Dan, Debbie, Hannah & Greg

March 1991
DAN & DEBBIE
BADER
P.O. Box 381
Lodwar, Kenya
AFRICA
Turkana Tribesman
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Prayer Newsletter
"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who
love Him, to those who are called according to His will." Romans 8:28
Usually I like to tell a story about one of I was already kind of upset with Peilei for
our Turkana friends, but today is going to other reasons . . . and I lost my cool. I stood
be a little different. This is a story about an up with some sand in my hand then threw
American trying to adapt to the Turkana it on the ground for emphasis. I told him to
culture and failing because he didn't know just go away and leave me alone if he didn't
something any Turkana child would've want to help. After he left, I realized how
known. I'd let Satan use me.
Debbie Bruen. The calHng'"*him ^a'dog
party was planned to ; r~; r;;; : {which I guess is about
be in-between our ^ronandErgaidroppedhyfor tea^ ^ ultimate insult in
. They re two of the men 1 faced under the tree. ^ i x t . j -
ueas so that Turkana). I tried to
everybody coiild come; explain that my
we were pleased because it was going to be actions meant nothing like that to me, but
like a traditional wedding. Peilei and a few he didn't buy it. We had more words and
others from around our house were left each other, angry again,
complaining because they wanted the party
to be at Kangarisai. Others in the Bruens' Even before I got home, God reminded me
area were arguing with them there because of what He'd shown me earlier that day
they wanted it at Nakaale. How frustrating from Corinthians: my body is not my own
it was for all of us! but God bought it at a high price, and I'm
I was already kind of upset with Peilei for
other reasons . . . and I lost my cool. I stood
up with some sand in my hand then threw
it on the ground for emphasis. I told him to
just go away and leave me alone if he didn't
want to help. After he left, I realized how
I'd let Satan use me.
Immediately I headed
over to his village to
apologize. Peilei met
me half-way and gave
me some money he
owed. I apologized
then, but he refused to
accept it. He said
throwing sand like
that meant I was
calling him a dog
{which I guess is about
the ultimate insult in
Turkana). I tried to
explain that my
to use it for His glory. Clearly God was saying,
'You have to go back and apologize again and
tell him you were foolish." So I did, and in front
of a bunch of other men, too. Peilei calmed down
a little; I begged him to believe that I didn't
rmderstand before about throwing sand.
I thought surely it would end there, but a couple
hours later he had assembled a bunch of men
imder a tree {including the Chief) to charge me
with "soiling" his name. I'm sure he interpreted
my apology as weakness.
Defending myself in front of a group of
traditional elders was scary. When all the men
heard that I'd already apologized, admitted to
being foolish, and explained that throwing the
sand didn't have the same meaning to me, they
were all upset with Peilei for dragging them
there for nothing. Whew! Later I found out it's
very unusual to take someone before the elders
for something like that anyway. The meeting
turned into a good forum to talk with the guys
{and the Chief!) about what we were doing here,
and what we wanted to accomplish.
Afterwards, Peilei and I became closer than ever
before. We both agreed that we allowed Satan to
use us to destroy the church. Soon after all this
happened, he broke his toe; about the same
time, I scraped my leg pretty bad and it became
infected. We think God was trying to tell us
something!
That situation turned into a positive thing, but
it illustrates a fact of life for us here. A large
part of the Turkana understanding about the
gospel naturally comes from observing our lives.
Yet, with the tensions created by our different
cultures, it's doubly hard to live a life viewed by
them as good. That's the reason, though, why we
live right here among them and learn their
language and culture, so we can discover those
things and build on them. It sure can be an
emotional drain though. Yovu* prayers sustain
us, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
The six months since our last newsletter have
been excitiag. A lot of good things have begun to
happen; I've been looking forward to telling you
about them.
Typical large men's course (no the men aren't
large, the course is). This one was attended by
over 100 men!
Church, Turkana style!
'. X
A
These two are up to something!
Rick Bruen and 1 have had several of what our
Turkana team calls "large men's courses."
They're held out around where the men live,
usually in dry riverbeds by weUs. We spend
three days and two nights out there teaching,
singing, eating, and fellowshiping with them.
{Oh, yes, we even play horseshoes!) I'm
continually amazed how overjoyed Turkana
men are to hear God's Word. They can't seem
to get enough.
At Lomenyenenyang we had one of
those courses; ten men were baptized!
After teaching about baptism, I asked
how many of them wanted to obey Jesus
and be baptized. At ifirst only one very
old man wanted to. {Turkana are afraid
ofbeing down into water.) This man was
amazing. He didn't care what any of the
others thought about him, he'd heard
Jesus' Good News and wanted to line up
with Him. After this old man broke the
ice {did I say "ice," in Turkana^) . . .
anjnvay after he stepped out, guys just
kept coming imtil ten of them were
baptized along with him.
We had another course at Katir
where 50 or 60 men were close to
committing their lives to Jesus; but as a
group they decided to wait and make
sure they knew what they were getting
into. A wise decision that I agreed with.
When we baptize someone here, it's a major
operation. We have to dig a hole in a dry
riverbed, line it with a tarp, and fill it with
precious water. I've never seen such a graphic
illustration of being buried with Christ. It
looks just like they're being lowered into a
grave! The neatest part is that we get to see
themraised back up, a new creation.
We also held a small course just for
men who I hope will be leaders some
day. This one was a lot like the large
courses, but with more emphasis on
teaching deeper things. I'm excited
about the future, seeing how interested
these men are to spread the gospel. We
also talked a lot about how to make the
church relevant to their traditional
Turkana culture.
From those discussions, we discovered some
things that have subsequently been put into
practice. For instance,
We've begun meeting on Sunday evening
instead of in the morning. Evening is their
natural time for meetings of
celebration-type things. You can't imagine
the difference just that little thing has
made. The level of enjojnment has gone way
up and many more people are coming.
We've quit meeting at one central location
every week and are breaking up into
regional groups which meet in between a
few villages. The interesting thing is that
at just one of these, we have as many
people coming as we had coming to the one.
central location before (about 60 to 70).
This first group is beginning to meet
whether I'm there or not. A second group
has just started on their own, led by my
Turkana brother, Lodeiya, near his home.
In the same area that the one central
church used to cover, there's room for
several more village groups.
We've also done some things to try and
make our worship more relevant in their
traditional culture: We're including some
traditional prayers which are in Jesus'
name and adding some traditional jumping
to Christian songs and words. {They do this
jumping at weddings and basically any
celebration gathering.) The joy these thiugs
have brought to the church is considerable.
The most thrilling thing about all this is that
now it truly seems possible to take this
model of chiuch anywhere there are
nomadic homes. This worship model can
move with them wherever they move to,
and it's becoming more and more familiar
to them because they use traditional
formats they feel comfortable with. That
means they'U want to take this tjqie of
worship with them and won't be afraid to
introduce others to it.
I don't want to leave you with the impression
that the gospel is spreading all over this valley
like wild fire. It's just beginning. People all
over are very interested, but there's still such
a long way to go before these dreams can be
realized. Leaders have to be found and trained or no one's going to take the church
anywhere. We've got to teach people to read the Bible in Turkana so all teaching doesn't have
to originate with us. And, of course, somewhere along the line we're going to have to confront
the partially hidden world of diviners and cursing that we know almost nothing about.
There's a lot to do yet, but we just keep plugging away. We could sure use more people to help.
Would you pray about that? Please pray with us about all these things.
Debbie and I want to thank all of you who are supporting us financially and prayerfiiUy.
As we approach our third-year anniversary here, we are amazed how many of you have
been so faithfiil for so long. We really appreciate all you've done for us.
Love,
i2 f
Dan and Debbie Bader
3/97
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Dan, Debbie, Hannah, & Greg
DAN & DEBBIE
BADER
P.O. BOX 381
LODWAR, KENYA
EAST AFRICA
Turkam Tribesman
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FElLOmUlP PrayerNewsletter
October 1991
From Riches to Rags and
Back Again
A couple years ago I wrote in
this newsletter about a young
boy named Loangaleia who
worked for us, so we called him
our son according to Turkana
tradition. When we moved to
our permanent ministry
location here at Kangarisay,
Loangaleia stayed on there and
worked for CMF co-workers
Rick and Debbie Bruen who
moved in after us.
We gained a new "son" here
named Ekapiton. Loangaleia
and Ekapiton's two characters
were like night and day;
Ekapiton is a breath of fresh
air in this world. Let me tell
you about him.
About twenty years ago
Ekapiton was born into a rich
Turkana family. Rich means
they had four or five hundred
Debbie enjoys tea with her friend, Esin.
goats, maybe fifty camels, and
some donkeys. It wasn't
necessarily rich by our
standards; but to them, living
in the isolated desert of
northwest Kenya, it was a
fortune.
Life hadn't always been like
that. Ekapiton's
father, Lotoodo, ft ' \
grewup very * ' '
poor. For some } ' 1;
reason he came to
a point, as a ' p
young man, ' ' ^
where hehad jT
absolutelyno ' r
animals and little
hope for finding a \
wife, since that \ m
requiredanimals. V
Lotoodo quit trading and
returned to shepherding his
animals. The rains were
plentiful for many years in a
row; he was a wise shepherd so
that he found himself becoming
wealthy. He took a wife and as
his herd continued to grow he
took another, then another, and
Ekapiton and friend, Lojorey, listen toa tapeofPhilippians witha
tapeplayer cranked byhand.
It was thenthat ^ % &
he decidedto try ^ fti
his hand at Ekapiton and fr\
trading with the
outside world.
The outside world
was the rest of Kenya that was
run by the British at that time.
He would get some animals,
drive them out of Turkana, and
trade for blankets, cooking
pots, and maize meal to bring
back on donkeys and trade for
more animals. In this way, he
built up a small starter herd for
himself.
another, until there were four
wives in all. This was a
wealthy man.
It was to this last wife that
Ekapiton was born, making
him the second son of the
fourth wife with perhaps as
many as twenty children before
him. Somewhere in Lotoodo's
earher travels he had met a
captain of some army, so he
decided this son would be
Ekapiton.
For the first twelve years of
Ekapiton's existence, life was
as perfect as he could imagine
it. His aging father began to
resort to eating palm nuts and
berries along the river. But
during those early golden years
of Ekapiton's life, that was
rare; anyhow, everyone else
had to do it, too.
Suddenly, just like Job in the
Bible, every bad
thing that could
happen to that
family happened.
First, an
especially long
drought wiped
HjHn out more than
half of their
herds. Before that
disaster could be
absorbed, bandits
came from the
south and
terrorized the
whole valley,
their new camel, stealing most of
what the drought
left.
Ekapiton's brother and sisterdraw blood from their new camel.
appreciate his quick mind,
great passion for life, and
obvious aptitude for handling
animals. Ekapiton has such
fond memories of this time with
his father that, even now, it's
almost too painful to talk
about.
There was usually plenty of
food, too. All those animals
provided plenty of milk during
the rainy seasons. Though the
milk dried up in the dry
seasons, the animals still
provided blood to eat so the
family could survive. When
needed, the blood was drawn, a
little at a time, from a vein in
the neck then patched up with
mud so the animal could live to
provide more again another
day.
Of course if the area got really
dry, even the blood wasn't
enough since an animal can
only give so much blood when it
has nothing to eat itself. At
those times the family had to
Suddenly, this great family was
reduced to poverty; yet the
worst was still to come: Lotoodo
died. Each of the wives grabbed
what they could of the
remaining animals, but
Ekapiton's mother somehow
only ended up with three goats.
Then she died, too.
Ekapiton, at thirteen years of
age, was left with an older
brother, who was obviously not
equipped to handle the
situation, and a younger sister.
They were living in a harsh
desert, completely on their own
... with only three goats. They
tried to attach themselves to
one of the other wives who
ended up with about thirty
goats, but she wouldn't have
them.
Thirteen-year-old Ekapiton
became the head of the family
and somehow kept them alive.
With the wisdom of an older
man, he kept their small herd
alive and actually increased it
although those years were
filled with frequent droughts.
He brought the small family
into relationships with other
families in the traditional
Turkana ways that gave them
insurance against the hard
times. He routinely deprived
himself to keep his brother and
sister going. It was quite a
change from his early
memories of plenty, but with
his characteristic passion he
survived.
A few years Ralph and
Cheri Brune (former CMF
missionaries) came to live at
Kangarisay. People
recommended Ekapiton as an
industrious young man to
guard their house and do odd
jobs. He was accepted and did
a good job. At the same time,
he listened closely as Ralph
began to teach about Jesus,
quietly contemplating those
things in his heart.
Years later the Brunes had to
leave Turkana because of
medical reasons. The house sat
empty for a year until we were
ready to move in. Ekapiton
continued to guard the house
that year, and with the money
he received he bought goats.
He handled his money so
effectively that even with that
small amount he was able to
multiply his pitifully small
herd several times.
It was exciting to see his herd
beginning to grow, but what he
really longed for was to hear
more about the gospel. When
we finally moved in, he gobbled
up ever5rthing I could give him:
daily discussions and prayer,
tapes of the New Testament
(that he listened to with a
handcrank tape player), and a
few teaching tapes. I couldn't
keep up with him. It didn't
take long and he was
beginning to pray regularly;
and the best part of that was
his prayers were from the
heart based on things out of
the Bible that he listened to. I
hadn't taught him to do that,
he just did it. When I
encouraged him and some
others to go out teaching in the
villages, nobody could keep up
with him. Now he's out in a
different village almost every
night, tirelessly telling others
the gospel.
Ekapiton may not have
acquired his father's riches ...
yet... but he has discovered
the source of indescribable
riches - a new life in Jesus.
After a year and a-half we're
undeniably proud to call him
our son; not because he works
for us anymore, but because
we've developed a spiritual
bond that will continue long
after our work here is done.
And you can be glad, too, to
have him on our side as a
fellow worker in the gospel.
PRAYER
The rains didn't come this year
at all, not even a sprinkle.
Normally, they would have
come sometime between March
and June, bringing enough
rain (5-8 inches) to sustain the
people for another year. On top
of that, the rains the year
before were so slight that the
Turkana had already been
living in drought conditions for
six months when this year's
rains didn't come. It's getting
so serious some people are
beginning to talk of losing
whole herds in the next couple
months.
You just read about Ekapiton's
family eating berries and palm
nuts along the river during
droughts. Well, the berries
gave out long ago, and the
Turkana have been eating only
Hannah and Gregwait for school to start
" homeschool, that is.
the palm nuts for a year now.
It's hard to imagine, isn't it? We
help all we can, but it really
isn't much compared to what
they really need: rain.
I've been amazed and pleased
how the new Christians are
resolutely holding onto their
faith in the face of such
sufiering. Traditionally God's
presence with them is very
closely tied to rain. When
clouds start forming, they even
say, "God is coming." When it's
dry like now they say, "Evil is
among us and God has left."
You can see why it's hard for
them not to think that God has
left them even though they've
obediently turned to His Son,
Jesus, and started praying in
His name.
They haven't given up though;
it's exciting to see people
gathering every day to pray, in
Jesus' name. Would
you please join us
each day to pray for
rain?
the house and at Nakaale.
Our Turkana team as we
grow this fall to five families
for the first time ever!
Keith and Kathy Ham as they
finish up their support
raising and join us soon.
We'll be "brid^ng" them
which means it's our
responsibility to see that they
get set up okay and through
the first year. We're really
excited about their coming,
especially since they're
moving into the house only
seven miles from us-where
we, and more recently Rick
and Debbie Bruen, did
language learning. Please
pray for their final support
raising time, and us, too, as
we prepare for their coming.
Thanks to all of you who hold
us up in your prayers day after
day and month after month. We
know it's hard to pray for these
things happening to people in a
place so far away and unknown
to you. Your efforts are greatly
appreciated; and we have no
doubt that it is those very
prayers that have and are
sustaining us. Thanks!
Dan and Debbie Bader
Some other things
I'd appreciate your
prayers for are:
A small group
of about
fourteen men
that I've begun
working with
very closely.
Our daily
prayer and
Bible study near
This helicopter brought videographers toour home, and all the
people were amazed. The camels weren't fazed at all!