Right now, I am sitting at a Guesthouse in Monrovia waiting for my flight tomorrow, which will bring me back home. \u00a0I am so eager to walk off that plane back home. \u00a0I am going back to my family who I have dearly missed, but also back to the life and people who have become so familiar to me and have won my heart. After so much travel and so many different African countries, Senegal feels so comfortable. \u00a0No the airport is not nice, the streets are still sandy and dirty and it is still stinking hot, but I know how life works there and life there has changed me. \u00a0When I am gone I miss traveling in taxis and buses that are familiar, speaking languages that I have some confidence in and eating foods that I know and love. \u00a0Most of all I miss the relationships, the precious people God has brought into our lives. \u00a0The people he has used to shape us and mold us into who we are today.<\/p>\n
I fly back tomorrow and on the exact same day 4 years ago that we arrived into Senegal for the first time. \u00a0I remember walking off that plane, holding a child in my arms that was begging me to get back on the plane and not go out into the heat. \u00a0I remember the boys curled up on the dirty cement floor asleep because the immigrations line wasn’t moving. \u00a0I remember Tyler screaming because people wanted to touch him. I remember the helplessness of not knowing how to do or say anything. \u00a0Everything was new and I needed help with every basic part of life. \u00a0 I remember thinking that we had made a mistake and wondering how on earth would this ever become home.<\/p>\n
Only four years ago – how is that possible? \u00a0All I can say is that God is good! \u00a0What he has done in our lives over the past 4 years is incredible. \u00a0He has worked on us and changed us. \u00a0He brought our parents here to live with us and given us a ministry that we love and are constantly humbled by. \u00a0Life still makes me want to scream sometimes, but today I am just thankful for so much. \u00a0I am thankful as I think about the change he has made in us. \u00a0I am thankful that I look forward to going home and stepping off that plane for more than just being reunited with my family. \u00a0I am thankful for the love he has given us for Senegal, for his church there and for the people. \u00a0I am thankful that dispite our failings He is still faithful to work through our weaknesses. \u00a0I am thankful that he is not done changing us, but has only begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Right now, I am sitting at a Guesthouse in Monrovia waiting for my flight tomorrow, which will bring me back home. \u00a0I am so eager to walk off that plane back home. \u00a0I am going back to my family who I have dearly missed, but also back to the life and people who have become […]<\/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":[448,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-3917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-updates-and-news","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"tag-new-tribes-mission","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3917","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=3917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}