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!

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

October 30, 2018

There has been a consistent theme in our last few newsletters if you haven’t noticed.  At the end of July we asked you to pray about some strategic relationships in our village and the potential for spiritual warfare now that we are focusing on language study and a long-term plan for the gospel in this village that seems to be so hard to reach.

Let me tell you, our enemy does not disappoint, but neither does our Savior!  This month we went to Kenya for some required training, and we have been blessed by the fellowship and teaching, but it’s been a trying time as well.  Amy has had trouble sleeping at home because of a mold problem in our house that has to do with the way rain runs off of our roof, so I have been working on a plan to solve that.  I went to town to get some supplies for that project, and Amy and the kids went along to get a few days’ break.  On my way back home with a truck full of supplies, one of the wheels started falling off of our truck.  The lug nuts/studs just started breaking!  I’ve had problems with that particular wheel lately and was glad that we were on our way to Uganda where we could get it looked at (It’s cheaper to fly from Uganda so we were planning to drive there first), but all of a sudden I had to make a decision.  Do I drive to Uganda with the family in a vehicle that insists on losing a wheel?

I started writing emails to people who might help me get Amy and the kids to Uganda by air so I could drive down slowly and without the worry of having them in the car.  At first I was told that it wouldn’t be possible to get there from here, but in the end our friends at MAF were able to make it happen…the email I got said “We can pick them up, it will be tomorrow at 9am!”  So we rushed to unpack from our trip to Torit and repack for Amy and the kids to fly the next morning.  Since I was home for a few days by myself, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some things I’ve been putting off like spraying our house for mosquitoes.  The first night I was home, I got up into the attic space to look at the roof structure and make a plan for the mold/water problem, and as I was climbing down from there my ladder collapsed.  With me at the top.  I laid on the floor and said “Ow!” for a while and then messaged our friend Scott who came down and helped me.  I’m pretty sure my heel is broken and I know a few ribs are, but I wasn’t able to get an XRay and it is all healing slowly, but for anyone who knows me, not being able to walk is a bit of a trial.

Amy went to Uganda with the kids, and the first day she was there she decided to go to a hospital and get some labs and vaccinations that the kids needed.  While they were in the waiting room, she noticed a funny-looking rash on Caleb’s legs.  She asked the doctors at the hospital to look at it and they told her it was just some sort of viral rash that she shouldn’t worry about, but Amy thought it looked different, like bruises, so she kept exploring.  After messaging a few friends at home and some who live nearby, Amy went to another pediatrician who confirmed that Caleb had HSP.  It’s some kind of auto-immune issue that causes bleeding and has other potential complications.
I managed to drive myself to Uganda after a couple of days.  Scott helped me do the mosquito spraying and packing for the trip.  It wasn’t very easy to make the 2-day drive with a broken foot and ribs, and even though my family flew out so that I could come in the pickup, in the end I had to bring a different vehicle since I couldn’t drive with the clutch.

I got to Uganda and had a few days to potentially get my foot looked at and get the mechanic started on what we needed him to do.  I never got a chance to go in for my foot because Caleb was awake all night, miserable that his tummy hurt, and was at the hospital for part of most of those days.  One night Amy took him to the Emergency Room for an ultrasound because of a possible blockage/intussusception, but in the end there weren’t any major concerns.  We flew to Kenya to head to our training conference, and spent those weeks trying to manage two crazy kids in a hotel with basically one functioning parent (Amy) who has been taking care of all of us!  Ezekiel was sick for one night as well, so Amy has been the only well person and has been a nurse for our whole family!

With all of that going on we’ve still managed to get a lot of good insight from this training.  We have been learning more about African culture, traditional worldviews and other things pertinent to our work here.  We have also made lots of new friends and the kids have had lots of fun.

Language study has been going well, I have made some major strides in storytelling, hearing and vocabulary and Amy is studying regularly but is struggling with balancing language time with homeschool.

Ezekiel turned six while we were in Kenya!  He had so many of his new friends giving him drawings, treats and presents all day long…I don’t think he minded all of the extra attention! 

Would you keep praying for us in this endeavor?  We are sold on the fact that ministry here is going to take some time to get going and show fruit and are dedicated to “sticking it out” but it gets pretty tiresome after months and months of one sickness, injury, car issue or village drama after another!  Pray that God would give us endurance, eyes fixed on Jesus, and joy in His love for us.  Pray that we would do a good job taking care of ourselves and each other, that Satan would not succeed in driving wedges between us in our family, our team or with the village.  Pray that we would use our time well as we manage everything that is being thrown at us and still strive to learn the local language well enough to share the gospel, and pray that God would open doors for the Gospel and His power to be known in Lohutok and in the Lopit tribe as a whole.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb

September 29, 2018

The boys and I were walking down the road, looking for cows when a crowd of women came walking toward us with spears and cow bells, ringing them in our faces and dancing wildly with their spears.  Thoroughly confused, I asked them to explain more.  “The garden is crying,” they explained.  For the next two hours, masses of women walked by us doing the same, some dancing wildly in circles around us.  Between the information I gathered from multiple ladies and our watchman, we learned a considerable amount about the culture that day. 

“The garden is crying” when the crops have been destroyed by insects.  When this happens, they bring their spears and cow bells and have a funeral for the garden.  Each woman who has had crops eaten will cut it at the stalk.  They tie multiple strands together and place them in the middle of the road, as a sign to show what has occurred.  Here is one that we found while driving through another village:

Anyone who lives in the village of the destroyed crop can drive or walk through undisturbed, but those from other villages must pay to cross the barrier. 

After cutting the crops they continue the funeral with dancing and singing.  I have been told they also sacrifice a goat to appease the land.  They carry the garden up to the fuara, which is the community meeting place where funerals are held.  They continue the funeral for the garden there.  The mind blowing thing about this is that at some point, the women get on their hands and knees, crawling a good portion of the way to the funeral.  The path is rocky, unsteady, full of dung (from animals and humans) and often has thorns. 

When they arrive, they beat the drums and dance, just as they would at a normal funeral for a loved one. 

Please pray for us as we attempt to learn the language and culture here, and look for culturally appropriate ways to share the Gospel.  Please pray that we abide well, teach our boys to do the same, and for physical emotional protection for us. 

Justin continues to meet with Paul, and I continue to meet with Teresa.  Please pray for abundant grace for them to abide in Jesus, stand firm, find joy and stay the course.  Paul and his wife would like to have another baby (for the amazing story of their infertility and miraculous pregnancy, ask for one of our earlier newsletters).  They have been unable to conceive, however, and her family has stated that they “have cursed her” because Paul’s family failed to pay all of the cows when they were married.  Cows are used as a dowry, and the husband’s family will often “make a down payment” at the time of the wedding, intending to pay the rest later.  Please pray that in spite of this, she is able to get pregnant, and that the confusion regarding the cows will be resolved. 

Teresa has sent her family to the refugee camp while she remains here, having a house built for them.  Her maturity is beyond her years.  She is also going to school and working for us.

 Please continue to pray for healing for her mother (she has paranoid schizophrenia), and that her family – especially her uncle and grandfather – will repent and follow Jesus.  I have been told that the UN wants to take her mother to the hospital.  I have been trying to track down someone to find out more – about the hospital and for someone in the refugee camp to advocate for them.  We would appreciate prayer for connecti
ons and wisdom to know how to handle this situation – we are still praying for healing for her, and that her children would be able to live and grow in a safe environment. 

We are both studying language and culture, and I am homeschooling Ezekiel while Justin maintains the cars and updates things around the house as needed.  The boys are very slowly learning language (it’s not as easy as it sounds for littles). 

Thanks for praying for us and standing with us, we are truly grateful for all of you!

In Christ,

The Culps

Justin, Amy, Caleb and Ezekiel