{"id":5796,"date":"2018-09-17T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T10:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/?p=5796"},"modified":"2018-09-17T10:18:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T10:18:29","slug":"liberia-the-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/2018\/09\/17\/liberia-the-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberia…The Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past trip gave me the most adventure I have had in a while and not necessarily the enjoyable type of adventure.\u00a0 However I would do it again in a heart beat because on the whole it was a great trip.\u00a0 The family I visited have been without their teammates for a few months now, so they have been quite isolated in their village.\u00a0 They came out for our conference, but ended up sick the whole time.\u00a0 They are studying one of the most difficult languages we work with and they are managing this while caring for their 4 young kids.\u00a0 It is a heavy weight they are carrying and I know at times it is hard to press on.\u00a0 This trip was the first time I had been to their village since they had arrived.\u00a0 It was great to see them in their home and to meet those they are getting to know.\u00a0 I spent time with their kids reading new books and playing new games that I had brought with me.\u00a0 I spent time with them in their language sessions, listening to their activities and giving them as many ideas as I could to make their time as effective as possible.\u00a0 However most importantly we spent any spare moment talking about the realities of their life.\u00a0 The things that are going well and the challenges they are facing.\u00a0 For one week, they were not alone, but had help there with them.\u00a0 I was reminded once again how important these trips are as we are.\u00a0 It is important to break up the normal routine, to reflect on what is working and what is not and to have someone to share that with who can bring in a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

A little glance at the view from Liberia<\/p>\n

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The guest house in Monrovia was the nicest I have been too<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I had about 2 days there which was really nice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Liberia is so beautiful and green!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I got a tour around the village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We met neighbors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Saw daily life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And even ventured out to the cocoa farms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The kids were eager to show me all they could<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This family still has a long road of learning ahead for them<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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But they are making great progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Which is always helpful to know<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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While we were there someone in the village died…a reminder of the urgency of the task.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We continue to pray for them as they press on<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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In hopes that one day these people will understand the truth that can set them free<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Small Miracle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember how the delay in my travels meant I would miss Joel.\u00a0 Well when I got off the plane there he was waiting for me at the airport.\u00a0 I was so happy and surprised to see him.\u00a0 It so happens there was a mechanical problem on his flight and so he was now delayed 2 days as well.\u00a0 We might have had a bad string of problems with travel, but at least they aligned so that we could have them together.\u00a0 So in the end we got two days together before he took off to Guinea.\u00a0 God is Good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past trip gave me the most adventure I have had in a while and not necessarily the enjoyable type of adventure.\u00a0 However I would do it again in a heart beat because on the whole it was a great trip.\u00a0 The family I visited have been without their teammates for a few months now, […]<\/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],"class_list":["post-5796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-updates-and-news","tag-ethnos360","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5796","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=5796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}