{"id":1807,"date":"2013-01-02T16:07:36","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T16:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2013-01-04T09:42:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T09:42:41","slug":"and-then","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2013\/01\/02\/and-then\/","title":{"rendered":"And Then…."},"content":{"rendered":"

New Years Day we ventured off to a beach that some friends of our had recommended. \u00a0It was a beautiful beach with not a single other person on the beach.<\/p>\n

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A perfect place to get a way and just relax.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then….<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> as we were turning around to park the van got stuck in the sand. \u00a0Half of the back wheel was buried in the sand and all we had with us were the toys we had brought to play with on the beach. \u00a0One minute we were in paradise and the next minute we were stuck in the desert sands of Africa. \u00a0So began 2 and half hours of digging, piling up rocks and branches under the wheels, moving the car a little and then digging again. \u00a0The time would have been longer, but God sent an angel our way. \u00a0A village man who was walking home with his fish that he had just caught, saw our situation and came to help. \u00a0He had a\u00a0machete that was way more effective at digging than the\u00a0Frisbee\u00a0we were using.<\/p>\n

I had two hours of walking around looking for rocks to think. \u00a0During that time I realized some of the growth our family has made this past year. \u00a0Here we were on vacation and suddenly our day was anything but relaxing. \u00a0Yet no one complained and everyone jumped right to work. \u00a0We didn’t know how we were going to get out of the sand, but we knew that it was up to us to do something and that God would somehow get us through it. \u00a0This past year we have often learned things by stumbling into sand traps and where we had to just dig and trust God to help us out. \u00a0This is not a naturally easy thing for me as I don’t handle chaos and unknowns very well. \u00a0Yet through a lot of repetition and trials, we now have the peace of just knowing that God will get us through it. \u00a0It doesn’t make the digging in the heat any easier. \u00a0It doesn’t make the hour of work with no results less discouraging. \u00a0 But it does allow us to look around when we are done with our work and enjoy the paradise… and that we did!<\/p>\n

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We run into 2013 with high spirits<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The time with family this past month has been a dream come true<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We have been refreshed and renewed with strength<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I am excited for this year as we press on to complete our language learning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I know that this year will have its challenges and sand traps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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but I pray that we will continue to trust God in these challenges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And that even in the hard times, that we will still see the beauty and blessings that surround us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Years Day we ventured off to a beach that some friends of our had recommended. \u00a0It was a beautiful beach with not a single other person on the beach. And then…. as we were turning around to park the van got stuck in the sand. \u00a0Half of the back wheel was buried in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2545],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-updates-and-news","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}