December 30, 2018

       

   This “term” I am going through 10 weeks of lessons with Paul on prayer (“Talking With God” is the title of the book) and the non-church letters of the New Testament.  The picture you see is a snapshot of my notes from our first meeting for the course on prayer.   
          The opening lessons of the book are answering basic questions about “What is Prayer?”  The answer in the book is that prayer means “Talking with God” which is different than asking for things, or talking TO God, or even talking to other perceived spiritual beings which depend on the culture.  As I was preparing this lesson, I was reflecting on some insights I’ve gained from language-learning, primarily that all of the words used for prayer in Lopit churches come from the word for asking, begging, a beggar on the street, etc.  I wanted to ask Paul about this without being too direct.  It’s not my job to say “You should change what you’re doing” if there’s a way for him to see that’s happening and decide it for himself.  During our meeting I just asked Paul, “How does this lesson relate to the words we use for prayer in our church?”   
          When I asked that question, Paul immediately lit up and said “Yes!  I was going to ask you the same thing!”  The next day, Sunday, Paul told the story of creation all the way up to Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden.  He asked the people what Adam and God were doing at the beginning when God was bringing him the animals to name and walking with them in the garden, and then He asked them what it was that caused Adam and Eve to be afraid of God and hide from Him rather than enjoying their fellowship (the answer is sin).  Paul then asked the church what they call it when they need to travel for an emergency and have to call an uncle or relative and beg for money to help, and they gave him the word “Amoju” which sounds like the word for prayer “emojo.”  He gave a few more examples, and then he asked “What should we call it when we’re telling God our problems, praising him, repenting, etc.” and everyone was quiet.  As a group they eventually decided that instead of using the normally-accepted words for prayer, they were going to start saying things like “Erara iyohoi iko Hollum” (Let us talk with God).  It’s a small change, but huge in a culture where dependency is so widespread and new believers are learning what a relationship with God looks like. 

          Will you pray with us for the church here as they grow in their understanding of basic Christian truths?  The small group of ladies who meet with Paul still struggle with traditional religion and syncretism, pray that as Paul grows in his study of scripture and theology that the church would grow in their passion for the gospel!

           We are all doing fine as I’m writing this.  We’ve had a bit of a break from everyone being sick, helping team members evacuate because of sickness, fixing internet and car issues that never end, and now that the holidays are almost over it’s time to buckle down on language learning again.  Pray for joy and perseverance as we struggle to learn the language well to effectively communicate the gospel with people, and pray that God would guard us from more spiritual warfare as things seem to constantly come up.

 Thanks as always for your prayer and support!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

We celebrated Teresa’s birthday this month.  She was pretty happy to get an onion chopper like the one Amy uses at our house. 

December 5, 2018

       

 This is a snapshot of the page in our kids’ devotion book from last night.  The story was about Joseph meeting Pharoah’s cupbearer in prison and the lesson was, “God brings people into our life for special reasons.  He always knows what we need.”
          A year ago we were on our way back to South Sudan after a period of time when I was here building our house and Amy and the kids were in Uganda.  We stopped for lunch on the way up and saw another American family with children, so we started visiting with them.  We happened to see the same family at the same restaurant twice after that, it just turns out that all of our trips happened to coincide.  A few weeks ago, our family was headed home after training in Kenya and we stopped to visit our new friends for lunch on the way.

While our family was headed home we started having car trouble, again.  While we were in Kenya our mechanic was working on the transmission and injector pump, but it turns out that the problems weren’t completely solved, and we were halfway back to Lohutok before we found out – the hard way.  We stopped in Kitgum, where we normally overnight on the way home, but instead of just spending the night we spent five.  The mechanic came from Kampala with a transmission in the back of his car, installed it in our LandCruiser, it still didn’t work, he went back for some kind of computerized control unit that was required and he didn’t realize was missing from the car when he came, brought that back to Kitgum and installed it, and the transmission still didn’t work.  While at the hotel Caleb got a bacterial infection that kept him up at night, and Ezekiel went on antibiotics for an ear infection.  At this point I (Justin) was just ready to give up.  How much time are we going to spend on car trouble and sickness?
          When the mechanic told me he had to go BACK to Kampala again to get a new control unit, I told him to just go in our vehicle.  It was drivable but not shifting right, so if he could get it back to Kampala he could finish the work there instead of doing more back-and-forth for spare parts.  He agreed, left me with his vehicle (a funny little Suzuki that looks like a roller skate) and left with our LandCruiser.

          The next problem I had to deal with was where we would stay.  We were already way over budget on car repairs, and the hotel stay that was supposed to be 1 night had turned into 5 already, and who knows how long it’s going to take to actually fix our vehicle?  We have a place in Kampala, but that means having the kids in the car for an extra 2 long days of driving, and our place was being used.  We messaged a few other friends just to see if there was anything available that was cheaper than where we were staying, but doors just closed left and right.  Finally, Amy decided to message our friends whom we had only met on a few short occasions (and who lived just an hour away from Kitgum) to see if they had any ideas.  It turns out, they have a guesthouse and, although they normally charge per night for people to stay there, they wouldn’t ask anything from people like us having an emergency. 
          We ended up staying in the guesthouse for the next seven nights.  Amy got to meet some new missionary wives/mothers while Ezekiel and Caleb got to make some awesome new friends, and Justin got to go back to Kampala to get the car…and then spend the night again on the way back because the alternator/battery weren’t charging! 
          Last night was our first night home getting back into the routine of family time/devotions.  When I opened the book and realized what story we were on, we talked to the kids about how God used all of Joseph’s problems to bring about something really awesome, and God put people in Joseph’s path who could help him later when he needed it, just like our friends in Uganda were there when we needed them.  Praise the Lord for his kind provision!

Now that we’re back it’s time to get going on language learning again.  Pray for us that we make good progress in language and homeschool over the next stint in Lohutok, and that God would protect us from more car trouble and sickness!

Thanks for praying as always,

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb