{"id":4740,"date":"2016-12-01T21:54:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T21:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=4740"},"modified":"2016-12-01T21:54:43","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T21:54:43","slug":"the-encouragement-of-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2016\/12\/01\/the-encouragement-of-others\/","title":{"rendered":"The Encouragement of Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"p1060021\"<\/p>\n

The beginning of November Joel and I headed to Thailand. \u00a0We were given the opportunity to participate in some meetings over there with representatives from all over the world. \u00a0The opportunity for Joel and I was a huge blessing. \u00a0It has been rare that we have been able to travel together to an event like this. \u00a0It was also the first time in a while that we participated in meetings that we weren’t involve in the organization of. \u00a0We were greatly looking forward to this trip. \u00a0Here is a little bit about our time there.<\/p>\n

\"Living
Travel for us always is filled with interesting twists and turns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reality of travel<\/strong> – We were supposed to leave Friday at 8am. \u00a0We got a call Wednesday at 4pm to say that our flight was canceled and we could either leave 24 hours earlier or 24 hours later. \u00a0We really didn’t want to miss part of the meetings, so we decided that we would leave early. \u00a0However we might have looked a little crazy that evening as we quickly tried to get done what we were planning to do in 36 hours in the 7 hours remaining before bed. \u00a0The next morning we took off and started our 36 hour journey to our location and let me tell you by the time we got there we were happy for the extra day to recuperate before meetings began.<\/p>\n

\"The
The beautiful location where we were staying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The highlight –\u00a0<\/strong>It was really the first time that we gathered together with other people who were doing the same ministry we are doing. \u00a0It was so good to hear what others are doing, what struggles they are having and what is working well. \u00a0It was encouraging to see that we are not alone in our ministry and to see the realities people are facing. \u00a0The first week was dedicated specifically to culture and language learning. \u00a0 There were many different approaches and perspectives, but so much that could be gleaned from it all. \u00a0I walked away encouraged with some new ideas to try and new contacts for the future.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Our team from West Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The meeting room filled with 170 people from around the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diversity –\u00a0<\/strong>The second week was a meeting for all our fields around the world. \u00a0There were people there from over 20 different countries. \u00a04 translations were being done simultaneously. \u00a0It was amazing to hear what God is doing all around the world and also astounding\u00a0to think of all the work that is left and some of the challenges we face in reaching the areas that are left. \u00a0There is nothing that like that to remind you of your complete and utter dependence on God.<\/p>\n

\"There
There are great challenges ahead to reaching some of the peoples who still need the truth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Unexpected<\/strong> – A week into the trip I started running a fever. \u00a0I struggled four days straight with a fever that would come and go. \u00a0It was a bummer to get sick over the time there, but it did make me slow down and just spend some time reflecting on life with God. \u00a0Thankfully the fever started to go away and didn’t consist into our travels home. \u00a0It was not what I had planned, but God was still gracious through it all.<\/p>\n

\"Time
Time away with my best friend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Added Bonus<\/strong> – Since Joel and I don’t get away very often we tacked on a weekend at the end to do a little tourism and spend some time together. \u00a0It was so refreshing to take time away together. \u00a0It was so good for us to just take a small break from the daily stress of life and ministry and to have a little fun.<\/p>\n

More Pictures of Our Time in Thailand to come…<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beginning of November Joel and I headed to Thailand. \u00a0We were given the opportunity to participate in some meetings over there with representatives from all over the world. \u00a0The opportunity for Joel and I was a huge blessing. \u00a0It has been rare that we have been able to travel together to an event like […]<\/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-4740","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\/4740","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=4740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}