October 4, 2017
Dear Friend,
Let me get a few preliminaries out of the way.
Kathy and I, thank the Lord, are well.
l had the privilege of preaching at the Lutheran Church of Guam, last Sunday,  the first Sunday of a month-long recognition of Luther's part in the Reformation. I had to work on my sermon Saturday, but we took time to go to one of Guam's most beautiful places, Ritidian Beach.
The class I am teaching is going well.
Administration at PIU continues to be a challenge. By God's grace, we are doing well. I think we are making progress in several areas.
Dave Owen is, now, in the bone marrow transplant program at Stanford. His will be an autotransplant. (His own bone marrow, healthy after recent chemo, will be reintroduced after his present stem-cells are essentially killed. (It's more complicated than that, but that is the short version.) He and Joyce were able to go to San Diego to see their son's family. Grandkid time is a good prep for a strenuous medical campaign.
We enjoy our church, here. For the last two weeks of October Kathy and I led the singing. We are in a rotation. As I said I preached last Sunday at the Guam Lutheran Church, a thoroughly Evangelical group.
We are back to just the two of us being in the little apartment. A guest teacher had been our house guest for a month.
The main reason for this note:
Since you keep up with what we are doing, you know that finances at PIU have been and are a problem. In most college settings there is an advancement department, which oversees grant requests, fundraising, and public relations. At present these tasks land on my desk. I am able to call on whoever I can to be of help, but we don't have anyone who is doing this as their main task. It is easy to get into a dog-chasing-its-tail syndrome. We need money. The Advancement Department should do something. We don't have an Advancement Department. Why not? Because, we don't have money.
Notice the tongue hanging out?
Not good.
To keep the canine image going a bit longer, it is said, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, unless this old dog is going to wear a donut-shaped groove in his office floor, he has to learn a new act.
I came up with the Coffee with the President campaign.
If you are interested I can tell you about the thought/ideas that went behind it. For now, just remember these points:
- From the viewpoint of fundraising principles this campaign has to make meaningful contact with 10,000 people in order to work
- It is set up, not to seek large gifts from a relatively small number of donors, but gifts of various sizes from a large (for us) number of donors.
- Our goal is not to just seek one-time gifts that will get us through the current rough patch, but to build a far greater network of friends, who will support us in prayer, with their good will, and financial gifts.
I'm not asking our supporters to become givers in this campaign. You are already supporting PIU by supporting us. Thank you.
 If you are not supporting us, I assume that you are on this mailing list because you are interested in what we are doing. You may choose to partner with us by joining the CwtP campaign.
Mainly the reason I am sending this letter to this group of friends is to ask you to help me reach out to that 10,000.
I don't know 10,000 people, but collectively we do.
Some of the people in your network are interested in helping people where  opportunities are limited.
Please share the CwtP material with them.
I have tried to make that as easy to do as possible.
You could share the Coffee with the President video with them. It is less than 6 minutes long.
(https://youtu.be/fDb2DwKpcis)
Or you can direct them to PIU.edu, and tell them to click on the "News" tab. The first item is a brief announcement of the campaign (They'll need to click "more" at the end of the summary. The news item contains links to the video, as well as to some other web-based articles that explain the program. This link goes straight to the "News Release."
 Knowing that some people want a lot of information about a campaign like this, while others take the "Just the facts." approach, I have chosen to break this campaign into a number of pieces. On the same YouTube channel that contains the above video, you will find some testimonies from PIU alumni that tell  about the impact Pacific Islands University had in their lives. And the impact they are having as a result.
I also set up a blog that contains a description of the CwtP campaign. It will also serve as a place to post updates about how the campaign is going.
So a person can choose to read or watch, or both. They can look at a little or a lot. And if you/they don't find what you/they are looking for, you/they can write our Advancement Director--oh, wait, we don't have one, so--write me.
So, here is what I'm asking you to do:o
- Please pray for the success of the Coffee with the President campaign. I'm praying for more than $60,000 over the next year, and at least 1,000 partners who will pray with us and support us in various ways.
- Please share this opportunity to invest in PIU with those in your network who might be interested. Share a personal note, let them know that this is a ministry you support . . . I'll list the various links below, so it will be easier for you to copy and paste.
- Continue to pray for Kathy and me. We appreciate your support.
Here is a list of the links that will take you to the various items related to the Coffee with the President:
If someone starts on any of the URLs above there are links or prompts that will lead them to everything else.
Thank you for any help you can give PIU in expanding out base of friends/supporters.
Here is a follow-up on the wild things and threats mentioned in our previous prayer update:
 We didn't see it, but we are quite sure that on a recent morning walk we heard a wild pig grunting. Bruce Porterfield has nothing on us.
The threats from North Korea continue to elicit yawns from my neighbors, however, the plight of the people of NK continues to be a matter of major concern. See here for more.
Thank you so much for standing with us.
By His Grace.
H&K
Howard and Kathy Merrell
c/o PIU
172 Kinney’s Road
Mangilao, GU 96913
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