July 27, 2018

Going to Uganda to take our visitors back to the airport…we made it to Lalonga and our rear axle wanted to fall off!  I walked 10 miles back to Lohutok and brought Scott to help me fix it.

So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21

     You’ve probably gathered from our last few newsletters and prayer calendars that the past few months have been crazy with visitors and travel.  For years we have been praying for team mates for Lohutok, in the past six months we have had six visitors and three of them are now going through the long application and fundraising process to join our team!  That is exciting news, but entertaining visitors is a lot of work, even for the low-maintenance visitors we’ve had. 

     Normally we go to Uganda every three to four months for shopping, car repairs, medical care and rest.  With the extra visitors and an extra trip to get a car running Justin has actually made six trips to Uganda so far this year.  Add in a required unit retreat in Kenya, a week in Juba to get our two year residency permits, and supply runs to Torit every couple of weeks and this half-year has been pretty insane, but mostly in a good way. 

     Justin recently drove to Uganda to take back some visitors from our sending church so they could get their flights home, then drove back to Lohutok three days later to pack up Amy and the kids to come back down…although Justin has had to travel quite a bit, it was time for Amy to have a break!  The two day drive is not leisurely, and both times there was some kind of catastrophic mechanical issue with the vehicle (as you can see from the pictures) but the past week in Uganda has been one of incredible rest and refreshment and we are ready to go home and hit the ground running. 

This was two weeks of car trouble!  On our way back to Uganda with the family we got stuck once, had to be dug out by some guys who were there to help, and then when we hit the fast road in Uganda our radiator exploded!  Thankfully we have a mechanic who spent 8 hours on a bus to come and help us fix it! 

     We have been doing language study in the midst of the busyness, but we are looking forward to our next time “in” to really get into a good routine with our tutors, visiting people in the village to practice, and finding new friends and relationships that way.  Please keep praying that we would be able to focus on learning to speak Lopit (we can already see our progress when we go to funerals and homes in the village to talk to people!) and not be distracted by the “urgent.” 

     Last month you read about Teresa and some of the difficulties she is having.  She has made some progress in finding care for her mother and Paul has actually called some of her family members to a meeting to discuss their mistreatment of her.  As I have been talking to people about this whole issue, I’ve discovered some close links between Michael (who is the watchman at our compound and my language helper), Teresa’s uncle, and the village landlord.  We are praying that God will use a few people of peace, people with whom I’ve become friends through the building process, etc., to give me some access to the uncle and landlord and share the gospel with them.  It is a little scary and humbling, but the more I pray about the connections, the more I experience the temptation, self-doubt and discouragement that can only be from the enemy. 

     The past few days I have been struck by 2 Timothy 2:21 as Paul uses it in the context of instructing opponents, and spiritual warfare.  I’m praying for the Spirit to reveal to me things in my life that need to be purified and help me be “useful to the Master.”  Please keep praying for us, Teresa, her family and the spiritual strongholds that exist in Lohutok to keep the church down after so many decades of missionary history. 

Thank you for your support and prayer!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp

Amy and Caleb having fun on their night out together! 

July 3, 2018

“Will you teach me about God?”  She walked to my house specifically to ask me this question.  She was a 14 year old girl.  I had seen her in the village before, but we had never talked.  I later learned that her mother lived in Torit (the nearest town), and her father lived in a village several hours away.  At the time she had not heard from him for 3 years.

She and her younger siblings were staying in Lohutok with their grandparents, but her grandfather had recently threatened to burn all of her clothes if she continued going to church.  For a few Sundays, she stayed away in fear – and then returned, determined to obey God.  Since then he had forced the entire family, including his wife, to move out of the house and told them never to return.  This is Teresa Ihuro, 3 years ago.  Her mother’s name is Cecilia Okwa.

I began teaching Teresa a Bible story weekly, and reviewing it daily.  It was a humbling, sobering time as I saw first-hand that she, along with most other people in South Sudan, knew only a few Bible stories – and the few that they knew, they had only heard bits and pieces of instead of the full story.  Eventually, she began working in our house, helping me with the extensive household chores that don’t exist in the U.S.  I was so grateful to have someone I could finally invest in, I had been praying that God would send the right person to me! 

She was also thrilled to have the work as she now had a way to feed her family, as well as spend time together and be discipled more.  Throughout the following months and years as I discipled Teresa, I learned more about her family.  Teresa’s uncle, Cecelia’s ½ brother, had killed a woman, and as the culture demands, he was required to give one of his daughters to the family of the woman he killed.  Since he didn’t want to give up one of his daughters, he came to Teresa’s mother and demanded that she give them one of her daughters instead. 

She flatly told him “No, you are the one who has killed this woman, give them your daughter.”  Teresa’s maternal grandfather, with whom she was living, became enraged at this and set out to impale Cecelia with a spear.  But God had other plans, and as he was approaching her with the spear, it broke in two.  She ran to the bush and entered into a psychotic episode, something she already had a history of. 

Cecilia spent the next few years in Torit, which is when I met Teresa.  Her mother returned to the village a little over a year ago and has been living with her children since then.  Over the past month she has entered into another psychotic episode (I was previously unaware that this is what she was experiencing before, as Teresa was unable to verbalize what was happening).  It has become apparent that she most likely has paranoid schizophrenia.  Teresa has, for the most part, raised her sisters as her mother has been unable to do it much of the time. 

They do have more family in the village, but the only one who helps provide for them and is Cecelia’s mother.  The uncle has continued to abuse the family in multiple ways.
I am thankful to testify, by God’s grace and in spite of my sin as I disciple her, that Teresa is now able to confidently and courageously proclaim the Gospel to her family and friends.  She is full of God’s Word and it flows from her being.  She has become a big sister to our boys, and they adore her.  We are grateful for her and are praying for a godly husband, and for God’s will to be done in her life.

Please pray for Teresa and her family, and for us, as we discern the best way to ensure that they are getting the care that they need.  On Tuesday, July 3, there will be a community meeting with her uncle, to discuss his abuse towards them.  Please pray that God will raise up people in the community to protect and defend them, and to provide for the children as they need to be separated from their mother as she is experiencing psychosis.  And of course, pray for deliverance for Cecilia, and that any and all demonic influences would be cast away. 

For those of you who are interested, you can go to our Facebook page (Justin and Amy in Sudan) and see a video of Teresa sharing her testimony!

Thank you for your prayers and support, we are truly grateful for you.

Amy (for all of us)