The Merrell's May, 2019 News & Prayer Letter

News from Kathy and Howard Merrell, serving at Pacific Islands University, Guam
May 2019

Dear Partners,

Over our years of marriage, we have
been blessed with 

The PIU Class of 2019. There are two pastors in this group.
Most of the class wants to be a teacher. This is a picture of hope. 

 far more than we deserve. Part of that blessing has come from the God-given ability to take used things and make something useful, even beautiful of them. Over the years Kathy and I have remodeled our home in Covington VA, repaired old cars and trucks, refinished and built furniture. Kathy dresses stylishly mostly with selections from yard sales and thrift stores.

In many ways, our current ministry is a continuation of that pattern. We are taking what we acquired over a half-century of

Joyce Owen, wife of former

President, David Owen, 

was our graduation speaker. 

The theme of her message, God’s love.

preparation and ministry, and repurposing and investing it in a new place, in new ways, in new lives.

Thus far, 2019 has been one of the busiest times of our lives. The year began with the pressure of completing the self-study for the reaffirmation of our accreditation. There was the preparation for the visiting team from our accrediting agency, and then the visit itself. Our Student Development team planned an “In House Mission Project” for Spring Break. Most of our dorm students and some commuters participated in a number of activities including some campus improvement projects. Howard planned those, supervised some, and both he and Kathy got their hands dirty along the way.

Even Howard’s saw-damaged
thumb turned out to be useful.
It was a great incentive to
pay attention to safety rules
when using power tools.

 Though we are half a world away, we rode the roller-coaster with our friends Dave (former PIU President) and Joyce Owen. We rejoiced with them as it appeared that Dave was cured, only to weep when three weeks later it was clear that his body was ravaged with a different variety of the dread disease. We helped plan a memorial chapel service in Dave’s honor and then
Howard made the trip to California to take part in his memorial service. This past weekend was graduation, and, last night, Howard performed his first wedding on this side of the world.

Along the way we each taught a class in the Spring Semester, and kept up with our day-to-day

Kathy teaching Introduction to Music.

responsibilities.

Kathy leaves tomorrow for Virginia, and Howard a week later. At the end of June we’ll be in Palau, where Howard will be one of the speakers in the Palauan Evangelical Church’s Gospel Day Celebration. We’ll arrive back in Guam, July 1. Perhaps we’ll see you while we are stateside.

At the school’s Board of Trustees’ meeting in March—I forgot to mention that—the board indicated a desire for Howard to continue as President. At this point we figure it is best to make commitments in smaller bites. We told the Board we would be here through the 2019-20 academic year. We’ll evaluate as May 2020 approaches. Our plan is to continue to invest the resources the Lord has entrusted to us as long as we are able. For the foreseeable future, we are glad to continue to serve as missionaries at PIU.

Thank you, so much for partnering with us in raising up a new generation of leaders in the Western Pacific. We are making some new prayer cards. We’ll be glad to give you one when we see you, or if don’t get to see you, we’ll send you one. 

   Speaking of Prayer, here are some praise and prayer notes:

  

•  We praise the Lord that our reaccreditation process is going well. We aren’t there, yet, but it looks like we’ll make it.
• We see growth in the lives of some students.
• We also see tragic collapses. Pray especially for Alex, Scott and the rest our Student Development Team. They are the point of the spear in touching student lives.
• Pray for families.
• Alex and his family are, like many of us, traveling. Pray for good contacts, safety, and refreshment.
• Pray for those holding things together here on campus.
• We are in good health. We’ll do our annual checkups while in VA. No one is indispensable, but it would make things inconvenient for a lot of folk, if we can’t continue for a while.
• The big three requests remain. We need students, PIU needs financial partners, and we need staff who can serve with us as missionaries.