Cheryl and I returned home a week ago today from our two week "vacation" in Guam. The focus of our trip was to help out at Pacific Islands Bible College. I was able to teach a few classes, preach at chapel, and also at two churches on the Island.
Guam is a beautiful place with a wonderful mix of people. Even though it is a small island, it is truly a crossroads for the Western Pacific, Asia, and America. But that part of the world has a darkside. Some of the local cultures are still steeped in magic and many people are afraid of spirits. Substance and sexual abuse is common. Education is substandard and government corruption is taken for granted in some places.
PIBC is an emerging four-year Bible college which serves a predominately underserved student population. It only has 150+ students but they are the future leaders of some significant places. Most come from throughout the Micronesian Islands. Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands, China, the Philippines, and the continental US are represented, as well. Instruction is in English (the common language of the region) but almost every single student speaks English as a second or third language.
The school was started by the Liebenzell Mission but it now has an independent non-denominational board. Almost all of the teaching staff are missionaries from various agencies.
While there I spent considerable time in their small library (the only theological library in Micronesia, I'm told) and became aware of some of its deficiencies. The person who started the library was connected with the Reformed Church so there are a lot of books from the libraries of dead Reformed pastors. In other words the focus is kind of narrow and old. They'd like to change that.
There is an extreme shortage of new material (10 years old or less) and their reference resources are pretty limited. They have some sets with only a few volumes (e.g. 1/3 of Church Dogmatics).
I'm wondering if any of my blog readers (and perhaps their churches) might have duplicates or other books that they would be willing to donate.
Perhaps you have a connection with a publisher or access to solid theological books through another source. I'd love it if we could flood them with packages.
Guam is a US territory so they use the US postal system. If something is mailed with a church return address and sent to the school library it can go "library rate" -- which is relatively inexpensive. Last Friday I sent two medium-sized boxes and the total was less than $10.
If you do want to send books their direction I would encourage you to first check their online listing to see if they already have what you're thinking of sending. They actually have a branch library on one of the outer islands (at an extension center) so some duplication is good. But there are some titles which they have way too many copies of. For example, they don't need any more copies of Matthew Henry's commentaries. You can check their collection by going to the "Search Online Library" link on their website.
Since I'm trying to get a little bit of an idea of what the flow their direction is looking like, it would be helpful, too, if you sent me an email with a rough list of what you've mailed. That way I can better direct my future begging activities. :-)
Books can be mailed directly to:
LIBRARY
PACIFIC ISLANDS BIBLE COLLEGE
PO BOX 22619
BARRIGADA GU 96921-2619
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