students.

• We need a mission team willing to raise funds for, and then to come construct, a new fence around the campus. Depending on the size of the team it could take from 2 to 3 weeks to complete the project.

Thank you for your partnership!