{"id":3437,"date":"2015-01-26T20:06:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=3437"},"modified":"2015-01-26T20:14:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T20:14:41","slug":"the-little-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2015\/01\/26\/the-little-things\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our life here has taught me that serving God is not always about big things upfront, but often about the small things. \u00a0Building relationships is the same. \u00a0Our trips out the village remind me of that truth as the whole purpose of the trip is relationships. \u00a0So that means that my roles consist of many small tasks.<\/p>\n<p>This time out \u00a0to the village I was&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A flashlight holder &#8230; Dinner is served around 9, but with no lights it means that we are often dishing up bowls in the dark. \u00a0So I was granted the important task of holding the flashlight as the ladies worked away.<\/li>\n<li>A waiter \u00a0&#8230; you know the kind that sits and waits. \u00a0Once one task is done it is just a matter of waiting for the right person to come and give you directions for the next task. \u00a0Which sometimes means waiting for quite a while!<\/li>\n<li>A Rice Sorter &#8230; Rice here comes mixed with small rocks. \u00a0So we sit there and take out the rocks one small piece at a time.\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_3441\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3441\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1030994-e1422302364811.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3441\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1030994-e1422302364811.jpg\" alt=\"110 lbs of rice cooked in 5 large pots means lots of sorting.\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">110 lbs of rice cooked in 5 large pots means lots of sorting.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>A Meat cleaner &#8230; We butchered a whole cow for the funeral and I was in charge of washing the pieces after they were cut<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1030994.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_3439\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3439\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1040002-e1422301960765.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3439\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1040002-e1422301960765.jpg\" alt=\"We cut so many onions!\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3439\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We cut so many onions!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>An Onion cutter \u00a0&#8230; \u00a0This is a very important task as the main sauce here is made of onions. \u00a0We were up until 11 cutting onions by flashlight. \u00a0I have become good friends with my paring knife.\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_3440\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3440\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1040003-e1422302057621.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3440\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2015\/01\/P1040003-e1422302057621.jpg\" alt=\"My friend...we have a good agreement now.  I use him a lot and he has agreed to not cut me as much.  \" width=\"400\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3440\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My village friend &#8211; we now have a mutual agreement. \u00a0I am careful not to drop him in the sand and he no longer cuts my hands all up.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>A Garlic Peeler &#8230; 50 bulds of garlic, yep I got quite good at it by the end!<\/li>\n<li>A Spice Pounder &#8230; Pounding up spices in a mortar and pestle is still not my strong suit. \u00a0Especially not the large mortar and pestle they use for big events, but they always kindly make sure I get at least one stab at it.<\/li>\n<li>A Fool &#8230; Common lets be real! \u00a0There are moments when I am totally ignorant of what I should do. \u00a0Like when I am handed the heart of the cow like I should know exactly how to clean that or what to cut off of it. \u00a0Thankfully I have learned if you stare dumbfounded long enough someone will come to your rescue.<\/li>\n<li>A Faithful Prayer &#8230; \u00a0When you look at dinner and all you can do is pray that what you swallow for dinner will stay down. \u00a0These moments have taught me how to be real with God<\/li>\n<li>A Hostess &#8230; For the first time since we have been here, Cecil&#8217;s house was one of the gathering places. \u00a0That means I was given the task with her of making sure that everyone who came to their house was given food to eat, water to wash their hands, and water to drink. \u00a0There were probably close to 100 people in her yard and this was very difficult to keep track of, but thankfully she was much better at it than I.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I look back at my days out at the village and list the things I accomplished, the tasks seem so small and irrelevant. \u00a0Yet I have learned that it is the small things that make the most impact on relationships. \u00a0It is the willingness to participate in the small pieces of life, the everyday mundane tasks. \u00a0So often serving God is about these small things. \u00a0It is not glamorous or enjoyable, but the relationships it creates makes it so worth it. \u00a0 So I am learning to praise God in the midst of the little mundane tasks life throws my way. \u00a0Because ultimately all God has ask me to do is to be faith to serve him no matter what he sends my way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our life here has taught me that serving God is not always about big things upfront, but often about the small things. \u00a0Building relationships is the same. \u00a0Our trips out the village remind me of that truth as the whole purpose of the trip is relationships. \u00a0So that means that my roles consist of many [&hellip;]<\/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":{"0":"post-3437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-updates-and-news","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437","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=3437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}