{"id":4128,"date":"2016-01-05T13:13:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T13:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=4128"},"modified":"2016-01-05T13:13:50","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T13:13:50","slug":"finding-a-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2016\/01\/05\/finding-a-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding A Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Balancing<\/a>
Balancing two worlds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christmas has been one of the hardest seasons for me to balance between our two world. \u00a0I don’t know why, but it has been the area where I found it hard to let go of my home world and embrace our host world. \u00a0There were so many memories wrapped up in Christmas day that Christmas day was vitally important to me and was a piece that I held on to tightly. \u00a0This year Joel challenged me to let that go. \u00a0Not to let go of the idea of traditions or the traditions of our home world, but to let go of Christmas day and to find a new way to live those traditions out while embracing the people people and culture God has called us to. \u00a0So this year we experimented and changed what Christmas looks like and for the first time since being here I feel like we found a healthy balance of our two worlds.<\/p>\n

Here was a little of what Christmas looked for us…<\/p>\n

It all began on Wednesday evening as we gathered together as women to prepare the meat for our Christmas Eve Church meal. \u00a0We started Wednesday cutting, cleaning and marinating a pig. \u00a0The next morning we met back early to cook the meat in a pot so that it would grill quickly in evening. \u00a0At the same time we cleaned, cut and seasoned 20 chickens. \u00a0We started at 8am and finally ended around 1pm.<\/p>\n

\"Cooking<\/a>
Cooking up meat and chicken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That evening we headed to church for a celebration with our church of our saviors birth.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Joel<\/a>
Joel and I brought out our new outfits for the celebration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The kids and youth have been working together for months to prepare for this celebration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"There<\/a>
There was a skit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Verses<\/a>
The kids all recited verses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dancing\"<\/a>
I choreographed my first dance for the kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"They<\/a>
They all did amazing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A group from Central Africa sang and dance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Each<\/a>
Each person brought there offering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"And<\/a>
And we worshiped our King together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We ended the evening with gifts for the kids of the church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Then<\/a>
Then it was time to Eat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around 9:30 we shared dinner together. \u00a0It was truly a late – but glorious night.<\/p>\n

The next day – Christmas Day – we woke up early and began cooking. \u00a0Here in Senegal one of the traditions is to share food with your neighbors on whatever holiday you celebrate. \u00a0If you remember on other holidays here we often get food from our neighbors, so now was our turn to share food with them. \u00a0This was the first year we took on this challenge, but I am so glad we did.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We cooked up 5 chickens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We then cooked up 10 pounds of thin noodles and sauce to go with the chickens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We divided the food up in 7 dishes and delivered them around to our neighbors. \u00a0It was a great opportunity to share with our boys why we were changing Christmas morning so that we could share this celebration with those in our neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"Then<\/a>
We delivered it ALL dressed in our finest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We then loaded up the car, picked up one of our neighbors and headed our to our host families village to celebrate with them for the day. \u00a0The first few years we were here I convinced our host family to celebrate with us on the day after Christmas as I wasn’t ready to give up my Christmas day. \u00a0However this year we were ready to be there on this important day right alongside them.<\/p>\n

\"Then<\/a>
We visited those we know in the village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"And<\/a>
And ate side by side with our family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The kids found sticks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"And<\/a>
And played games with the other kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We returned home late and tired, but really happy to have spent this day with our family and our neighbors.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The 26th, was our day together as a family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We had special gifts sent to us from America<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mom had sent over crackers, cheese and other special treats that we enjoyed together.<\/p>\n

\"However<\/a>
However mostly we just enjoyed the day at home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Enjoying<\/a>
Enjoying some rest and celebrating together as a family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We rejoice – because the savoir has come! \u00a0Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas has been one of the hardest seasons for me to balance between our two world. \u00a0I don’t know why, but it has been the area where I found it hard to let go of my home world and embrace our host world. \u00a0There were so many memories wrapped up in Christmas day that Christmas […]<\/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":["post-4128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-updates-and-news","tag-ethnos360","tag-new-tribes-mission","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128","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=4128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}