God’s Timing.

We are in Kampala, Uganda for our first Kampala Assignment (formerly called R&R).  It has actually been quite a whirlwind this past week, as we spent all of last week doing language recordings (more on that later), then I spent all of last Thursday at MSF, and the weekend was all packing and preparing our house for us to be gone (turns out there’s a LOT to do to get ready to be gone for a month).  Then it was Tuesday morning, and we were boarding our MAF Caravan and leaving Nasir.  On my first full day in Kampala, I went to the doctor for a follow-up and then we did some grocery shopping (which was amazing).  It’s certainly surreal to be staying in a very Western house, to have running water and real toilets, and to have access to so.much.fresh.produce.  But it’s already been a huge blessing to have a little rest, to catch up with the Hendersons and other missionaries families, and to look forward to celebrating Christmas in Africa.

We’ve had a lot of emails and messages this week inquiring about our safety, so I do want to share with you a little bit about the events unfolding in South Sudan this week and how God’s timing for our R&R was perfect.

A few months ago, when we moved to Nasir, the plan was for us to leave on December 21st for this Kampala Assignment; however, about a month and a half ago, Kerry told us that MAF didn’t have any pilots available to fly us out on the 21st, so he booked us a flight for Tuesday the 17th, figuring we’d rather get to fresh fruit and showers sooner rather than waiting a few extra days longer.

Fast forward to Monday morning.  We had already told all of our employees and our friends in Nasir that we would be leaving the 17th, so everyone knew.  Simon, one of our language teachers, casually mentioned to us that we would not be landing in Juba on our way to Kampala.  When we asked why, he said there had been fighting in Juba and the airport was closed.  And then we went on talking about other things.

A few hours later, I got on BBC News-Africa to see if they were reporting the fighting, and I was stunned to see that they were reporting an attempted coup.  Um, what? Everything in Nasir couldn’t have been more normal and Simon was so casual about it that I didn’t think anything of it, really.  But still, the reports were that the violence had been contained and everything would soon return to normal.

Our pilot flew in with all of our restocking supplies on Monday afternoon, and we were busy unloading and storing all of our food for our absence.  The pilot also casually mentioned how eerie it was that there were no other planes in the air in South Sudan.  Apparently the airspace over the whole country had been closed.

Tuesday morning when we landed in Bor to refuel (the airport in Juba was still closed), we learned that South Sudan was still a no-fly zone.  The UN security guys questioned us about why we were flying, but they lightened up when we told them who we were and where we were headed.  We picked up a couple of Americans who live in Bor and were supposed to be headed out on holiday this weekend, but their organization thought it would be best to leave early just in case there still weren’t flights by the weekend.

I rode in the “co-pilot” seat on the leg from Arua to Kajjansi, so I had the benefit of hearing all of the radio calls as we were flying out.  At one point, we heard a pilot requesting to return to Entebbe shortly after takeoff because he was told that he couldn’t land in South Sudan due to security issues on the ground (which the guy in Entebbe mistook for him needing to turn back for SHOES…pretty funny).  My heart sank.

Over the last couple of days, we have continued to follow the news, and we are both stunned and deeply saddened by the continuing violence in Juba, Bor, and now some other areas in South Sudan.  We have continued to call our friends in Nasir just to check in, and they report that as of now, everything is still quiet and peaceful, same as we left it.  But our hearts are heavy for South Sudan.  We ask that you join us in warring for South Sudan–for a swift and peaceful end to the fighting.

As we reflect on this week, we are amazed at how God orchestrated our leaving when we did.  We were never in any danger at all, but we know that it gives our families and friends a tremendous amount of comfort to know we are in a completely different country while things are tense in South Sudan.  We are praying hard that the scheduled peace talks go well, things calm down, and we are able to return home to Nasir next month.

Thank you all for praying and checking in on us!