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The year started out with a death that rocked our church. An amazing leader, teacher and mentor in our church died very suddenly. He left behind 5 kids and wife. His wife is not from here and so she had limited family around, but our church was there with her every day the whole week after his death. The funeral was a big undertaking for our church, but it was an amazing time of testimony of how God had worked in and through this amazing man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Our Church gathered each day to be with the family and the women helped with the cooking for those there<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190105_075108-600x450.jpg\")
I was so encouraged by these women and the sacrifices they made to be there day in and day out<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190105_075117-600x450.jpg\")
Serving the 2000 people of the funeral required the work of many, but they all came together and made it happen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n After the funeral it was time to get ready for our new arrivals. We have now welcomed 3 new families and a single to our field. This is the most by far that Joel an I have welcomed at one time. Because of the size of the group there were a lot of logistics to be worked out but praise God all the pieces are coming together. There are always unexpected bumps on the road, but God was there directing us through each of them. We are so excited to see our team growing here. We know that God is going to do great things over the next few years as they learn French and enter into life here. We are happy to be able to walk alongside them through that process. We are in our final week of orientation with them before they begin their normal routine of daily french Sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We made 3 airport runs<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190123_104215-2-600x800.jpg\")
To pick up the families and take them to their new homes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/50683993_10156173376417817_7251428104583774208_n-600x450.jpg\")
We brought them to their new homes and helped them get settled<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190126_140237-1-600x338.jpg\")
On Saturday we welcomed them with a meal<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190126_140211-600x338.jpg\")
we spent time getting to know each other <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190126_140217-600x338.jpg\")
And hearing how God brought them to West Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n On top of all that we had a few bonuses in our month<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190112_153644.jpg\")
A reception for the newly married couple in our mission<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190118_172606-1.jpg\")
A celebration for our now 12 year old boy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/files\/2019\/01\/20190109_141536-600x450.jpg\")
And a time of appreciation for the workers who help us at our mission<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n With the starting of french classes, next week should bring a new normal for us as well. We are already looking back and praising God for how he sustained us through this month and looking forward to the month ahead which should ease up a little for us. You know going back to a normal 5 or 6 things on your to do list each day rather than 20. Thanks for praying for us and for these new families as they adjust to life here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It as been now over a month since I have actually managed to get something out on our blog. There are things half written but not published yet which should hopefully be making their appearance in the new few weeks. So why the silence? Well the beginning of this year proved to be as busy […]<\/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-5989","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\/5989","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=5989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/joel-mcmartin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}