{"id":475,"date":"2011-12-13T20:38:23","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T04:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=475"},"modified":"2011-12-13T20:38:23","modified_gmt":"2011-12-14T04:38:23","slug":"refocusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2011\/12\/13\/refocusing\/","title":{"rendered":"Refocusing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past week I made a crucial error. \u00a0I started looking at the wind and waves around me and just like Peter, I began to sink. \u00a0This week the wind and the waves seemed even larger than normal. \u00a0The little frustrations added up quickly.<\/p>\n

– I came to realize I will always have at least one misquito bite.<\/p>\n

– The roaches found our house.<\/p>\n

– Going anywhere involves carrying a heavy child or walking at a snail’s pace.<\/p>\n

– Walked 20 minutes to a store for three things (sugar, peanuts and\u00a0pretzels) only to find out they were out of those for the day. \u00a0In fact all 4 stores I went to this week were out of sugar.<\/p>\n

– Market….oh market. \u00a0Everything is at market (according to a Senegalese). \u00a0The problem is you have to find the one person who has it and then figure out what price it should be…neither of which are easily done.<\/p>\n

– Language and culture…a random lady walks away with my child and I don’t even have the language or know the culturally appropriate way to ask, “excuse me, where are you going with my child”.<\/p>\n

\"Sometimes
Sometimes our life feels like we are walking on rocks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Very
Very slowly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reality is that most of these things were only frustrating because of my perspective. \u00a0For example: American way – plan menu…make a list…shop \u00a0 Senegalese way: go to market see what you can get that day… decide what to make….cook. \u00a0There are so many ways that I need to change and adapt. \u00a0This week I stared up at the HUGE mountain in front of us and wept. \u00a0Yet it was here where God gently took me and reminded me that it was not my job to climb the mountain. \u00a0My job is to keep my eyes on him and to keep putting on foot in front of the other. \u00a0That is my prayer this week. \u00a0God help me to keep my eyes off of the mountain and just follow you.<\/p>\n

\"We
We are learning how to just step in the water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"P1010181\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past week I made a crucial error. \u00a0I started looking at the wind and waves around me and just like Peter, I began to sink. \u00a0This week the wind and the waves seemed even larger than normal. \u00a0The little frustrations added up quickly. – I came to realize I will always have at least […]<\/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-475","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\/475","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=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}