On Sunday only children showed up, so Paul altered his program and changed his sermon accordingly.
I am writing this letter from the basement during day 3 of
the 14 day quarantine directed to me by the CDC because of my travel through
Europe. Our whole family is under the 14
day quarantine but I am also supposed to keep distance from them during this time
in case I picked something up on one of my connecting flights.
A few days after I
wrote my last letter I was able to find a place to move in Uganda. God is good, the place is bigger than what we
had, which means we can make it available to other missionaries who need more
space, and the price is the same as what we were paying before which means it’s
actually cheaper! After a few days of
moving, unpacking, getting machines to work and loading, I left and went back
to Lohutok.
Back in Lohutok I was
able to finish two Bible classes with Paul.
The day we did his last course was on another trip to Torit. When we got back from shopping in Torit, Paul
stayed over at our place to study for his exam, take it the next morning, and
meet with Michael (Our guard who has been asking about the gospel). The next morning Paul sat with Michael and
talked to him about how every person in this world is walking on one of two
roads, one leading to death or one leading to life. You can’t be on both roads at once, and there
is only one way to walk the road leading to life – following Christ. The road leading to death is easy to stay on,
and there are many ways to follow it, and it is Satan’s goal to fool and
distract people into staying on that road.
At the end of the discussion, Paul asked Michael what he thought about
the lesson, and Michael said “I think I need to be on the road that follows
Christ.”
I told Paul that,
although prayers don’t save people, it is a good idea to talk to Michael about
what he is understanding and hearing from the Holy Spirit and then hear him
pray and tell God about what he wants to do.
Paul said that he would do this with Michael, but first he wanted to
spend more time explaining just what it means for a Lopit person to
repent. Michael and Paul agreed that
they would start meeting to talk about this every Monday, pray that these
meetings continue! Paul asked me if I
would be talking to Michael as well and I told him that I would do a little
bit, but I am on my way back to the USA for a few months and Michael will
understand it better coming from Paul.
Now Paul gets to take the responsibility for this himself.I was planning
to drive back to Uganda on Sunday and leave on my flight back to the USA on
Thursday. With the whole world going
crazy over this new virus, all of that changed…frequently…until I finally left
and got back to Kansas City three days earlier than planned. I found out the Wednesday before I was
supposed to leave Lohutok that Brussels Airlines had cancelled all of their
flights for two months so I called the travel agent to see if I could
rebook. She was able to get me a flight
for Monday night (the day I was planning on driving out of Lohutok), so I
immediately started packing my stuff and left Lohutok that night to get to
Uganda. On Saturday the Uganda
government announced that they were shutting down all incoming and outgoing
flights as of midnight Sunday, so I had to look again for different options.
Caleb's birthday is on Monday...He wants a suit of armor
It
seemed for a bit that I wouldn’t be able to leave! The only flights back to the USA were $8000
flights that left 4 hours later, but eventually I was able to find a flight to
Dubai and I asked the travel agent to just get me home from there. The flight to Dubai got booked, but then I
would be there for 48 hours, and another 24 hours in London before flying back
to Dallas and then getting to Kansas City Friday night. So I was to travel from Sunday afternoon
until Friday night! I was waiting in
line at the airport on Sunday, and was actually next in line to check in, when
I got a message from the travel agent telling me to leave. She had heard that the Dutch embassy in
Kampala negotiated with the Uganda government to let the Monday night flight
go, and that meant short connections, getting home sooner, saving a bunch of
money, and not taking the risk of getting caught in Dubai or London.
So as
counterintuitive as it seemed, I got out of line, rolled my luggage out of the
airport (past all of the hundreds of people in line looking at me like I’m
crazy) and went back home! The next day
I was able to get on my flight as planned, and I had even read about more
restrictions happening in Dubai AND London, and eventually I got back to my
family on Tuesday night.
Pray for us as we do this 14 day quarantine where nobody can
leave, but I’m also in the same house as my family who I can’t really touch and
have to avoid. Pray for our counseling
process which is delayed in starting because of this whole shut down. Pray
that God would provide us a new house to stay in after June 1st because
the one we currently have is booked (let me know if you have any leads!). Pray that Michael would hear, understand, be
changed by and cling to the gospel. Pray
that we can get back to Lohutok soon, and that we (including the kids who are
begging to go) would have patience and joy as we accept God’s timing and
care. Pray that our support is
maintained during this time where so many people have financial uncertainty.
Thank you so much for your prayer and support, we could not
do this without you!
Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb
