December 30, 2019

Ezekiel and Caleb...In Jail

               A couple of weeks ago we were doing family Bible time at night and we read a story about someone who repented.  The kids’ lesson that night was about what it means to repent.  Ezekiel looked frustrated and said, “I tried repenting and it doesn’t work.  I repented, asked Jesus to forgive me and help me not sin, but I JUST KEEP SINNING!”  We had a good talk that night about what it means to repent: Be sorry for sin, confess sin and leave sin.  When we turn from our sin, it doesn’t mean we stop sinning, it means that when we see our sin we hate it and depend on the Holy Spirit to help us change.  Christians are not inherently better than anybody else, the difference between us and the rest of the world is that we are trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sin.  When God looks at us in judgment He doesn’t see our failures and shortcomings, He sees the perfect obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ that has been credited to our account.

               We’ve had a busy month!  Some good friends visited us for a couple of days before Thanksgiving, Amy’s parents came for about a week over Thanksgiving, Amy and the kids got to visit a local police station, the car we were borrowing from a friend was stolen out of the driveway, we drove to Georgia for Christmas and had to get a tow on the way because of a tensioner pulley in the van, and now we’re in Columbus, GA to visit Amy’s parents before we go back.  After a week and a half stay in Georgia, we will go to Tampa to have some meetings for a couple of weeks, and then drive back to Kansas City where we will start to pack up.  Our plane tickets are for mid-February, and we’re praying about the right way to go back.  We have an enemy that does not want us to succeed, and who wants the Lopit to stay in darkness and uncertainty.  We love you and appreciate you keeping up with and praying for us, please keep praying that God will give us what we need by way of community, medical wellness and unity as we decide how to go back in the best way possible! 

               Our fundraising is coming along nicely.  We are about $400 short of our monthly goal, and have a few more one-time gifts promised.  Our German friends are working on their house and getting their family settled in Lohutok, keep praying that this will go well and fast for them!

Thanks!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

Caleb is a little bit obsessed with helicopters...

November 26, 2019

“How do you have a relationship with God??” Teresa’s cousin asked her.  Their grandmother had sent her down to our compound to hide when there was potential trouble in the village.  Most of the village goes to hide in the bush when this happens.  But Teresa and her family had no man to stay with them in the bush, and they (understandably) didn’t want to ward off the wild animals themselves. 

So their grandmother had sent down two cousins to stay with Teresa on our compound.  We were in Torit at the time, and I was praying that God would use this time of uncertainty to show people the contrast of darkness and light, and that they would be drawn to the light.  Teresa’s two cousins then asked her to teach them about the Bible. 

They began doing Bible study and I was helping Teresa prepare for it.  One day, Kemira (one of her cousins) asked her how she could have a relationship with God. 

“Our sin separates us from God,” Teresa explained, “but Jesus died as a sacrifice, to take away our sin.  Everyone who believes in him and repents is reunited with God.”  My heart is rejoicing that she is boldly sharing the Gospel among her own culture! 

Did you know that South Sudan is one of the few countries left with no running water, no power grid, no roads and very few cell phone towers?  We have to leave the country every three months to go to the doctor, get the car fixed, get medical, food, and refresh with Western friends in Uganda.

We’re enjoying the comforts of the US, as well as time with family.  My (Amy) parents are coming to Kansas City for Thanksgiving, and we’re all going to celebrate with Justin’s family.  God has faithfully provided the finances for Ezekiel to join a co-op, take roller skating lessons and art lessons!  Caleb is enjoying sweet time with friends here as well, and Justin and I are enjoying homeschooling both of them each morning.

As we prepare to return to South Sudan and enjoy life in the US, our friends in Lopit are struggling for food this year.  The rains have washed most of the gardens away, and the insects are eating what is left over.  We have been told that the road between our village and that of our teammates is now blocked by a river that is waist deep! 

Please pray that God provides food, and that these precious people recognize that their Creator is the only one who provides them with food, water and rain.  Pray that they come to know their Creator, and that they would hunger and thirst for the righteousness that God offers to all of us through Jesus Christ.

October 30, 2019

 I took Ezekiel with me to St. Louis while Amy spent some extra time in Georgia with her parents (and Caleb).  I had to figure out how to get some work done while also having Ezekiel at home, so we became very well-acquainted with the Wentzville Chick-Fil-A.  Ezekiel goes into the playplace and immediately makes friends with the other kids, and then proceeds to lead them all in games that he has made up to play on that equipment.  One day we went for the “Comic Book Hero Night.”  I saw it on one of the signs in the playground and we couldn’t resist.  We got Ezekiel a costume (He insisted on being Optimus Prime) and got there early, he got to take pictures with “Supergirl” and “Spiderman” and the cow.  After pictures, he started fighting Spiderman with his sword, which Spiderman took in stride as he fought back.  After his fight with Spiderman, though, Ezekiel said “Daddy I’m tired of chicken, can we have some beef?”  He proceeded to go and shake hands (again) with the ChickFil-A cow, and then started to slaughter it…that cow had no idea how to respond, it was hilarious.

 We stopped in Nashville on the way up to visit some good friends, and then spent a few weeks visiting churches in the St. Louis area before returning to Kansas City.  We get to be in one place for a couple of months now!  Ezekiel had his birthday on October 23 and he got quite the royal treatment.  We had a birthday party in Wentzville, another one at a church on his actual birthday, one at our church in Lawrence on Sunday morning and then ANOTHER on Sunday afternoon at Gammy and Papa’s house!  When we were getting ready for the first party I asked him what he wanted, he wanted a cake, a piñata, a campfire, s’mores and games, so we made it all happen…it was a lot!  The pictures in this letter are of Ezekiel and Caleb having S’mores for the first time.

 We’re in Kansas City now until Christmas.  Thank you all for praying and supporting us.  Keep praying that God would provide the rest of the monthly support we need for going back, the one-time giving we need for our return travel and other projects, and a few more opportunities to speak at churches where we have openings.

Thanks!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp

September 27, 2019

               We have been in travel mode for the last few weeks.  After two weeks in Kansas City that was spent getting settled (vehicles, phones, clothes, etc.) we spoke at Overbrook Bible Church and then left a couple of days later for St. Louis.  A week in St. Louis, a week in Corinth, Mississippi and now we find ourselves in Columbus, GA to visit Amy’s family and celebrate mom’s birthday.  In a week we will be back on the road to St. Louis where we will spend a few weeks visiting churches and then we’re back to Kansas City for the remainder of our home assignment.

               Being back in the USA has been quite a transition for our family.  Ezekiel and Caleb are still getting used to new rules (You can’t poop here, the street is not a “fun place to play” etc.) and other unfamiliar things.  I bought a 10lb bag of chicken leg-quarters that were on sale for Labor Day, and the next day I was thawing them out in the sink.  Caleb came downstairs, looked in the sink and said “Daddy?!”  When I asked him what was wrong he said, “You killed something without me?”  Ezekiel heard Caleb’s perceived offence and came over to look, then he said “Aww man, I would have liked to see that chicken that had ten legs!”  We’re people of two worlds…

               We have had some fun along the way.  During our week in Corinth we saw some Civil War historical sites and spent a few nights at the Alcorn County Fair.  At the fair the kids got to see their first bull ride and enjoyed the carnival rides, but with all of the excitement around them they really wanted to spend all of their time in the petting zoo feeding the goats, porcupine, camel and cows!  On the way from Corinth to Columbus we stopped in Huntsville to visit the US Rocket and Space Museum…that is how missionary parents on the road celebrate a wedding anniversary (8 years!).  Ezekiel started getting sick the night before the museum, so he saw most of the museum from a stroller between cries, but at the end of the day he still said, “That was the most fun I’ve ever had!”

               Pray for us as we visit with Amy’s family, travel, speak, fundraise, and try to help our kids work through all of the changes, new people, new places, and time in the car.  It’s hard for them, even though it is good to see everyone!

Thanks for your prayers and encouraging emails!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp

August 27, 2019

We’re back in the USA.  It really feels like we’ve entered the Matrix, even after only two years gone.  We arrived late on Thursday after some weather delays in Washington and my parents picked us up from the airport.  We got to the house where our family will stay for the next five months and, while unpacking some things, Amy decided to open the mini-blinds on the living room window.  She opened the curtains and then told me that we needed to let the maintenance person know the blinds were broken.  I asked her what was wrong and she said “The string is broken off.”  My dad laughed and showed us how to work blinds that don’t have pull strings.  The next morning my mom ran some dishwater while making breakfast, and Caleb scooped up two big handfuls of the foamy soap suds from the dishwater and just stared at his hands in amazement.  After a few minutes he yelled, “Hey Zekie, come look at this stuff, it’s amazing!  We have lots of those re-entry stories, mostly from our kids, if you want to read more you can find Amy’s daily posts on Facebook about the things our kids say!

 The last few weeks in Lohutok were pretty intense.  I had some great opportunities to share the gospel with Michael, our compound watchman and language helper, about how the Gospel opposes the local culture and Jesus being the only way to reach God.  Teresa started doing a Discovery Bible Study with an older woman in the village, the wife of our previous Commissioner, who wanted to learn the Bible and the Gospel.  While all of these things were happening, I was sick for six weeks straight and had to just get out of bed with a dizzy fever to keep meeting with Michael, the kids and Amy got sick towards the end of all that, cars break, I fried an expensive solar charge controller, and there were numerous other discouraging Spiritual Warfare things that made us just want to give up early, but God is working and the Gospel is powerful.  We left Lohutok for Uganda and spent a week at conference with all of the other AIM missionaries from Central Region, and now we’re here! 

 If you’re getting this by email there is a link above to the calendar where our church engagements are listed.  There are still a few openings but hopefully most of you can find a time to come and hear our updates and let us see you!  Thank you all for your prayers and support, they’re always coveted and appreciated.

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp

July 25, 2019

Sometimes you try to get the kid to work and it’s like pulling teeth….but when he has a 102 degree fever and someone’s outside washing the car…just try getting him to sit still! 

Over the last two years that we’ve been back in Lohutok, the theme that keeps recurring for us is “spiritual warfare.”  We knew that it would be hard coming back and doing “just language” for a while and when we found out some of the connections we were making went straight to the village spiritual leadership we started praying, knowing that it would be tough.  We’ve written about much of it in our newsletters and yet much of it we have not even mentioned, but it has been constant.  Now that we’re on the verge of Home Assignment let me just say, the last month has not disappointed!
Justin had malaria twice in a three-week period, and has been sick with the flu ever since (coming up on a month of being sick).  Everyone else in our house has had malaria and the flu for the last two weeks.  Screaming, miserable kids and coughing, tired parents who are trying to pack up a house are always a good combination!  Meanwhile, between the two of us, we’ve had about 5 “getting stuck in the mud” incidences in the last month which even resulted in both of our vehicles being down for repairs for a while.  There are more things that I don’t have room to list, but we’ve found that when Home Assignment is this close, the attitude of longevity and coping is much harder to maintain, and we’ve had a few nights of tear-filled family prayer as we try to stay the course and not just give up trying during the last few weeks here.

In the meantime, Paul has been growing fast in his studies and has started directly challenging some of the widely-held, wrong beliefs in his culture.  We’re not all God’s people, most of us don’t belong to Him yet.  The “god” that people in the village say they follow is actually Satan and a counterfeit.  How can we claim to love Jesus and fully trust him, but still patronize the village witchdoctor?  How can we love our brothers and sisters who are all hopelessly addicted to alcohol yet still continue with the practice of brewing gallons of the stuff as payment for helping plow our gardens?  How are we going to get our gardens done if we don’t do it and people, therefore, refuse to help us?  I even heard him end one of his Sunday morning talks with “It’s good that you guys are angry about what I said, because it means we’re finally communicating.” 

Satan’s kingdom is being rattled and he desperately wants us to quit, but with all of the good stories we can tell…we’re just getting started.

Thanks for praying with us!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

Amy and Caleb got stuck in the mud on the way to church Sunday.  Caleb found a way to keep himself busy while they waited for help! 

June 30, 2019

Ezekiel found a piece of torn cardboard and started pretending that it was his “Bible.”  Then he decided to draw pictures of Bible stories inside to make it legit.  There is the fall, Sampson, Triumphal Entry, Jesus Ascending, and lots of others…He even told us a story from his Bible during family Bible time. 

One of the biggest struggles in missions is that when the missionaries leave, either for home assignment or because God has called them to move on, the ministry that they have worked so hard to establish often dies.  Often one of the biggest reasons for this is that we do ministry in a way that is not empowering the locals to do ministry themselves.  We set up ministries in the way that we would in the US, with Americans on the stage leading.  Another reason is that many local churches can’t or don’t support a pastor, so the leaders’ time gets divided between ministry and sustenance (which usually wins).

Justin has always had a passion for business.  In his spare time he often thinks up business plans, calculates expenses and the margin of profit. I (Amy) have wondered why, having this tendency/gift, God has called us to South Sudan.  Just about anything that you would buy in a market is unavailable in the village, and the nearest market is at least 4 hours away.  During our first term, every time we went to town, loads of people would ask us to bring specific items back for them (salt, sugar, shoes, etc.).  Unable to manage all these requests, Justin began our second term by bringing back a truckload of basic items to sell at cost.  What’s even better is that he is partnering with Paul to sell these things together, each in their own respective villages! 

Paul is learning how to run a business, make sure he’s making a profit, calculate costs, etc.!  Today Paul told Justin that he has a bunch of goats.  His plan was to sell them in town, but the first two he sold brought a low price, so now he is planning to trade them for cows, hire some to walk those cows to town, and sell them at a much higher profit.  He is trying out new business ideas, on his own, to figure out what works!  We are tremendously excited because this is another way that he can support himself, without being dependent on outside help, and continue to disciple and evangelize his tribe! 
I (Amy) am making effort to take the boys out daily to play with local kids, or sometimes the kids just come to our house to play.  This has been a huge learning process – years – during which I am learning how to shepherd my boys to love local kids, despite cultural differences and challenges. 

Please pray for our boys as God is using this to shape them and teach them to give up their own rights (like the right of not being a spectacle), for the sake of the Gospel. 

I am also continuing to take Teresa to Lolonga so that she can teach a Bible story to the ladies in the church there, as long as the road conditions allow for us to go.  Justin is continuing Bible education with Paul, and we are both studying language. 

Please pray for us as we and the boys learn language and culture, and for the people God has placed in our lives.  To God be the glory!

Until the whole world hears,

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

Ezekiel wanted a slingshot like his local friends, so they helped him make one. 

May 31, 2019

For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.  
2 Timothy 1:6-7

Walking around a village in South Sudan can often leave one with a sense of despair.  The needs for medical attention are overwhelming.  We live in a village where toilet paper is rare and latrines are almost non-existent.  One can imagine the sicknesses that run through the village as a result.  It’s rare to meet a woman who hasn’t buried one of her children. 

Since I (Amy) am not a medical professional, it makes it even more overwhelming.  This points me to Jesus, and by God’s grace, I am hopefully able to point others to him as well.  This is one boy that I met a few weeks ago.  His name is Ekol Jamus, he’s somewhere between 6 and 8 years old.  Ekol has been sick for probably 9 months (I’m really just estimating).  He was taken to Juba and began treatment for tuberculosis there, but has only become sicker.  I have been praying vehemently for him, and have asked many of you to pray as well.  I hope to go and visit him sometime in the next few days and will update you on his situation.  Thanks so much!

I have also been burdened with the need for help with our boys.  We needed help figuring out how to help them learn language, as well as just making sure their social needs are met.  There are a few specific areas I had felt burdened about.  Enter Amanya, our friend who taught us language during our first term.  Most people who leave the village to attend school never return, leaving the village in the same position they were before.  Amanya went to University in Kampala for four years, and thankfully, he has returned and wants to stay!  He’s earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development and wants to use it in the village.  He is teaching language to Ezekiel, and hopefully will teach Caleb at some point.  He is also helping me host a playgroup at our house for Caleb’s age-mates every week (Caleb does get some exposure to the language through this). 

We are praying about other ways God would use Amanya in the village.  We appreciate your prayers for Amanya to figure out how God would use him, and for healing for sweet Ekol. 

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb Culp

April 29, 2019

Burning the leavened bread before Passover, teaching the kids about finding and getting rid of sin in our lives…and “Lamby” got to be there for it! 

           Every year we think it would be fun to do something for Passover.  This year we finally had time to do it!  The Israelites were told to bring a young lamb into their home on Sunday and keep it for 4 days before slaughtering it on Passover.  Our kids went through the exercises of searching the house the night before for leavened bread (which Amy cleverly hid) and burning it outside.  They bottle-fed the lamb and gave it a name, and then on Thursday he became supper.  We had some friends over and we read through a gospel-centered Passover Seder and the kids got to learn some valuable lessons.  We often say “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” but the image is so scrubbed and sanitized that it’s easy to forget that Jesus had a mother who nursed Him, brothers and sisters who loved Him, and friends who spent years with him.  The kids got to say goodbye to Lamby before we did the deed, but Jesus’ friends didn’t get to say goodbye.  They watched him be arrested, beaten tried, nailed, mocked and killed.  Now we understand the beauty of Jesus’ death and Resurrection for our adoption and sanctification, but when Jesus was laid in the tomb His friends were hopeless, they had no idea what was about to come!  What a great opportunity to teach Ezekiel and Caleb about the seriousness of their sin and the depths to which Jesus had to go for their salvation.

We had Lamby in our house for 4 days, from Palm Sunday until Thursday when he became our Passover meal.  The kids learned how people loved Jesus before he had to die for our sin. 

           Amy has been busy with homeschool, discipling Teresa and weekly meetings with the ladies from Lalonga where they are learning Bible stories to share and understand the gospel.  She has gotten to overcome some of the strong African suppositions about the beginning of sin and judgment.  Why were Adam and Eve ashamed?  It wasn’t because there was something wrong with being naked or because (as many here believe) their nakedness meant they had “come together.”  The shame came because understanding sin meant understanding nakedness…having something to hide…broken relationship with God, man and creation.

           Justin has also been busy with language and studying Life of Christ and Old Testament with Paul.  Last week we talked about John the Baptist, after all that he had seen and done, doubting that Jesus was the Messiah.  We talked about prayers that feel like they haven’t been answered.  Paul acknowledged that after three years of trying to have a second child and not succeeding, His wife is happier and more joyful than she has ever been because she knows that God is a good Father, providing for her needs, and that she doesn’t have to be jealous or angry about being barren.  In the midst of this “unanswered prayer” God has taught Issaye that she can be content with what He has given her and find joy in it, and Paul is seeing God’s sovereign hand working in things that don’t go the way we want them to go.

           This month Amy gets to go to a missionary wives’ retreat for a week where she will be pampered, fed and get to spend time with other wives from African mission fields.  During that week, while we wait for Amy’s return, Justin and the kids will be getting some shopping and car work done during our last trip to Uganda before home assignment!

          There are still quite a few churches whom I have emailed but who have not responded.  We are currently scheduling churches in St. Louis during October and Kansas City for November and December.  If you are reading this and we haven’t been scheduled at your church yet, help us out!  You can respond to these newsletter emails to get ahold of us, and we would love to connect with as many of you as possible while we are home.  If we don’t get to visit your church, we can always meet for coffee or a meal sometime and catch up.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

Lamby’s sad fate.  We did follow the law and left no piece of him uneaten for the next day! 

March 26, 2019

During our stay in Torit we went to a church, in a building, with instruments.  Something that our kids aren’t so accustomed to!

           Last month we had a visit with Amy’s parents, who came to see us in Uganda.  We got to do some fun stuff with them and had some sweet time!  A few days after they left, we hit the road to come back to Lohutok.  We always stay overnight in Kitgum on the way home, sometimes for an extra day to finish shopping and paperwork needed to leave Uganda.  The morning we were set to leave, Caleb got a fever.  It seems like every time we try to get back to South Sudan, something happens!  It seemed like he had malaria or some kind of viral thing, so we decided to head home.  The next day he started to get a rash on his body, which is a little concerning with Caleb.  In the past he has had something called HSP and we were told that he needed to see a doctor if it recurs, so thirty-six hours after we got home he boarded a plane with Amy to go to Nairobi!  Amy and Caleb spent the week in Kenya while Ezekiel and I stayed home, went to some local funerals and paid visits to people we hadn’t seen in a while.  It turns out Caleb had Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease which is a virus that goes away without treatment.  Praise the Lord! 
           While Amy and Caleb were gone, there were some issues in our village.  We were asked to go to Torit for a few days by our leadership, so Amy’s flight was changed and Ezekiel and I met them there the following day.  We stayed in Torit for about a week while we met with various people, I had some lessons with Paul, and tried to make most of the time, and two days ago I came back.  This weekend I’ve been visiting people in the village, helping with some of the needs they have, and practicing language while getting to know more people in the community.  Amy and the kids are coming back by plane tomorrow! 
           Please pray for the people in Lohutok.  There is lots of fear and uncertainty, and people desperately need the hope of Jesus Christ to rule in their lives.  Pray that God would provide for the extra expenses of evacuating Amy and Caleb, and pray that we would be able to stay and have time to keep learning language and that our new relationships would lead to gospel opportunities.  Thanks as always for your prayer and support

Me: Carol, I know he’s fixing your hair but I think he’s actually unravelling your braids… 

Carol: That’s okay, I don’t want to miss out on the sweetness. 

March 2, 2019

           I love reading heroic stories to my kids.  I just finished reading The Book of Three, and the series which follows, to Ezekiel.  There are so many good lessons about self-sacrifice, heroism, humility and, as Elizabeth Elliot once said, “Sometimes fear does not subside, and one must choose to do it afraid.”  At the very end of the last book Taran, who had gone from “Assistant Pig-Keeper” to leading a war party as commissioned by the High King of the land was realizing that all of the glory that he had once sought as a boy was overrated in light of the sacrifice and personal loss that comes in the fight against evil.  He was faced with abandoning one of his friends to certain death, or completely ruining his plan for battle and his friend said, “Leave me!  Are you a war leader or an assistant pig-keeper?”  Taran’s response was, “Don’t you know, friend?  I’m an assistant pig-keeper.” 
           I was sad when these stories ended, but it meant that last week I got to start reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, a book with which most of you are familiar.  If you’re not, you should go read it and then finish this letter!  We are still in the early parts of the story, but last night we read the part where Edmund, having just returned from his first trip to Narnia, decides to betray Lucy in his plan to help betray the other siblings to the Witch.  Lucy had her hopes up that Edmund would corroborate her story, when he surprised her by saying it was all a child’s game of pretend.  After Ezekiel went to sleep, still angry that Edmund would do such a terrible thing, I was meditating on what I know is eventually going to happen.  Think about it, at the end of the book Edmund is sitting on a throne, reigning equally with his other siblings.  He’s not a second-class citizen who just gets to be forgiven, he is utterly and completely forgiven and reinstated to equal kingship as the rest!  This is the gospel that keeps us going when we fail, and that is absolutely worth giving up our lives to take to the unreached! 
           We’ve had a good visit with Amy’s parents, and will be headed back home in a few days.  Thank you for your support and prayer as we continue the language-learning process, and work toward new gospel relationships that will turn into churches!

My generator needed fixed…this is what the generator repair shop looks like in Kampala! 

January 26, 2019

Amy got some homemade jewelry for her birthday.

“Daddy, that guy is a king!”  We were sitting at a funeral in the village for a small child who had died, I had taken both of the kids with me because Amy was studying language.  As usual, we walked to the place where everyone was sitting, shook hands with the whole group of women, and then with the whole group of men, and sat down with the men.  Ezekiel and Caleb were shy and I had to keep reminding them that it’s rude to not greet people, and eventually they finished shaking all of the hands and started playing.  The men usually call out to the kids and try to talk to or play with them, and our kids are always shy and give the “leave me alone” whine, and they were doing it on this day.

It is customary for people to get up and share something with the people who had come to mourn, sometimes just talking about the deceased, sometimes encouraging people not to despair (suicide is a common issue on the village) and sometimes just….talking.  I was rehearsing in my mind the Bible story I wanted to tell and looking up a few vocabulary words on my flashcard app so that I could try to tell it in Lopit when my kids started saying “Daddy!  Look, a king!”  I turned around and saw a man coming who was wearing a traditional African-style hat.  He is a Major General in South Sudan’s army, and is an important person in the village, but has been away for many years stationed in a far part of the country.  The General came and sat with us under the tree and I introduced myself and we began to talk.

My kids, who are usually closed off and shy with Lopit people trying to greet them (EVERYONE tries to grab the kids and they, understandably, don’t like that!) started climbing on the General, playing with him, bringing him into their pretend games, and even inviting him to our house that night for supper!  As it was time for us to go home, I told the General that I wanted to address the crowd before I left, and proceeded to tell the story about the death of David’s child, how David was confident that one day he would see his son again, and how he could be sure of that future because he was a man who chased God’s heart.  I talked about how the heart of God is for people to repent of sin, turn from their old life and follow Jesus, and how that gives us confidence about our place in eternity.  I also said that people who reject the Savior will be separated from God and everyone else, but the reason we are in Lohutok is because it is our desire to see people united with God and following Him.

It is customary, also, as someone is speaking at these events, for another person to stand and repeat everything that person says.  I still don’t understand the reasoning behind this, but that is what is usually done.  On this day, the General stood to be my <repeater>.  Later that night the General did, in fact, come to our house for supper and we had a good talk about who we are, why we’re here, the need for the gospel in Lohutok, and our approach to learning language and discipling people before any other “development” is possible.  He heartily agreed with us and left our house as a new friend and advocate in the village.  We were also able to discuss with him the right approach to some village politics that have been plaguing us as men who claim to be “the church” come and seek power and money.

I remember when I was a new believer, the person who led me to Christ graciously included me in his family for years following my salvation.  I remember seeing the pressures put upon children in ministry, and how he labored hard to give his young son the freedom to just “be a boy” despite being constantly watched and criticized.  We have tried hard not to put these pressures on our kids, but the fact is they are part of our ministry here and their behavior affects the way people see the gospel.  Sometimes missionary children just stay separate from the community, and sometimes they are so much a part of the community that they aren’t kept safe in a place where they are outsiders and treated differently, but we have tried hard to seek the balance between these two.

On this night, as we were doing family devotions, we talked about 1 John 4:7-8, one of the verses that the kids have memorized, as well as what Jesus said about loving our neighbors as ourselves.  I encouraged Ezekiel that, although he’s normally shy and scared around local people, tonight we made a good friend in the village because Ezekiel thought to invite him, and even insist repeatedly, that the General come over for supper.  It was a good lesson for the kids about being in Lohutok to show and tell people about Jesus, and the way that our actions and attitudes toward them communicate way more than our words.

Both of us had birthdays since the last newsletter.  I think my presents were better than Amy’s but she disagrees!

Please continue to pray for us as we work here.  It is hard to say “We’re just going to study language until we’re fluent enough to start doing evangelism” because the long missionary history in this village leads to lots of outside pressure from the community leaders and “The Church” here to spend lots of money doing development projects and other things that are not sustainable and don’t last when missionaries leave.  As I write this, I’m still cooling down after yesterday’s 2 ½ hour meeting with some people who came to the village just to “shake down” the missionaries, make us feel threatened, and try to shame/force us into doing projects for which we’re not equipped or called.  Pray that God would sustain us, give us grace and patience, and continue to provide us with key relationships in the village that will help protect us while we are in the learning phase of this long-term ministry.

On another note, we are planning a home-assignment for later this year.  We will be in Kansas City around the end of August and will return to Lohutok after the holidays.  I’m busy working on the calendar for those months, lining up where we will be speaking so we can decide when we’ll be in St. Louis, Columbus, Corinth and the other places we need to visit.  If you are interested in having us come and give an update to the church, please respond to this email or contact me another way and we would be glad to set something up!
As always, thanks for your prayer and support!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

Our kids love having books read to them…if anyone seems interested in reading to our boys, it may never end.  On this day Aunty Carol was the willing subject!