July 2019 thoughts on Prayer and God's Provision:

Frequently, I sign my letters and emails with a closing that mentions God's grace--"By His Grace," or, “By His Grace, we Carry on," or "… Continue." I can assure you it is much more than a literary flourish. 

When I arrived at PIU two and a half years ago, I looked at the situation around me, and at my own resources and quickly saw that this was a God-sized task, with Divinely-proportioned possibilities if we should succeed. Again and again, those realities have been emphasized in my time as President of this school. I've seen it as new needs appear, and I’ve observed it even more as I observe God's gracious—grace-filled—provision. It confirms that what I can do isn’t enough—not nearly enough.

I think I've mentioned in a previous communique that I’ve been working to gain a better understanding of Isaiah 40:31. 

“[T]hey who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31, ESV)

I was privileged to share from this powerful passage, a little over a month ago at my home church in Covington VA, and then again at the Gospel Day celebration in Palau. The Palau Evangelical Church chose the verse as the theme verse of their conference.

Commentator, Alec Motyer, comments on this passage: Those who wait on the Lord “will ‘keep putting on fresh strength’. They are promised different strength, a strength that is not natural. It’s as if people should grow wings like an eagle, the greatest of birds. They are also to be given divine strength. The natural person [the youths and young men of verse 30, are] not like God [Who does not faint or grow weary, verse 28] but the believer is." Wow! The believer is like God, not that we take on the “omni” traits of our Lord, but we become like Him in strength to meet the challenges of our day, because as we wait on God, rather than take matters into our own hands, God himself works through us.
 

Waiting on/trusting/hoping in the Lord, all these elements are contained in the Hebrew word. This is not a passive state. We have to work at waiting. Praying is the task of the one who waits on God. Please join us in praying that we will have that "different, unnatural, God-like" strength and provision for the important work of PIU.

Know that God is using you as you partner with us. Please continue to pray.

Here are a few items for waiting-prayer.

•      As is true in any facility, we have ongoing maintenance needs. Pray that our reduced staff, with a severely limited budget, can get needed repairs done before the Fall Semester.
•      Pray for a good crop of new students.
•      Thank God for a couple who are going to volunteer some time to help us with some of our IT needs, especially web-based.
•       Joyce Owen, wife of our late President, David Owen, is returning to Guam to work with us at PIU. Pray for her transition, continued adjustment to her new life, and her effective ministry at PIU.
•     Late Spring and early Summer was wedding season. Pray for several new PIU related families. I’m told that others are in the works.

·        Please let us know how we can pray for you.

By God’s Grace We Wait,

Howard Merrell, President PIU
hmerrell@piu.edu

PS: I posted a brief video that contains much of the same material as this note, https://youtu.be/5XPnEsI6pL4. You may want to watch it yourself or use it to let others know about PIU.

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