{"id":4885,"date":"2016-12-29T13:49:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T13:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=4885"},"modified":"2016-12-29T13:49:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T13:49:29","slug":"what-god-has-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2016\/12\/29\/what-god-has-done\/","title":{"rendered":"What God Has Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking back I feel like Christmas Day for us was a good reminder of all that God has done for us. \u00a0As we look ahead to the next year, I wanted to take some time to write down some of the ways God has been at work.<\/p>\n

The day started off with meal preparations for all our neighbors. \u00a0 Since we get meals on all other religious holidays from our neighbors we wanted to return the favor on our holidays. \u00a0So we cooked up chickens and prepared meals for 9 of our neighbors. \u00a0It made me thankful for our neighbors and the relationships we have with them. \u00a0It was also encouraging that we are comfortable with life enough to be able to do this meal preparation for them. \u00a0God has brought us a long way!<\/p>\n

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Next we headed out to spend this day with our family in their village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

God gave us this family to help us integrate into life here. \u00a0Words can’t begin to tell you how much they have done for us. \u00a0They have accepted and loved us as one of their own.<\/p>\n

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God has given us relationships that allow for deep conversations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Abe came out with us as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His journey is full of challenges, but God continues to work faithfully in his life.<\/p>\n

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The one of the right is a new friend we have met with an amazing testimony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We will call him JJ. \u00a0JJ is a believer from one of the villages where our coworkers have been working. \u00a0A couple Christmases ago they were able to teach them God’s story in their own language. \u00a0He is one of the fruits of this teaching and our coworkers put us in contact with him when he came up to our town. \u00a0He has been up in our area working for about 6 months and over that time we have brought him with us to church and to holiday events when we could. \u00a0Seeing him is a reminder that though the spread of the gospel here is slow, God is changing lives. \u00a0We have enjoyed getting to spend time with him these past few months.<\/p>\n

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God has given our kids friends and helped them to become comfortable with life here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This was a special year for us as it was the first time we celebrated this holiday with our neighbor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His wife and children have come with us every year, but this was the first year he came to celebrate with us. \u00a0We continue to pray that God’s light will shine through us.<\/p>\n

We were thankful for the amazing food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We were thankful for the ability to share games with our friends and family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And the language ability to receive advice on how to play those games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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God has really strengthened our relationships with the women around us and we are really grateful for that<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We are amazed at how this has become home to us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One more way we saw God’s faithfulness was in our visit to another family in the village that we are close to. \u00a0After leaving we all felt like it was the best visit with them we had ever had: great conversation, lots of laughter, the kids played well together, and everyone just as a whole seemed so comfortable. \u00a0That is a testimony to how God has worked and how far he has brought us on this journey.<\/p>\n

Our prayer this year is that in all these relationships we have, that his light would shine amidst the darkness around us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back I feel like Christmas Day for us was a good reminder of all that God has done for us. \u00a0As we look ahead to the next year, I wanted to take some time to write down some of the ways God has been at work. The day started off with meal preparations for […]<\/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-4885","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\/4885","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=4885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}