November 27, 2015

November 27, 2015

A couple of weeks ago I (Justin) decided to make a trip to Uganda. For various reasons, the work of discipleship in the villages had come to a stop, and Paul had to spend some time in Juba getting paperwork for his job so I didn’t have much work to do. One of our friends in Lohutok needed some things brought back from Kampala and offered to pay for the trip, so I agreed to help him.
I left early in the morning, made it across the border into Uganda, and found that they were doing some nice work on the road. I took the detour around a few places where they were burying drainage tunnels in the road, and then passed by a few that were finished. I was driving around 40mph and came over a hill to find what looked like another trench. There was no warning before the hill, and when I tried to stop quickly the antilock brakes engaged, so I quickly tried to dodge the trench and make the detour ‘ramp’ but by then it was too late, and I drove into the hole, about 2 meters deep, at 40mph.

It’s been quite the adventure since then. What was supposed to be a 6 day trip with 2 in Kampala has turned into more than 2 weeks while waiting to get the vehicle fixed. We were able to remove the bumper and drive the vehicle the remaining 300 miles to Kampala where I have someone I trust to do the work. Fortunately Amy and Ezekiel weren’t with me.

Now, we’re planning to come to Uganda at the end of December to start our journey back to the US for Home Assignment, and it seems that when I get back to Lohutok we’ll only have about two weeks before we have to come back again! Amy is flying to Kampala but Ezekiel and I will drive down. We need the vehicle in Uganda for some other repairs, but with Amy being 6 months’ pregnant, we don’t want her bouncing around for 2 days on the African roads.

Will you pray that God provides what we need to pay for the truck to be repaired, that we finish the rest of our traveling safely, that Amy is encouraged and sustained while she’s home alone with Ezekiel waiting for me to get back?

Thanks!

Justin Culp
jculp123180@gmail.com

October 29, 2015

October 29, 2015

“Will you teach me about God?” she asked me. I didn’t really know her name; although I was fairly sure I had heard of her and had seen her before. I prayed that God would give me the grace to sufficiently teach her Scripture – in spite of the language barrier and the countless other bridges we would have to cross together.

I had been praying for a woman to invest in for several months. I was getting frustrated and exhausted looking for someone. Everyone that I found was either more interested in what I had to give them, wasn’t interested in Jesus, or they weren’t interested in being discipled (probably because they were much older than me). Finally, I prayed that God would send to me whoever He wanted me to disciple.

That’s when she came, 10 months ago. Her name is Teresa (her Lopit name is Ihuro, meaning ‘Bamboo’). She says she is 14 years old, although she looks more like 11 or 12. Her grandfather is the village ‘landlord,’ which has nothing to do with owning land but means that people in the village go to him before they plant their crops, and he performs magic to ‘bless’ their crops.

Adamantly opposed to the gospel, He told Teresa that if she continued going to church he would burn all of her clothes. He has told all of his family – including Teresa – never to return to his house. She was living with him up to that point. Her father lives in a village several hours away, and the same grandfather had previously attempted to kill her mother and told her not to return to the house. She is now living with her grandmother, who he has also told not to come back to his house.

After a couple of months Teresa started working for us, which gives me an opportunity to disciple her on a daily basis. I tell her a Bible story on Saturdays and have her memorize it throughout the week. It turns out that her English is better than I thought, and I’m able to tell most of it in Lopit but fill in with English when I need to. It also gives me an opportunity to pray for her and teach her about godly parenting, for the day she has children. She is great with Ezekiel. She has really become his best friend.

Over the past few months, through language issues and other barriers, we have discussed the stories from Creation to the 10 Commandments. I’m hoping to go through a few more and then get to the New Testament before we leave for furlough. Teresa has a great attitude about work (hard to find around here), has a hunger for God’s Word that impresses me, and is the most frugal South Sudanese person I’ve ever met. She saves her money from her salary at our house to buy food and pay for school fees for herself and her family.

Sometimes we think she is one of the only true believers in Lohutok, our village. Please pray that God would give Teresa sweet fellowship with the ladies in Lolonga while we are gone, that she would not feel alone and that God would provide for her to keep learning stories and for her other needs.

September 28, 2015

September 28, 2015

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; - Philippians 3:20

The problem with writing a monthly newsletter is that, when things are slow and boring or even difficult and discouraging, one still feels the need to think of something exciting to put in the newsletter! After sitting at my computer for a few days trying to think of something, I just decided to give it up! The work in Lacharok seems to have stopped. Paul is still optimistic that the guys will come back, but we have not had a good storying session with them since May. In fact, the “leader” of that group, James Latoy, has only been around for one visit since May. On that visit he told us that many of the people were “discouraged” and didn’t want to come anymore. When I asked why he said “They think you deceived them because they were waiting for you to buy them uniforms and book bags.” To memorize stories!

Earlier this week I was in Torit buying some supplies and a new battery for the Landcruiser. As I was pulling up to my last stop, the hardware store, I switched on my left turn-indicator. When an oncoming motorbike driver saw my indicator, he freaked out, lost control of the motorbike, and wiped out on the road. He only had some scrapes on his arms and leg, but the front wheel of his motorbike slid under my vehicle, and my back tire went over it, breaking part of the motorcycle. I spent 6 hours on Monday at the traffic police station where they basically told me, “These guys drive too fast on their motorbikes and cause accidents, but you can’t leave him with all of the expenses, so we’re going to charge you. Don’t worry your insurance will pay half.” Now I’m waiting for his follow-up visit to the hospital for his scrapes before I can find out how much that is going to cost.

The night after the motorbike incident I couldn’t sleep. Every time I fell asleep I would dream that people were on my front porch begging for something, or a ride somewhere, or forcing me to pay something, and I had to keep waking up and deciding if it was real or a dream!

Please pray for us as we spend the last few months before our home-assignment. Pray that God would clearly show us closed-doors, when to say no, and give us patience as we live as aliens and strangers in this world.

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and ??

August 31, 2015

August 31, 2015

Yesterday I was riding in the car with Paul. We had a 2 hour drive to Lacharok and no passengers (quite a rare occurance!) so it was a good chance to talk to the guy who is sometimes our only faithful disciple. I was talking to him about the time that we’re going to be gone next year, from February to November, for furlough. Lately it seems like every time we have to take a trip or take a few weeks off from doing Bible study in the villages (Lalonga and Lacharok), it can take weeks to re-connect and catch up with people.

That makes the 8-9 months we’re going to be away next year a little stressful. I asked Paul what it would take to make sure that the groups keep meeting and keep learning Bible stories while we’re gone and he answered, “I can read the Bible and learn the stories I need to tell, but I don’t know how to get from the ‘What does it say?’ to the ‘What does it mean?’ and ‘What should we do?’” I told him we could work on some ways to do that over the next few months, but then decided to just talk about it. We reviewed the golden calf story and then I asked him, “What does this story teach us about God?” He couldn’t give me an answer, so I repeated the first two sentences of the story and then asked the question again, and immediately he said “That’s easy, God keeps his promises.”

After coming up with five statements about God from the story, I asked him, “What does this story teach us about mankind?” We went through the story bit by bit again but mostly came up with “People are quick to disobey and utterly rebel against God.” After that I asked him, “Now what can we apply to our own lives from this story?” Again he was quiet. I repeated the sentence, “People are quick to disobey and rebel against God” and said “Is that true about you?” He agreed that it was, so I said “How?” He gave me a few general answers about things he used to do, so I said “What about yesterday? How were you quick to disobey and rebel against God yesterday?”

Again he was quiet. I shared with him some of my own shortcomings. Impatience with people, especially my wife, anger and general arrogance about getting my own way, those were just a few things I told him. Finally he interrupted me as I was about to start again and said, “Sometimes my wife talks to me a certain way and I just get angry!” After that he went on to tell me about other things that he does, and knows are sinful, but they are things that he’s never really considered a need to repent from. They’re not “big” like drunkenness or murder or going to the rainmaker. We then discussed the importance to repent from those things, and have a right attitude about ourselves by realizing our own sin. It was a good drive overall…

Justin (and Amy, Ezekiel and “New Baby”)

July 29, 2015

July 29, 2015

For the past few weeks I’ve been lamenting to Amy about how it seems like there’s not much happening with our disciples. One of them in Loming just doesn’t come when we’re supposed to meet, and in Lacharok they asked us to stop coming for three weeks or so because everyone is busy working in the gardens. I decided to use the down time to get some work done on the house, but getting the materials we need just hasn’t worked out either, so it feels like I’m just sitting idle.

Last week Paul and I decided that, in addition to studying stories with the ladies in his church on Sunday mornings, we would also start meeting with them on Wednesday mornings to review the stories and make sure they know them well. On Wednesday I went at 6:30 in the morning and listened while Paul spent two hours teaching the creation story to a group of seven women and one man. At the end they even turned the creation story into a song! I was hoping to somehow include the song with the online version of this update, but I haven’t been able to get a recording of it yet. When I do I’ll send a separate email, or I’ll add a video to next month’s newsletter.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us and giving toward the well project. Pioneers’ finance system has been down for a while since they are installing new software, so I haven’t been able to see individual giving since mid-June, but it seems like the rest of the money to pay for the drilling project has come in! Our next goal will be to get a pump for the well and build a water tower to hold the water and feed the house. Those things will come later!

Thanks!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and…someone else!

June 29, 2015

June 29, 2015

This is Madalena. Madalena has been one of the regular members/leaders in the Lalonga church for a while now. She leads most of the singing and handles all of the offerings, and a few times when the pastor was out of town, she even told the Bible story. Madalena also comes with us to another village, Lacharok, every week because she wants to participate in the Bible study there and sometimes brings some grain to sell.

One Tuesday I went to Lalonga to meet with Paul. I found his house empty, he had gone to Kapoeta to sell his bamboo. Since Paul wasn’t around I walked up to Madalena’s house to visit and ask if she knew about Paul’s plans for returning. Nobody had heard from Paul but they told me that Madalena’s husband was sick. Madalena’s husband was living in Torit and working for the fire brigade. He had three wives (and one who died from a snake bite) and took great care of all three of them. I had only met him a few times when he came to thank me for helping his wife get out to sell her grain.

The symptoms seemed like malaria, he had a fever and was sweating and dizzy, but it seemed advanced, like he’d been sick for a long time. I gave him some malaria medicine that I had in my bag and I took him to Lohutok to visit the clinic. After they had been at the clinic for two days, Madalena came to my house at 10:00pm on a Wednesday night and told me that her husband had died. I drove them back to Lalonga with the body in the back of the pickup and they buried him that night.

I’m writing this newsletter four days after the husband’s death. Today we went to Lalonga for worship but Paul was still gone. I thought that meant we wouldn’t meet since there was no preacher who spoke Lopit, but I was wrong. We went to Madalena’s house where the funeral was still in full effect. There were at least fifty people sitting around her house mourning. Madalena called everyone over to sit around her, led some singing, and told the story of Genesis 1-3. Then she preached the gospel. At her own husband’s funeral.

Pray for Madalena and her children as they adjust to life without the husband to provide for them.

Pray that God would provide godly examples for their children and that they would have the food and things they need to live.

Thanks!

Justin, Amy and Ezekiel

May 28, 2015

May 28, 2015

Meet Paul and Issaye. Eight years ago, Paul was forced to marry Issaye by his family even though he didn’t want to. A few years later it became apparent that the two of them couldn’t conceive a child. In this culture, children are a big deal and not being able to conceive is an even bigger deal. Both Paul and Issaye faced pressure from their families to divorce and remarry, or in Paul’s case to take additional wives to add children to the family.  At some point in Paul’s life, he said that a Catholic priest told him that despite their problems, he should love his wife, never divorce, and never take additional wives. Paul says they continued trying various “traditional” methods to cure sterility, but none of those worked.  About 3 years ago Paul met Chuck. Through Chuck’s counsel and guidance,

Paul decided to renounce the local traditions and magic and to make a public statement that he was trusting God to provide him with a child. There were plans to take Paul and Issaye to Kijabe hospital in Kenya to explore the medical cause of this problem, but a week before that trip was scheduled Paul told us that Issaye was late for her monthly cycle. The next day she took a pregnancy test which read positive.

On April 24, Issaye gave birth to Joseph Malis, strong and healthy. They chose the name “Joseph”
after Paul and I listened to Genesis in the car. He heard about Rachel’s inability to deliver, and when God finally gave her a child they called him Joseph. The word “Malis” is typically used for “I’m sorry” but it really means “There is nothing bad.” Paul chose that name to say that their bad condition has finally ended. Will you pray that Joseph grows up to be a healthy man who loves Jesus, and that he can have many brothers and sisters?

Thanks!