Friday, December 29, 2017

December 29, 2017

Amy and the kids getting off the plane in Lohutok!


On December 7th I left from Arua, Uganda to drive back to our home in Lohutok.  I had been in Uganda for two weeks helping Amy pack up the house there, and driving Amy and the kids to Arua (9 hours from where we were staying), where they would be able to catch a flight.  I left a week before the flight, I needed to travel back by road so I could bring all of the luggage, but Amy and the kids were taking a flight which would be faster (2 hours instead of 18), more comfortable and safer. 

The day I left from Arua I got an email saying that the flight would be moved from the 14th to the 15th, and then later from the 15th to the 16th.  I thought, “No big deal, that gives me a couple of extra days to get things ready.”  Saturday was a nice quiet day for them to arrive, a day when there were no builders at our compound and not much activity. 

By Wednesday of that week, Ezekiel was complaining of stomach pain.  He’s been having stomach aches for a few years, but Amy thought they had been getting worse and wanted to have him checked before coming back to South Sudan.  After lots of back and forth decisions, It was decided that Amy would skip the Saturday flight, fly back to Kampala (where they had been staying for the past six months) to get a CT Scan of Ezekiel’s appendix on Monday, and if there were no issues, be back in Arua for another available flight on Wednesday. 

Isura (left) and Amoya (right), two of the leading women in the Lalonga church, all decked out in their Christmas Clothes. 


The day after we made this decision, Amy jumped into a swimming pool with her phone!  All of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, I sat at our home in Lohutok not knowing whether I was leaving in a few minutes to drive to Kampala for Ezekiel’s appendectomy or unpacking the vehicle to get ready for them to arrive Wednesday morning.  I spent those 4 days begging Jesus that we wouldn’t have to do a surgery like this in Uganda after waiting so long to get everyone back home.  We had lots of varying advice on Ezekiel’s “Grumbling” “Smoldering” “Chronic” Appendix…whether that was his problem or whether such a thing actually exists, but in the end the CT Scan showed no abnormalities, and everyone arrived back in Lohutok on Wednesday with 5 days to spare before Christmas! 

3 days later we were driving back from Torit and an axle fell off the pickup so we got to spend the night in the truck…but that’s another story!

- Praise Jesus with us that the work is finished and we’re back in Lohutok as a family.
- Pray for us as we get settled in and adjusted to new routines, culture, family life and language.
- Pray that God would provide for the extra travel/medical expenses involving Ezekiel, and the axle repairs on the pickup.

Philippians 1:3-4,

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp