Random

• Dan has a good "I love the Covenant" post. ~ Link

• I'm off to Chuuk tomorrow for the PIBC Tol campus graduation on Saturday. The flight back to Guam is a red-eye Sunday night -- arriving at 4 a.m., Monday. Insane.

• There is an emerging "post-charismatic" movement. Seems predictable. ~ Link

• Real estate investors rejoice! The estimated number of Guam-bound US Marines has now risen from 8,000 to 12,849. It is anticipated that 10,350 family members will join the Marines and that the relocation will also attract about 5,000 more civilians to Guam. So, the current estimate is that Guam will net about 28,199 people because of the Marine move which is scheduled to begin in 2014. There are currently about 170,000 people on Guam. ~ Link

Random

• TRACS accredited schools are now going to be profiled in the College Handbook and website produced by the College Board. This raises PIBC's visibility and credibility -- and ultimately helps our graduates.

• I've posted on our ministry blog about the mission and vision of PIBC -- "The evolution of PIBC" ~ Link

• Whatever happened to Swedish reticence? Everyone has become kissy kissy? ~ Link

• Gospel singer Dottie Rambo was killed Sunday when her bus was hit by high, gusty winds -- pushed off the road and down an embankment. ~ Link (via)

• PIBC graduation story and photos in the Pacific Daily News ~ Link

Random

• Introducing Chilli, the behemoth British bullock bovine ~ Link

• Introducing Michael Dodge -- extending the practice of law into the final frontier -- boldly going where no man has ever gone before -- the world's first space lawyer -- nano nano. Seriously, space law is a new specialization. ~ Link

• The judges in England have a new uni -- horsehair wigs are definitely so yesteryear. ~ Link

• Quaint Swedish island for sale ~ Link

• Scientists on Monday said that the clarity of Lake Tahoe has improved, and more importantly, the rate of decline has slowed considerably in recent years. ~ Link

• 32,000 dead in Burma -- paranoid government continues to block aid ~ Link

• 12,000 dead in China -- probably a lot more. At least the Chinese government seems to be organized. ~ Link

Guam campus graduation

We held the PIBC Guam campus graduation this afternoon. Twenty-two students were recognized for earning the BA in biblical studies degree. One student earned the AA degree. It was the Guam campus' largest graduating class and our largest ceremony. There were easily over 500 in attendance. I am told that on one flight from Chuuk a few days ago there were 110 passengers on the way to the PIBC graduation.

I think it should be noted that all of these students graduated debt-free.

I travel to Chuuk on Friday to participate in the Tol campus graduation on Saturday.

Random

• It's estimated that there are still 20,000 abandoned vehicles along Guam's roads and in the jungles. That's 94 boonie cars per square mile. ~ Link

• Interesting level of openness and honesty from an LA Times writer -- "Agnostic feels a tug after Sunday in church" ~ Link

• Newly discovered spider has a heart of gold -- Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi ~ Link

• The price of gasoline on Guam jumped 12¢ this afternoon -- regular now at $4.31.

• Bookmark: DMV.org -- the unofficial guide to the DMV -- provides accessible information from the Department of Motor Vehicles in each of the 50 US states and Washington, DC. ~ Link

• The bean counters have finished up analyzing Super Bowl XLII and it appears that Glendale, Arizona spent $2.2 million more to host the event than it took in. However, the economic impact on the surrounding Phoenix-area cities was overwhelmingly positive. ~ Link

Random

• Our graduating seniors at PIBC held a banquet last night. Entertainment involved several Yapese stick dances developed by students -- high energy and high coordination. And they put them together themselves. They've been practicing for three months. I'm starting to upload the videos to my YouTube channel.

• Kirk, our oldest son, called yesterday and it appears that the company where he has worked as a linguist for the last two years, since graduating from UC San Diego, is downsizing -- cutting loose 40% of their employees in each department. He was probably the last linguist they hired and is perhaps the only one with just a bachelor's degree. So he's looking for work. Anyone have a non-CIA non-military related lead for a linguist?

• Kent, our second son, is graduating from UC Irvine next month. This morning he sent us his honor's thesis for proofing. He is writing about ethnic Korean migration in northeast Asia.

He's not sure about his post-graduation plans -- perhaps come to Guam to help teach English at PIBC next semester -- eventually go to Korea to teach? He's a poli-sci major with his primary emphasis in Latin America studies. Yes, it makes sense. SoCal is where Latin America and Asia converge.

• Seth Godin's marketing insights make sense for life in general. ~ Link

Random

• These could be good days for American peanut farmers. The declining dollar may drive up the demand for peanuts in Europe and Japan. On top of that, Americans tend to eat more peanut butter when the US economy is sluggish. ~ Link

• The earthquake that rattled Guam this morning was a 6.6 shake. The only damage was to my Saturday slumber.

• New info released by the USGS -- but no surprises:

California has more than a 99% chance of having a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake within the next 30 years, according to scientists using a new model to determine the probability of big quakes.

The likelihood of a major quake of magnitude 7.5 or greater in the next 30 years is 46%-and such a quake is most likely to occur in the southern half of the state.
~ Link

• They're still having trouble with math in the Guam public school system. The $25 million surplus reported a few weeks ago is actually a shortfall. I, too, found that nasty little negative sign to be confusing when I was in elementary school. ~ Link

• One of the things which LifeChurch in Oklahoma (and elsewhere by video downlink) does really well is share. They provide everything from preschool and VBS curriculum to message outlines and graphics as free downloads. ~ Link

• Growing urban house church movement in China -- except that this new breed of house church has never been underground -- and their presence is having a ripple effect on traditional house churches -- and Chinese culture. ~ Major CT article

• CT interview with urban house church pastor ~ Link

• The estimated world population has passed the 6,666,666,666 mark. ~ Link

Typhoon Rammasun

This is Typhoon Rammasun, which skirted Palau when I was down there and is now northwest of Guam. There's not much chance that it will turn back and hit us. We are, however, having high surf advisories.

I think that this is probably the same storm cell that I mentioned on May 2nd as a potential tropical storm.

The current projection is that Typhoon Rammasun will stay out at sea and miss Japan, too. But look at the eye of that guy -- very pronounced.

We are moving back into the typhoon season weather pattern -- although Guam is still quite dry and brittle.

Random

• Unhappy with the amount of information available to the public, China is trying to crack-down on online-maps. The problem is that once the cat is out of the bag not only can you not put it back in but most people aren't going to accept the bagged-cat approach to life. ~ Link

• Care instructions with your new toilet paper wedding dress: 1. Avoid outdoor activity on rainy days. 2. Use lots of deodorant. ~ Link

• And then there is the prom dress made from Skittles wrappers -- that's hard core ~ Link

• ComedyCentral does Guam, again -- the election. ~ Link

• More than a dozen churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney now use security guards to collect the offering. They must be doing some major giving down there. ~ Link (via)

• At least 22,000 dead! Will Myanmar's reluctance to allow foreign relief workers into the country slow down the generosity of the world? We're trying. Online donations to help with the Myanmar/Burma relief. ~ Link

• Quotable:

Almost all the recent alternatives to the Trinitarian formula undercut the personal significance of God's name by replacing it with words of function. As many have noted, "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" encourages modalism, the heretical teaching that God's threeness is more about his modes of operation, or our perception of him, rather than something intrinsic to the divine essence. Biblical Christianity teaches that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in creation, redemption, and sanctification... ~ CT editorial

• Major exodus out of the US for medical care ~ Link

• Still trying to save the e-word -- the just released "evangelical manifesto" seems to be less manifesto and more education. That is, it seems to be less about plotting a new direction than defining the old direction in all its fullness. ~ Link

• The system doesn't make it easy for alternative fuel users -- even Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger in California could be in violation. ~ Link

• IKEA, the world's largest "charity"? ~ Link

• The chatter on one of the distance education forums is focusing on the announcement that NationsUniversity, a creative online school "...that offers affordable, accessible higher education to build faith and to develop culturally rooted Christian leaders around the world" is planning to pursue accreditation. Hmmm? Sounds expensive -- especially for an operation that doesn't charge tuition. ~ Link

Back from Palau

I took a red-eye from Palau to Guam (with a short stop in Yap) arriving at 5 a.m. this morning. I was able to grab a few hours of sleep before a noon meeting.

A two-day Palau trip is way too short (which I knew would be the case) -- but it was enough to visit the teaching facilities, talk with the staff and students, attend three of our classes, give a PIBC report at the Palau Evangelical Church deacon's conference, and do a brief tour.

Palau is beautiful and quite vibrant (in a laid-back island way). So many of the islands in the Western Pacific are trashed and functioning on a subsistence or poverty level. But it is good to see how this group of islands has defined itself and then made improvements that benefit the people. It is a very impressive place.

It will take me a few days to catch up on email, blog posts, and sleep.

In the pictures: one of the local Palau Evangelical Church buildings and the Palau Capitol Building.

Random

• Greetings from Palau! I'm staying with Rob Watt our PIBC site coordinator in Palau and last night after I arrived we ran to the store to buy water. The store was filled with Taiwanese tourists and apparently some of them must have recognized me from my blog and they wanted to take our picture in the grocery store -- pretty insistent, too.

I don't know who they thought we were.

• Internet on Palau seems to be exclusively dial-up -- and even that is poor because the phone connections are weak. But I was able to get a streaming Air1 connection. They offer a 5 kps connection for people on mobile phones or in remote sites. Cool.

• Palau is great -- beautiful -- clean compared to Guam and Chuuk. Prices aren't as high as I expected for such a small isolated place. Total population of Palau is 20,000.

• The French young people are rebelling again -- singing rock 'n roll -- in English ~ Link

• Chrysler has a deal to allow customers to hedge on the price of gas -- lock in at $2.99/gallon for three years. ~ Link

• No surprise. The Guam Democratic caucus in which Obama beat out Hilary by 7 votes is being contested. Another chance to get Guam back in the national spotlight -- but not in such a positive light. ~ Link

• On our island many of the tax-rebates under President Bush's plan to stimulate the economy will be garnished by GovGuam. I suppose those dollars eventually work their way back into the economy -- if Guam ends up being able to repay the many vendors to whom they owe money. ~ Link