Joel and Andi McMartin
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First Trial

September 22, 2011 by Joel and Andi

The Trial

When talking to supporters before we left many ask that I be completely honest even about the hard times…so here it goes.  I knew coming over that there would be hard moments and last night was one of them.  As we went to go to bed, I lay awake unable to sleep even though I was exhausted.  Some of the realities of life sunk in.  The reality of the work that was ahead to make this a place that would become my home hit hard.  As I was thinking about this, suddenly the fans all turned out and we lost power.  Shortly after Tyler woke up unable to sleep in the heat.  To summarize the night it was hours of fanning children while they tried to sleep and comforting Ethan who struggled through the time change once the heat had woke him up.  Finally at 2 in the morning I was able to peacefully go to sleep.  The goal that we are here for is so far down the road that it will be hard to keep it in perspective as we struggle through the initial transition days and months.  Last night was one of those times that I just had to cling to the Lord.  What I had to cling to was the fact that the Lord is GOOD!  When we planned on moving here we thought that the hottest month of the year was August.  So we decided to coming September…plenty of time to work up to that.  Now we know however that the hottest month is October, so we are taking a full dive into the heat.  I am trusting that God has a plan in this and will get us through the next month as we live in a puddle of sweat.

The Blessings

-The boys were amazing on the flight over, couldn’t have asked for a better flight!

–We now have one fan with a battery attached that will stay on for 4 hours after the power turns off.

-We had a family come over today with children around our boys age.  They all had a blast playing together.

-I have yet to see a bug in our house and therefore haven’t had to use our mosquito nets.

-We found out the beach is only a 4 dollar taxi ride away!

– We have our first Senegalese meal and it was DELICIOUS!

Thanks for your continued Prayers!  We are working on getting pictures uploaded and posted.

Filed Under: Updates and News

More Posts:

« Packing
Pictures Of Our First Day »

Comments

  1. Chelle says

    September 27, 2011 at 12:28 am

    I love hearing from you. Thank you for being honest and sharing. I am glad that God’s grace is sufficient for you. Love you

  2. Peggy B says

    September 22, 2011 at 10:01 pm

    Andi,
    Thank you so much for sharing with us. It is so true – when you share – then we know how to pray for you. There was a day when the Lord showed me ‘Ps 55:6 “Oh that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.”. Some moments-hours-days-nights are like that.
    And the Lord also reminded me , “He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart”. What a beautiful picture when the children cry and fuss and the sweat drips off of all of you. And you just cry for rest and sleep. I pray you feel gathered in the arms of your loving Savior and carried close to your heart. Love, Peggy

  3. Molly says

    September 22, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    So excited to hear a tidbit from where you ARE. You ARE in Senegal where God has been preparing for you to be and that is awesome! Praying for you all during the days ahead as you learn the “ropes” of daily living there. Wish I could send you more fans or something to help keep everyone cool! Thanks for sharing the blessings as well as the first trial 🙂

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