{"id":4801,"date":"2016-12-28T09:58:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T09:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=4801"},"modified":"2016-12-28T09:58:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T09:58:30","slug":"its-christmas-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2016\/12\/28\/its-christmas-time\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Christmas Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because of our travels Christmas really crept up on us this year (posts from our trip to Tanzania will come, but just a little later). \u00a0We arrived back to Senegal on the 23rd late in the evening. \u00a0However this year was an important year for us as it was the first time since Joel’s parents had moved here that we would actually be together on Christmas.<\/p>\n

Christmas starts for us on Christmas Eve with a big celebration at our church. \u00a0We gather together for a service and then enjoy dinner together at around 10 PM. \u00a0The women of our church play a big role in preparing the meat for this meal. \u00a0The preparations for this meal began on Friday, but because we were still traveling I missed that one. \u00a0However I made sure to go on Saturday morning to participate as much as I could.<\/p>\n

Then Saturday evening we gathered together to for a time of fellowship and what a celebration it was!<\/p>\n

Everyone was dressed in their finest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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When we arrived the meat was grilling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The kids played around while waiting for things to start<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We worshiped lead by our youth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The kids danced<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The women of our church sang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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They asked me to join in even though I had missed the practices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We had skits from the women<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And the kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We heard the truth of what Christmas is about and then the kids were all given a present<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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They were all supper excited<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The affects of our travel started to show as our kids crashed before it ended<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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After the service it was time to eat\u00a0the delicious food!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The evening was a great time of fellowship<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And a time to remember what Christmas is all about!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because of our travels Christmas really crept up on us this year (posts from our trip to Tanzania will come, but just a little later). \u00a0We arrived back to Senegal on the 23rd late in the evening. \u00a0However this year was an important year for us as it was the first time since Joel’s parents […]<\/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-4801","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\/4801","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=4801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}