News from the Guam Merrells, a new semester

 

It is a big day for the Guam Merrells. Yesterday, Monday, 1/18, was our first day of freedom from quarantine.  When we arrived back on the island, the evening of the fourth, we were taken by bus to the quarantine facility. You would think we were dignitaries. Not only were we on our way to the island’s most expensive hotel, but our little caravan was accompanied by police--sirens, lights, and all. Intersections were blocked. It was a bit of overkill. On the sixth day, we were tested. The result was negative, so we went home, to serve another week of house arrest. It’s not something I want to repeat. It was infinitely more bearable because I was with Kathy. Still, like 2020, I’m glad I’m done with that. Back to today, though. While many folk in other places are still seeing COVID-19 numbers worsen, things are better, here on Guam. Yesterday, we went to PCOR2 (Pandemic Condition of Readiness) 1 is the worst, 4 is best. The Governor also issued an Executive order that in-person instruction could begin yesterday. Most of our classes are either Tues. & Thur. or Wed. & Fri. So for the first time since early March, we’ll be meeting with students in the classroom. For our highly relational Micronesian students and old-school teachers like Kathy and me, that is a welcome relief. The start of a semester in our little school is always a big deal. This one is more than most. While Kathy and I were gone or quarantined, other staff were busy getting ready—temperature-check/sanitation stations, social-distancing markings, training sessions, mitigation plans to be filed, etc. plus all the usual. In spite of the work-load, we are glad for this day to arrive. For Kathy and me, this day has another significance. We face it with a mix of emotions. This is the last semester that we will serve on the ground here at PIU. I usually try to be creative and clever with my newsletter writing. This one is about as plain as it can be. Forgive me, but it is all time will allow. The plainness is in no way an indication of our lack of appreciation for you. It doesn’t seem possible, but, thanks to you, we have been serving at PIU four years now. Thank you! I will brighten up this, otherwise plain piece, with a picture.   It is a reminder of a wonderful time we had over Christmas. Our whole family gathered at our elder son’s house in Rock Hill South Carolina. In the very front is Lucy, the granddog, with our youngest grandchild Ava (Chad’s). Left to right are: Chad & Tanisha, Harrison & Carrington Haley (Chad’s & the first married couple in that generation, they live in Utah) Kendal and Christopher (both Chad’s, Christopher lives in Louisiana) Kira (Chris’s) Me & Kathy, Silas (Chris’s), Madeline (Chad’s, Maddy is newly engaged. She and Sam are students a couple of hours from here, in Greenville SC), and Nancy & Chris (The Chris Merrells live in College Station Texas.) Two hemispheres, four states & a territory. I’m glad to say we are united not only as a family, in the usual sense, but as people who love and serve the Lord. Please join us in prayer and praise. Praise the Lord for this new semester, our last one here. We still have some students who are tuning in via Zoom, etc. Pray for all the machinery to work well. Thank the Lord for those who have spent many hours getting it set up. Switching from all online to mostly in-person is more trouble than one would think. While things are improving on Guam, it looks like it will be a while before we see significant change in most of Micronesia. I read that Palau may be one of the first nations in the world to achieve total vaccination. FSM with its many remote islands presents a greater challenge. The nations of Micronesia have kept COVID out by shutting down their borders. The combination of difficult access to healthcare and the severity of COVID-19, has rightly made the islanders afraid. Pray that they can transition to a post-COVID mode. (We all desire that, don’t we?) Making this transition is very important for PIU’s ongoing operation. On a personal note, I’ve never been to Yap, one of the states of the Federated States of Micronesia. I’d like to go there, to promote PIU before I move back to Virginia. I can’t say “what, why, or who?” but the last three weeks or so were a hard time of wrestling with some administrative difficulties. By God’s grace, I’m (I believe we’re) in a better place. Pray that I will support the fine people that are PIU with good leadership on this last lap of this assignment. Pray for our Board as they continue the search for my replacement. Kathy is teaching Introduction to Music, and I’m teaching Pastoral Leadership this semester. The Dr. David Owen Memorial Fund, a capital fund campaign stalled because of COVID. The fund did have enough success that we are now having much-needed roof repair done. I hope your Christmas was a good one. Ours was wonderful. We spent about three weeks in the mainland. Eight days in the middle of that at our son’s home in South Carolina.  All our family gathered there. It was a great time for the patriarch and his young wife. A new colleague observed that our school is a valuable resource for all of Micronesia. That’s a geographic region the same size as the Continental United States. The fewer than half-a-million who live there are matched by a diaspora that may be as big as the homeland, in terms of population. That is the community we serve. There is only one other accredited Christian College/University in this region, and the other school doesn’t focus on Micronesians. Guam is called, “The end of the spear.” We are the Western-most USA land. Our island has great strategic military importance. Likewise, PIU is in this strategic place as an outpost for training a new generation of leaders. Pray that this new semester will be the beginning of a new, good phase. Thank you, for partnering with us so we could be here. By His Grace, K & H

News from the Guam Merrells, Thanksgiving Eve

 

Dear Partner,

This morning (Tuesday 11/24) I felt my chair sway back and forth and watched the computer monitor

sway like I was riding in a car. The 5.3 quake was a reminder that nothing in this world is really solid.

That is especially true with us mortals. In just over a month, we will have been serving at PIU for four years. Last March I informed my colleagues that we would be leaving Guam after the Spring Semester 2021. It was our hope that a new President would be chosen by then. The Board of Trustees has extended an offer to two fine candidates. Both have concluded, after prayer and consulting with loved ones that PIU was not the place for them to serve, at this time. Nevertheless, over the course of this tumultuous year, we have grown more sure that it is time for us to step out of this “temporary” role.

Right now our plans are to make a visit to Virginia and South Carolina over Christmas. Our plans could change, but we plan to fly home December 11, spend Christmas with all our family at Chad & Tanisha’s house, and return to Guam on January 4. We’ll quarantine in a hotel, then in our apartment. We’ll move back into 2106 S Carpenter in May. Already, our hearts feel like the shifting earth I felt this morning.

People ask us, “What’s next?” We don’t really know. We know we’ll need to do some decompressing. I have a project planned, then we hope to travel out West and see some sights we’ve never seen and some people we haven’t seen for a while. We desire to remain useful in the Lord’s work.

We greatly and humbly appreciate the support that you have shown us. We never planned to be here in this role, yet the Lord led us a step at a time. We’ll ask the mission to send you the standard communication they send to supporters of “retiring” missionaries. I guess we are re-retirees! We have some ideas about ways you can continue to invest in the work of PIU. If you ask, we’ll share.

Please join us in praise and prayer:

·         We can’t say much, but I was recently privileged to lead one of our students to the Lord. Kathy has regular opportunities for mentoring the young women here. The wife of a newly married staff couple (a PIU grad) and Kathy are good friends. We praise the Lord for opportunities to share what we have with them.  We will both be teaching a class in the Spring Semester.

·         Our little campus community has, thus far, been spared from Covid-19.

·         I hurt my finger while taking the top off of a septic tank. It looked ugly at first, but it is healing nicely.

·         Pray for the Board as they search for the next President.

·         Since it looks like we’ll finish the academic year without a new President the need for making decisions, some hard, has intensified.

·         Some of our students have been “stuck” on Guam since March. Most of that group haven’t been home this year. Mostly our students stay on our little 3.5-acre campus. Pray that good things will happen here, as well as in the lives of those whom we only see online.

·         Pray that we will finish well and that we’ll start well on whatever is next.

We thank the Lord for you.

H&K

***********************

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17, ESV)

What's Going on at PIU:

About once every three months we are supposed to publish a newsletter. We call it the Tide's Currents. Covid and other assorted clogs in the plumbing--some really do have to do with plumbing--have made us way late with this one. For the same reasons it is a "mini" version. Still it gives an idea what's going on here, and with the Guam Merrells. Enjoy. Oh, hey, there is a picture in the TC of some students playing volleyball in the rain. Here is a bigger version of the photo. Click HERE to read the latest Tide's Currents.

Click HERE to read this mini Tide's Currents. > to read the September Tide's Currents (mini edition).

A Celebration, PCOR 1, Praises and Prayer Requests from the Guam Merrells, 8/15/2020

 I know that PCOR is a strange term to most of you. It is a very important term to residents of Guam. Let me explain.

COR stands for condition of readiness.

JULY 1 UPDATE FROM THE GUAM MERRELLS

Like most of you, we weren’t able to go to church for most of this spring. Our Guam church provided

recorded messages. One morning the preacher was one of our PIU graduates. He talked about the fact that, though we might not finish the work we are doing, if it is God’s work, He will finish it (Philippians 1:6). As I listened to John, I was applying his message to the situation in which Kathy and I find ourselves.

Early in 2020, I, Howard, decided that I needed to set in motion a plan to leave this role at PIU. From the beginning, January 2017, I have known and made known that my position of leadership at PIU is a battlefield appointment. Though the battle isn’t over, it has reached a different phase. Kathy and I have been privileged to bring a measure of stability to a difficult situation. I’ve been privileged to make and strengthen alliances that should serve the school well into the future. We were able to work with a team that accomplished the daunting task of the renewal of our accreditation for ten years.  We’ve been privileged to invest in the lives of some of the finest young adults in the world. It’s been good, and still is. But, it is time to bring things to a close as far as my part is concerned. PIU needs a leader to set the agenda and lead for the next 5-10 years or even beyond. At 70-years, I’m not that leader.

In March, just before my birthday and about 5-minutes before the Coronavirus shut everything down, I announced to the Board of Trustees (that’s who I report to) and to fellow administrators here at PIU that I would be leaving my position as President of PIU in May of 2021 and that we would be moving back to Virginia. I had a series of announcements in mind so that by now my planned resignation would be totally public. As viruses are wont to do, the Novel Coronavirus infected the timeline. One of my concerns was not to allow my news to detract from graduation. We really didn’t have one. We had planned to pass on the news personally to many of you. We planned to do part of that while on a trip to the mainland. We were supposed to be finishing that up about now. That didn’t happen (more in a moment) so, with the release of this letter, we are going public with this news. We’ll be leaving at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.

So, how are we doing?

It’s been hard, but by God’s grace it’s been good—at least mostly.

We are healthy. We eat well and exercise regularly. Thanks to our partners who work with us our needs are met. We enjoy our fellowship with our Guam church, small group, coworkers at PIU, and by long-distance our family, partners, and friends around the world. 2020 has been full of happenings and decisions with which we must deal. Our pastor and his wife, Tom and Rose Van Engen, retired at the end of May. They are in their new home in Illinois. The Van Engens are younger than we are. Their departure reminds us of our age. In the early weeks of 2020, I struggled with our plans for the future. Of course, COVID 19 came calling. We are very thankful that no one in the PIU family has been infected, though some of us have been tested and there have been infections within the close circles of some of our team. The sudden changes and the need to make hard choices has been challenging. We had, and still have, some students who had nowhere to go. Together with some students for whom it worked best to stay, they remain in the dorms. Kathy and I and the Tavarez family live on campus. As Alex T. and I joked, we became the wardens of the compound. Together we have had the responsibility for the health and welfare of 30 (at the beginning) young lives. By God’s grace we have made it thus far—though not without difficulties. I have often thought of this phrase, that came up in my devotional reading, about the same time Corona struck, “exhausted, yet keeping up the pursuit” (Judges 8:4). I would add, “By God’s grace.”

How can you praise with us and pray for us?

•            Much of the economy in this region depends on tourism. Here on Guam that has been completely shut down. Up until about a week ago, the expectation was that things would begin to open up further, starting tomorrow. An upturn in reported infections caused our Governor to reverse that decision. There have been no visitors from Japan, Korea, or other places from which tourists usually come. There won’t be for at least another month. From business owners to dishwashers, has devastated the economy.
•  Most of Micronesia simply closed their borders. The President of Chuuk Senate, the Father of one of our teachers, has been stuck here for three months. We have students who can’t get home. Folk can’t travel to attend funerals, or, in some cases, it has been impossible to transport
  bodies for burial (culturally, that is an important matter).
•  People’s lives change. There are always issues in people’s lives. We, especially H. need wisdom.
•  Pray that the transition to the next president will go well. We still don’t know who that
  will be.
•  Pray for our transition into what will be next for us.
•  We had been hoping to take a trip to the mainland later in the summer. That is, almost for sure, cancelled. Perhaps Christmas time. 
• We rejoice—though sadly from afar—in milestones in our grandchildren’s lives. Carrington is now the wife of Harrison Haley, and a graduate of Louisiana Tech. The new family lives in Utah. Little sister, Kendal, just graduated from Rock Hill High School. She was awarded a full scholarship to her first two years of college. Three of our grands, Kendal, Silas, and Kira are busy becoming drivers. No fenders have yet been bent.
• PIU entered into a relationship with a group from Texas called Hartwell Educators Institute. It should have both short-term and long-term benefits for PIU. Getting it going takes a lot of work. Pray that we can do that work well. We are constantly exploring ways to better serve the Micronesian communities. Pray that I’ll have wisdom to know which conversations are worth pursuing.
• Kathy taught Music 201 to the college students ad piano to the three older Tavarez children. They were able to do an online recital. Kathy has enjoyed working with them. 
• I was recently told by the President of TRACS, our accrediting agency, that, for school like ours, the expectation is a 20-30% reduction in student numbers this fall. Pray that we’ll be the exception. 
• Most of our students don’t thrive in an online environment.

·         I’m teaching two classes during the summer, both online—all our classes are online, right now.

·         We plan to start our Fall Semester with mostly hybrid classes—there will be students in the classroom, masked and six-feet-apart, and at the same time, there will be students online. It is a new way of doing things for many of us. As far as I know, I’ll be teaching one class. We sent our IT guy on a shopping trip to use some of our Higher Education Emergency Relief money to beef up our digital capabilities.  Pray that we humans will also have our capabilities beefed up.

·         Liebenzell Mission USA is in the process of appointing a new Director and team. Pray for Dr. Chris Matthews. We believe he will do a good job.

 We are sorry that we have been out of touch for so long. For the record, I think we have only been to the beach three times this year. I’m not sure we have even gotten in the water. Though we admit it has been a hard year, we are privileged to be here, doing what we do. Thank you for standing with us to make it possible.

I’ll finish with some family pictures, Kendal’s graduation and a shot of Carrington and Harrison Haley with Tanisha and Chad

       

By His Grace,

Howard & Kathy

This Is Tough. God Is Good

Like most of you, we weren’t able to go to church for most of this spring. Our Guam church provided

recorded messages. One morning the preacher was one of our PIU graduates. He talked about the fact that, though we might not finish the work we are doing, if it is God’s work, He will finish it (Philippians 1:6). As I listened to John, I was applying his message to the situation in which Kathy and I find ourselves.

Early in 2020, I, Howard, decided that I needed to set in motion a plan to leave this role at PIU. From the beginning, January 2017, I have known and made known that my position of leadership at PIU is a battlefield appointment. Though the battle isn’t over, it has reached a different phase. Kathy and I have been privileged to bring a measure of stability to a difficult situation. I’ve been privileged to make and strengthen alliances that should serve the school well into the future. We were able to work with a team that accomplished the daunting task of the renewal of our accreditation for ten years.  We’ve been privileged to invest in the lives of some of the finest young adults in the world. It’s been good, and still is. But, it is time to bring things to a close as far as my part is concerned. PIU needs a leader to set the agenda and lead for the next 5-10 years or even beyond. At 70-years, I’m not that leader.

In March, just before my birthday and about 5-minutes before the Coronavirus shut everything down, I announced to the Board of Trustees (that’s who I report to) and to fellow administrators here at PIU that I would be leaving my position as President of PIU in May of 2021 and that we would be moving back to Virginia. I had a series of announcements in mind so that by now my planned resignation would be totally public. As viruses are wont to do, the Novel Coronavirus infected the timeline. One of my concerns was not to allow my news to detract from graduation. We really didn’t have one. We had planned to pass on the news personally to many of you. We planned to do part of that while on a trip to the mainland. We were supposed to be finishing that up about now. That didn’t happen (more in a moment) so, with the release of this letter, we are going public with this news. We’ll be leaving at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.

So, how are we doing?

It’s been hard, but by God’s grace it’s been good—at least mostly.

We are healthy. We eat well and exercise regularly. Thanks to our partners who work with us our needs are met. We enjoy our fellowship with our Guam church, small group, coworkers at PIU, and by long-distance our family, partners, and friends around the world. 2020 has been full of happenings and decisions with which we must deal. Our pastor and his wife, Tom and Rose Van Engen, retired at the end of May. They are in their new home in Illinois. The Van Engens are younger than we are. Their departure reminds us of our age. In the early weeks of 2020, I struggled with our plans for the future. Of course, COVID 19 came calling. We are very thankful that no one in the PIU family has been infected, though some of us have been tested and there have been infections within the close circles of some of our team. The sudden changes and the need to make hard choices has been challenging. We had, and still have, some students who had nowhere to go. Together with some students for whom it worked best to stay, they remain in the dorms. Kathy and I and the Tavarez family live on campus. As Alex T. and I joked, we became the wardens of the compound. Together we have had the responsibility for the health and welfare of 30 (at the beginning) young lives. By God’s grace we have made it thus far—though not without difficulties. I have often thought of this phrase, that came up in my devotional reading, about the same time Corona struck, “exhausted, yet keeping up the pursuit” (Judges 8:4). I would add, “By God’s grace.”

How can you praise with us and pray for us?

•            Much of the economy in this region depends on tourism. Here on Guam that has been completely shut down. Up until about a week ago, the expectation was that things would begin to open up further, starting tomorrow. An upturn in reported infections caused our Governor to reverse that decision. There have been no visitors from Japan, Korea, or other places from which tourists usually come. There won’t be for at least another month. From business owners to dishwashers, has devastated the economy.
•  Most of Micronesia simply closed their borders. The President of Chuuk Senate, the Father of one of our teachers, has been stuck here for three months. We have students who can’t get home. Folk can’t travel to attend funerals, or, in some cases, it has been impossible to transport
  bodies for burial (culturally, that is an important matter).
•  People’s lives change. There are always issues in people’s lives. We, especially H. need wisdom.
•  Pray that the transition to the next president will go well. We still don’t know who that
  will be.
•  Pray for our transition into what will be next for us.
•  We had been hoping to take a trip to the mainland later in the summer. That is, almost for sure, cancelled. Perhaps Christmas time. 
• We rejoice—though sadly from afar—in milestones in our grandchildren’s lives. Carrington is now the wife of Harrison Haley, and a graduate of Louisiana Tech. The new family lives in Utah. Little sister, Kendal, just graduated from Rock Hill High School. She was awarded a full scholarship to her first two years of college. Three of our grands, Kendal, Silas, and Kira are busy becoming drivers. No fenders have yet been bent.
• PIU entered into a relationship with a group from Texas called Hartwell Educators Institute. It should have both short-term and long-term benefits for PIU. Getting it going takes a lot of work. Pray that we can do that work well. We are constantly exploring ways to better serve the Micronesian communities. Pray that I’ll have wisdom to know which conversations are worth pursuing.
• Kathy taught Music 201 to the college students and piano to the three older Tavarez children. They were able to do an online recital. Kathy has enjoyed working with them. 
• I was recently told by the President of TRACS, our accrediting agency, that, for school like ours, the expectation is a 20-30% reduction in student numbers this fall. Pray that we’ll be the exception. 
• Most of our students don’t thrive in an online environment.

·         I’m teaching two classes during the summer, both online—all our classes are online, right now.

·         We plan to start our Fall Semester with mostly hybrid classes—there will be students in the classroom, masked and six-feet-apart, and at the same time, there will be students online. It is a new way of doing things for many of us. As far as I know, I’ll be teaching one class. We sent our IT guy on a shopping trip to use some of our Higher Education Emergency Relief money to beef up our digital capabilities.  Pray that we humans will also have our capabilities beefed up.

·         Liebenzell Mission USA is in the process of appointing a new Director and team. Pray for Dr. Chris Matthews. We believe he will do a good job.

 We are sorry that we have been out of touch for so long. For the record, I think we have only been to the beach three times this year. I’m not sure we have even gotten in the water. Though we admit it has been a hard year, we are privileged to be here, doing what we do. Thank you for standing with us to make it possible.

I’ll finish with some family pictures, Kendal’s graduation and a shot of Carrington and Harrison Haley with Tanisha and Chad

       

By His Grace,

Howard & Kathy

Report from the Guam Merrells

Wow! This is an adventure we never expected and certainly don't want.

I know that everyone, all over the world, has their version of what the coronavirus crisis has done to them, so I'm not looking for sympathy. We are all in this together.

From a percentage viewpoint, I'm not sure whether we are better or worse off than average. Guam has a civilian population of about 160 K. The last I checked we have 14 people who have tested positive. Noone directly related to PIU has been infected, but we have been impacted. I'll tell you where you can read more in a minute, but:
We know of weddings that are being canceled. We watched the wedding of a friend online. The attendance, counting the preacher was kept to 10. We know of another one that will likely be called off.
In our little circle we know of  5 people who are in mandatory quarantine because of travel restrictions.
Everyone is on edge.
We are well. We have toilet paper. I believe that God will accomplish great things through this crisis. Let us know how we can pray for you.
I have several blogs, for several purposes. One is a parking place for communiques that I have with the students at PIU. The last several posts have been about, what else? They will give you a pretty good idea about life with the Guam Merrells. If you are interested you can read about this adventure that we wish we never had, here.

Thanks for partnering with us in prayer and support.

K&H