Hello all!
Sorry for the title of the blog…I couldn’t help myself.
No, I’m not going to blog about Bruce Jenner or even transgenderism in general. Neither will I blog about the SCOTUS decision of last week. Nor will I blog about rainbows tonight or cleverly covering your profile pic on Facebook with a rainbow…or even a cross as seems to be the Christian response to that trend.
It’ll be much more boring than that tonight! But of course if you’d like to know my stance on these issues you can always email me at mike.pilliod@gmail.com and ask. Or make a trip to Panama and we’ll discuss all sorts of issues over some spaghetti or chicken curry alfredo or whatever.
I just want to make sure that I update you fine people on the Pill’s progress this summer.
Pepper is still headed to Mid-Atlantic University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina and still looking to major in Linguistics…totally cool! We’re getting finances figured out and working on a plan to get him from Florida up to N.C. in early/mid August for orientation, etc. His advisor, and head of the Linguistics Department, emailed him and advised that Pepper, specifically, should go ahead and begin a bit early by taking Greek the Fall of his Freshman year. Sounds good to me! I know he enjoys learning new languages so this should be fun for him, and challenging as well!
Please pray for Pepper as he transitions to college life and some distance from family. And pray for Allison…Momma has been quite the trooper as of late, but I’m sure she’s feeling the “partial empty nest” even now…but doing a fine job of remaining at least calm on the outside!
Drew is headed to high school still…Report cards came in and he passed middle school, so I guess that means that my BABY is a big, bad high schooler now! Being the High School Coordinator for the past few years and teaching in the High School here at Crossroads I know what he’s up against the day he steps foot into his first class…It’ll be challenging for him, for sure. But I believe he’s up to the task!
Please pray for Drew as he must now step it up a notch or two or three working on credits that count and finding at least a semblance of a focus for him. And pray for Allison as well…Momma’s BABY is in High School! DOH!
Allison is now a seasoned veteran with one entire year of Middle School Science teaching behind her. She will be called upon to do a bit more now, and refine her skills in the classroom…and even as an experienced person on staff. Awesome things await!
Please pray for Allison as now I am the Secondary Principal (6th through 12th grades) and so her direct boss…DOH! Pray that she is submissive to the authorities set above her……………….bwahahahahaha!!!! Just messing around! She’s actually really really good at categorizing work and home when it comes to me giving some advice, etc. But year 2 is indeed a time, in our context, to turn things up a bit. How it totally plays out, we shall see. But I believe I could probably see a bunch of middle school girls around the apartment more often this coming year…Maybe Drew and I will just go hang out with my buddy Jim Almack across the street! Maybe she’ll do some Crossfire (youth ministry) stuff…not sure! But it’ll be fun to see how God allows it all to unfold.
Me? Meh…same ‘ole same ‘ole…Just pray that I work well with teachers, firstly, and parents secondarily, and students thirdly. Why that order? Because the teachers have the direct contact with the students and as such it is my job as Principal to remove obstacles from the teachers’ paths such that they can have both academic and spiritual impacts upon the students in meaningful, life-long ways. My job is to serve the teachers. My other job is to make sure parents know that it is the parents’ job to educate their children. They have just chosen to abdicate some of the details to us as a school. So pray that I can, either through my own creativity or that of others, come up with ways for Secondary parents to really be increasingly involved with their students…typically involvement dies off to pretty much a complete stop as soon as students make a solid transition to Secondary school.
We have some new folks coming in to CCA this year too. A few in elementary school, and even a couple in Secondary. Pray that we can make their transition as smooth as possible so they can do the hard work of ministering to and educating the students at our school.
There are lots of other changes too, behind the scenes stuff, that impacts education.
Anyway, we are flying out of Panama on Tuesday, July 7th, and headed to Florida for a couple weeks of hanging out with family and friends there. We return to Panama on the 25th, Saturday, and hit the ground running with New Teacher Orientation that Monday morning…How quickly time goes by!
We will leave Panama with 4 Pilliods and return to Panama with only 3 Pilliods. I’m excited for Pepper, so do not feel bad for me! My role as a parent is, and should be, changing from one aspect to just another aspect of being a parent. And my role with Drew changes slightly as well…
Last thing…Allison and I have been asked by the church here (Crossroads Bible Church) if we’d be available to teach a Sunday school class this semester. We agreed! I believe, if it gets approved, that Pastor Steve would like for us to teach on the topic of “Spiritual Gifts.” I’m excited for this opportunity to teach on Spiritual Gifts…it should be great for me, and I hope that we can really make it worthwhile for those that attend! So, hopefully the Elder Board will approve the class and the topic and we can begin rolling that out in September! One prayer request for this is that I’ve had a hard time, nearly impossible time, coming up with a SINGLE resource to use for this. So of course that makes it a bit more difficult to present to the Elder Board…but I want to make sure that all the facets are covered in this study and that they are Biblically based. So I’ve got a BUNCH of resources that I’ll need to work through to teach this class. Just pray for me and Allison and whoever happens to sign up for that!
That’s all for now for this generic update…if you want blogs about Bruce Jenner and transgenderism and rainbow Facebook profile pics, well, just click on your friendly neighborhood Google button and you’ll find plenty to keep your mind filled!
Thanks a bunch!
Soli Deo Gloria!
PilliOddsAndEnds 