It’s been a long time…

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

The Home Stretch…

Howdy, y’all!  Figured it was time for an update on all things Panama and Pillod…

So 3^rd quarter ended and that was awesome!  Semana Santa was a wonderful week off for us as we mostly lounged around sleeping and resting and just catching up on vegging around the house.  Our first grade teacher had a friend come in to Panama for a visit, and so we offered our services as “tour guides” for a couple days…That was totally fun!  And if you ever get a chance to visit the expansion project for the new locks that are being built on the Colon side of the country, you will be amazed!  This place looks like Mines of Moria from The Lord of the Rings, it’s so huge and deep into the ground!

Anyway, huge thanks to Katy and Renee for allowing us to ride with you and show you two around!  We had a blast!

Fourth quarter is sort of tough because it’s an entire quarter with only a single day off (besides weekends) for Labor Day, which is on May 1^st here in Panama.  But, lucky me, I’m teaching my favorite topics now and just about to enter into AP Exam Review time for the Advanced Biology class.  Loving it!

Friday nights have been just absolutely tremendous.  We’ve got an incredible group of high school students that come to the house for Bible study.  We’re going through the book of Philippians in a DVD study taught by Matt Chandler.  He’s the pastor at the Village Church I think in Dallas, Texas and is very solid!  But better than that are the conversations we have with the students before, during, and after the DVD session.  These young men and women are really knowledgeable and really serious and really are digging and learning.  The hope is that after this study we will not only stay together and pursue something else, but that maybe one or more of these students will put together a Bible study with their peers and just use the material that they’ve just been through to facilitate the conversations and sharing with one another.  This has been absolutely wonderful!

So thank you to all the students who come to the study!  And thank you to the adults that come to learn and help out as well!  I expect great things from you men and women as well!

Drew is plugging away is about to finish his first year of middle school.  The transition has been tough, but he seems to have at least adapted to the crazy schedule and increased homework for the most part.  He also attended, with a friend from school, a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) camp not long ago.  It was 5 days of highly scheduled/structured time learning about life and schedules and quiet times and journaling, and presenting to churches the Gospel in creative ways.  He went back to the YWAM camp this past Saturday for a couple hours to hang out with the group from the week-long camp and reunite with them, and then also work on some possible ministry things that they could present to other churches in the future.  Good stuff!  Drew has also become friends with a neighborhood boy who speaks about as much English as Drew speaks Spanish, so that’s always fun to watch them play video games or shoot the bow and arrow in the back yard while trying to understand each other!  But I have been duly impressed with Drew’s increase in Spanish language just this year!

Allison, or as I call her, La Cara en la Caja…or as the students call her, Sra. Oficina or Ms. Office…she’s doing well also!  She would like to attend intensive language school this summer to help out not only with her work at the CCA (Crossroads Christian Academy), but with all the irons we have in the fire in the interior that we’ve helped out with thus far.  Also, it would be nice to be able to have an actual conversation with our Spanish speaking neighbors, you know what I mean?  She helps me out on Friday nights with our high school Bible study and brings cool insights that my limited XY chromosome combination cannot fathom at times.

Then there’s Pepper.  Pepper has fallen in love with languages in general and acts as the Pilliod family translator whenever needed!  His favorite class is Spanish class and he’s planning on taking the French introductory class CCA offers next year.  Thus far, as of today, his dream job would be to find an unreached people group that has no written language, learn the language, write the language, translate the Bible into their language, teach them to read and write, and teach the Bible.  How cool is that?!  The really cool thing is that here at Crossroads Bible Church, we have been fortunate enough to become friends with people intimately involved with Wycliffe Bible Translators, so that has been awesome!

Along that note, Pepper has the opportunity to go to possibly Guatemala and attend a workshop that is going to be put on in regards to Bible translation.  This will be a wonderful opportunity for Pepper as his Spanish skills will be definitely tested, but he will also get to be more intimately involved in the details of what it means to be a Bible translator.  He’s also scheduled to go on the Peru trip in late July, so we’re looking forward to that as well!

Unfortunately, we are a bit behind in raising funds for Pepper to attend the Peru trip, and we just beginning to talk about Pepper’s possible internship with the Wycliffe crew.  I hate talking about money, especially when I don’t have any, but if you’re in Panama reading this, Pepper is willing to work around the house and do odds and ends (like the name of this blog) for donations to his Peru trip and internship.  If you’re not in Panama, well, that would be tough for him to do odd jobs around the house!  But maybe one summer we can get him back to the States and he can work for you in retrospect!  Hahahaha!

Anyway, we are blessed beyond imagination.  We have productive work.  Our kids are flourishing.  There are ups and downs (like the internet), but it’s been wonderful!

We have decided to stay in Panama at least until Pepper graduates or God hits me over the head with a 2×4 and moves us.  So that means that we are signing on to not only finish out this school year, but to begin next school year (‘13/’14) as well as the following (‘14/’15).  After that?  Who knows?!  After that, Drew will be entering 9^th grade and we’ll just have to see!  Pepper will, Lord willing, be entering some college/university at that point as well, so it’s really all wait and see at this point.

What will Ali and I be doing?  Good question.  As of today I’m still teaching high school science and doing high school coordination.  How/will that change in the future?  Not sure yet.  But I’ll be sure to let you know when I know!

Prayers:

• Be praying for our last quarter that I am filled with wisdom in how to teach the students and how to lead them in their academic walk and facilitate their spiritual walk.
• Be praying for Allison as she works both with accounting/finance as well as the great and wonderful know-it-all in the office that has to help out all us lowly confused teachers with our problems…we spend all out time caring about our classrooms and our students that we many times forget what else we are supposed to do!  So pray that Ali fills us in on our duties as we forget them!  Hahahaha!
• Be praying for the leadership of both the school and the church as they work through what will happen with teachers leaving and new teachers coming…as well as youth pastors leaving and new people coming
• Be praying for a solid finish to the school year for Drew and wisdom in his course selection for administrators involved in that
• Be praying that we can come up with funds for Pepper’s Peru mission trip and also any necessary funds for his internship.  Also that his love of languages continues and becomes more and more God honoring as he gets to the point of choosing a college to attend in the next couple years.
• Pray for God’s wisdom in a possible trip to Panama as well.  We’ve become pretty good at mixing fun with needed work in places and with people around the country.  And talk to others that have been here and they can fill you in on how tired you will be afterward!  Hahaha!

Ok, guys and gals!  Pill signing off!

Soli Deo Glora!