Hello there, blogosphere! I have been away from the blog for around 3 months now, and I’m sorry for that. And, I have so much to say that I’m actually going to attempt to keep this short.
School began in August and I assumed my new role as part time teacher and part time high school coordinator. I do believe that right about now I’ve hit my stride in both, although in regards to teaching I still feel like I always feel and have felt since my first year of teaching Drop Out Prevention English II/III, and Environmental Science/Ecology; like a hundred pounds of homemade sin on a popsicle stick! It seems to me that most teachers take the students’ sometimes lack-luster approach to learning as a personal affront to our very natures. And I know for a FACT that the last place anybody wants to be is in a room full of teachers that are grading tests! There’s a lot of complaining and angst that goes on in that room, for sure…as if the students are getting questions wrong on tests just to somehow SPITE us!
So anyway…other than the normal I’m-a-teacher-so-I-feel-like-I-never-do-a-good-enough-job-teaching-and-if-I-did-better-then-my-students-wouldn’t-ever-get-anything-wrong-and-they-would-know-how-to-think-critically-and-for-themselves-without-having-everything-spoon-fed-to-them…I’m doing great!
But enough of the Eeyore that is me and my fellow educator colleagues, and back to an update!
We’ve been attempting to go to Ruben Ortega’s church that he pastors in Chame at least once per month, but we missed this past month…and it feels like we’ve missed a big part of our routine and life.
We visited the Holtons in El Valle, and that’s ALWAYS a blast! Even though our kids have only met two or three times, it’s as if they’ve been friends their entire lives and they just pick up right where they left off previously. Thank God for friends like that, eh? We marched our happy hind parts up to a HUGE waterfall that was just gushing water! They said they have never seen it gushing so much water since they’ve been there…well, the 2 sets of kids didn’t have any qualms about climbing up the rocks and walking behind the waterfall and then jumping through it…great fun! I stayed conveniently up on higher, dryer, ground!
Allison’s father, Clayton, was having some issues and he ended up needing a quintuple bypass surgery on his heart this past week. So Allison flew to Florida to be with them for a little while last Friday and she’ll return to Panama on Monday after Thanksgiving. Clayton’s doing great for a guy who had his sternum sawed in 1/2 and then had a wench separate the halves of his rib cage opened…just saying…
And the Panama people have been great to me and the boys! They’ve brought us dinner and lunch and offered prayers and just in general have been their normal, wonderful selves!
We’ll be headed back to the States for Christmas this year. I think we’re probably going to freeze our collective booties off! I’m officially used to Christmas weather being 100% humidity and upper 80s F!!
Allison and I have been sort of team teaching the English portion of Sunday school for the 6th through 12th graders. We just finished running through 1 Samuel and it’s been AWESOME! We left them on a huge cliff-hanger at the end of the book with King Saul and his armor bearer killing themselves and the Philistines hacking Saul’s head off and parading around Philistia and storing his sword in the temple of Ashtoroth (or however it’s spelled). What happens next? What happens to David? Will David take over as king? How will he depose the king of Philistia after his huge victory over Israel? What will happen to David’s band of merry men? Oh the questions and uncertainty are getting to me so much so my skin is tingling with anticipation!!!
But I digress…
We have also been continuing our Friday night small group study through the Love and Respect DVD series of Biblical marriage with high school students and that’s been going just famously! In fact, we finished up last Friday night and are now probably going to have a pizza/movie night or something with the group and then next year (read: January) begin to study through a book of the New Testament. Not sure which just yet, but I’m narrowing it down with the group!
Crossfire is going well…our small group of 11th and 12th grade English speaking guys is gelling nicely and they are talking about things like leaving a legacy and making their school a place where students WANT to be and things like that!
Wednesdays have been great as well. In lieu of a standard chapel schedule this year, we have decided to run 1/2 the Wednesdays as chapel and the other 1/2 as small groups. The group I facilitate is a study on Presuppositional Apologetics. It’s been a blast! The students really get into the logic and reasoning behind it and can see and feel how God is God and there is none like Him! And they learn that there indeed is a proof for the existence of God and learn a Biblical, God honoring sort of method for defending the faith and presenting the Gospel in a way that demolishes strongholds and destroys arguments and yet still deals gently and in love because we know that those we speak to are souls and not just opponents in a debate…we know that this is the impetus behind our missionary drive and urgency to see the Gospel of Christ spread throughout the world. The students love this so much that after our last meeting, a small group of students spontaneously moved into role-playing mode as one played the atheist and the other played the Christian…it was good to see them taking this and running with it.
As far as school goes…well, Ali and I have seen some dramatic improvements in Drew this year…both academically and spiritually…and it has been a blessing to encourage him to continue! Pepper is taking a tough load of courses and working his tail off, which is good too! There’s always the concern about the teachers leaving a hole behind that needs to be filled, and what sort of schedule of craziness that I might end up doing for next year as well…but all in due time…all in God’s time. It’ll get figured out one way or another, that’s for sure!
We’re going to need teachers for next year…all levels and all subjects, basically…so do not hesitate to shoot me a message if you believe this might be for you! {hey, a little plug for hiring purposes never hurt, right}
Anyway, all in all I do believe this year is flying by rapidly, and good things are happening! I am, of course, falling behind my ideal schedule in all my classes as far as teaching goes, but I’ve got 3rd and 4th quarters to make it up! Hahaha!
Just think…this time next year Pepper will be a Senior just about to put the finishing touches on his 7th semester of high school and head toward the final stretch to college! What?! And Drew will be at the top of the middle school as an 8th grader…the same grade Pepper was when we were in Florida the year before we came to Panama. Time flies…and God is good…All the time…All the time…God is good!
Soli Deo Gloria
PilliOddsAndEnds 