bader dan debbie 1989 kenya
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8/10/2019 Bader Dan Debbie 1989 Kenya
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Hannah a n d
Gregory
DAN
DEBBIE
B A D E R
P.O. Box
381
Lodwar,
Kenya
AFRICA
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Prayer Newsletter
May, 1989
Meet Eriamone ( the r is
rolled).
He's
t h e
first in a series of our neighbors to whom
you'll
be introduced
in
future
newsletters.
Right
now
Eriamone
lives about five
miles
from
the house where
we're learning
the Tur-
kana
language.
Two years ago, he was one of
the first men of
t hi s a re a to commit
his
h fe to
Christ under the teaching
of Ralph Brune, a
feUow CMF
missionary. He's also one of the
most influential and
wealthy
of the Turkana
m e n a ro un d
u s
When we first came, Eriamone asked Ralph if
I would like
him
to be my Turkana
father
(ap-
akang),
and
we quickly agreed. Ralph
said
I
couldn't
have
a bet ter father
because of
his
stature in the
community
and his commit
ment
to Christ. Eriamone also played a large
part
in organizing
area
m e n
t o b le ss o u r h o u s e
with
a t rad i ti ona l Tu rka -
na blessing ceremony be-
fore wemoved in. (Han- 9
nah and Gregweren't too H
sure
a bo ut h im
w he n h e
spit
water
a ll over
us )
A t first i t was
difficult
fo r
u s to b e a r o u n d E r i a m o n e
He's
a tough, very
tradi-
tional Turkana
patriarch,
accustomed
togetting his
Dans
father H
way exactly
as he
wants.
Cousin
Eh
As
you've
read
in
the
previous
newsletters, the Turkana a re always
asking for things, and
Eriamone was
the
worst. Every time he came by, he insistently
asked for all kinds of things. We decided that
until
we understood what this begging
was
all
about
we would give
him
very little. He
must
be a patien t,
understanding
person be
cause he stuck with us
through all
that.
There were some agonizing
moments
(I
real
Dan's
father, Eriamone, on the right.
Cousin Eiwei on the left.
With words we
had
agreed that Eriamone
should be my father. Our actions were say
ing t o h im ,
We
don 't wan t
to
have
a
close
re
lationship
with
you. He
kept
asking for
things
because
we weren't giving
him
any
thing,
and he knew sure ly
we
must want to.
We had
him
totally confused.
Anyway, we've begun to change aU that.
Not
only
have we
started
to give
some
things, but
we've also
started asking him
for
things-
which is
important,
too. Actually,
he doesn't
have too much that we need, but we do ask
him for a goat
now
and then. Also, his
help
as
a n advocate i s e s sen t ia l fo r u s i n th e commu
nity.
I
know
he
has already
stood up
for
us
several t im e s w h en we've m a d e c u lt u ra l mis
t a k e s
Another
interest ing event
'
P^ed las t
fall.
Eriamone
h)
me
for help for his
bitten
by
a snake three
that I didn' t have any
i
Hiedicine
for a snake bite
a n d
d i d n t k n o w
w h a t I
could do . T h e re w a s no-
I
where
else for him to
one on the right. tum, SO I decided to drive
onthe left.
her out
to a
clinic
several
hours away. I didn't
know if
they could
help her
either ... I didn't
know
if
anybody could
after
three days.
About an hour 's drive
even
further into the
bush, Eriamone led me
to
his daughter.
Her
leg was very
swollen
and
she was in
terrible
pain.
The
pieces
of
a
cut-up
goat,
plus
blood
all over
her, gave
evidence of a
justrfinshed
ceremony
which
included
hitting
her
chest
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seemed before, now I was in shock. I was pretty
sure that
her chances of surviving t he t radi
tional medicine were slim. They le t me
pray
for her, we drank some sour goat s milk,
an d
then
I
ha d
to drive away from
there
pretty
sure
th e girl was going to die.
Later
I discovered that th e
snake that
bit her rarely
causes death
just
terrible
p ai n a nd sickness. S he d id n t
die.
Please
begin
praying for Eriamone
and hi s
family. They live a
hard
life
here in the
Turkana
desert, tr3dng to survive day-to-day without
al l
th e
conveniences we brought with us.
Ask God to keep him and his family safe for
th e
important part they will play
in
ou r
ministry.
Pray
that God will
heal
his
very
ba d kne es so that
he
will be able to spread
th e
Good News
when the t im e is bes t
Eriamone has a large family with several wives an d many children.
Pray
th at God will give
us
the
i nsi gh t s i n to t h is c u lt ur e we need so that we c an d ra w very close t o Eri am on e
and
his
family.
Hi s
oldest
so n is Lodeya (pronounced Lo-die-ya.)
He s
a bo ut m y age with a wife
an d
two boys
of
his own. I ll be telling
you
more about
him
in a
later
newsletter
but
for no w I want you to
know
that I se e in
him
an incredibly willing spirit searching for God, and I plan to s pe nd a
lo t of time
with him.
So
please
b e p ra yi ng for
him
also.
2^
f
LUMk
Dan Debbie
Hannah
and Greg
Bader
Some of Debbie
s friends helping to build
us a bi g hu t fo r storage a nd a n office.
Ho w
m a ny k i ds
ge t
to have an
entire yard fo r a
sajidboxl
89
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY
F ELLOWS HIP
Some other
neighbors.
You II he
introduced to some o f them
later
This
ha s
definitely
become
home fo r
both
Hannah
(Akai) and Greg (Loekinei).
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
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- *
Gregory Hannah
OctobCT, 1989
Life in Turkana
is
hard. I say that not so
m u c h because o f t h e h e a t or
e ve n b ec au se
the
people
are
so
different.
^ ^
I t s because we ve i n h e r i t -
eda . . . a (it shard to say ^
a
t e e n a g e r .
I thought
those years
were a long
DAN DEBBIE
B A D E R
P.O.
Box 381
Lodwar, Kenya
AFRICA
T u r k a n a T r i b e s m a n
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARYFELLOWSHIP Prayer Newsletter
want something done right, I
have
to keep
on h im a ll the time. I like to walk to villag-
:-::7 ;i
es to v is it
people,
and
like
_ ^ Loangaleia
to go
with me
./ j but unless he thinks
ij^pSlp they re going
to
kill
a go t
for
me he won t
go.
H e
says i t s too fa r to
walk.
He
w a n t s
m e
t o t a k e t h e
t ruck.
Normally, the Turkana
will walk fo r two
hours,
^ poTind
o f
m a i z e
m e a l .
Loangaleia
(Lo-ang-a-lei-a)
is
probably about
seven
teen, but
there s
no way
to
know; no one
knows
his
real
age
here.
He s from
one
of
three very
poor
fami
lies that live right
around
u s n e a r a w a t e r h o l e . W e v e
tried
to find a way
to
help
e a c h
o f
t h o s e
f a m i l i e s
a n d
so we pay Loangale ia to
shepherd our
house.
H e t a k e s
c a r e
o f
t h e
c h i c k
ens, keeps the
area
clean,
and guards the house
when we re away. Loanga
leia
also
helps
us
with
lan
guage learning. Not
only
do we practice with
him
a
lot, but he also helps
when
people
come by
t h a t we
c a n t
u n d e r s t a n d .
H e
k n o w s w h a t w e k n o w
a n d
can
put
what they say in
t e r m s w e c a n u n d e rs ta n d .
It s
a httle
bit tough
to
keep
him motivated though. If I
Loangaleia in
the middle, Lodeiya
(my
brother)
on
the
left,
and
Ekasacut (a friend) on th e r ight
H e s e e m s t o
u s e
a l l
t h e
money we pay
him
for rela
tively
unnecessary things
or else people beg i t
from
him. I
keep trjdng to
talk
him
into
buying a
goat
each
month to build up
his
herd, but my words just
s e e m
t o
f a l l o n d e a f e a r s .
I m think ing
about
buying
a goat each
month
myself
and
giving i t
to him as
part
ofhis
pay.
W e
h a v e a
l o t o f
f u n
w i t h
L o a n g a l e i a too. Many
mornings we sit around
w ith him and a
few others,
just talking. One day he
t o l d u s h e w a s o u r r e l a t i v e
because
he
was going to
marry Hannah.
(Continned on back page)
Loangaleia wearing a
shirt and
sunglasses
I
gave
him.
I still
haven t
f igured out if
he
wears
the sunglasses
upside-down
to he funny or if he just
d o e s n t know.
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At
a special
park
for giraffes
last
year.
Greg
is
saying,
Mom, I ve
been
slimed.
Some
more of
our
kids.
We h a v e a s m a ll h e rd now
of
about
eleven
goats.
I fyou come visit we'll spear one for you
This is
our
house
and
the
big shade
tree
behind. The house
up
on blocks does a
great jo b of
keeping
varmints out.
H a n n a h s
t u r n
Yuk, I m not touching that thing.
I t reminds me
of
Daddy s
kisses.
My (Dan s) name is Ekaal
(camel).
When we arrived a
herd
of camel
came
by
and
stuck
their
necks way
out
t o c h ec k m e out.
An old picture
of
Hannah modeling next
to
the
monster . She makes even t h a t
truck
look good.
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8/10/2019 Bader Dan Debbie 1989 Kenya
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PRAYER
SECTION FOR
THOSE WHO WOULD PRAY
EVERYDAY
We ll be moving from our language learning site in November to a place called Kangarisai to begin
mimstry. That means we have a very limited time left for full-time language learning, tiien comes the
very important period of getting off on
the
right foot in ministry.
I consider this one of tihe most critical points in our whole ministry, and I m asking
that
you especially
keep us a nd the Turkana people in your prayers through December. It s very important for us to have
an army ofpeople praying every day tobre^ through the lethargy andapatliy andtogetthemomen
tum
moving
towards
trusting
in
God
and
l iv in g for H im.
C SUNDAY )
Family
units made up
of great grandfatiier,
grandfathers,
fathers, sons,
and their
wives
and kids usu
ally travel togetiier as nomads in search of grazing and water for their animals. When these family
groups live near each other dur ing cer tain t im es of year it would be possible to have a large church.
But a ft er a few months things will always change and they ll be dispersed throughout the d eser t. Th is
makes it
pretty
difficult to have an established church in the sense
that
we re used to.
Please pray
tha
we c n f ind a nomad ic mode l
fo r
t h e chu rch he r e th tmakes sense to
them
nd works.
MONDAY
)
The
end
of Oc to ber we l l be f in ishi ng up our year of hill-time language learning. The move is ap
proaching very quickly and there s still so much we want to know. I desperately want to sit down and
discuss
the
deep
things
in the heart s
ofmy
friends
here.
I
want
to
be able
to
probe
their inner
feelings
about God
and find out wha t
hope they have or don t
have.
As it is no w, we
can
converse and
joke
around, but we re only scratching
the surface. Please
pray
for nothing
less
than a miracle in these
last fewmonths
of language
learning.
TUESDAY
)
The rainy season April-May)
didn t
come this
year.
Some of you
saw
our video from last year and saw
how
green
it was.
Well, it s
not like that
now. Everything
is
brown
and the s and is
beginning to blow a
lot, and we sti ll have at least seven months to go until the next rains.
Some
of
the
Turkana are
already
having trouble getting by because
the
animals aren t producing enough milk for
their
babies and peo
ple, too. You can t
imagine how
close to th e edge these people Hve. Please pray
that God
will make the
usually
small
rains
in the fedl especial^big this year.
WEDNESDAY )
We ve developed good relationships here at Nakaale i and i t s difficult to think about starting over.
Plus
where we re going, the
people
already have
preconceived ideas about us . I m very anxious
because
good
relationi ps are soimportant. Please pray
thatwell
be able to develop good relationships and
ihat the peofdewinbe quids to acceptus for what weare and not ukat they ihSmkwe diould be.
C THURSDAY )
In November 1 wil l be visiting a lo t in villages, developing relationships, and telling stories from the
Bible. I ve tried visiting
during
language learning and I ve discovered how much willpower i t
takes
to
get
ou t
consistently
with al l the
heat
and other pressing things to do like writing
newsletters).
Please
pray
thatHI
have
thewiUpower
tomake
this
my
highest
priority
andbe out
at least three days
a week.
FRIDAY
)
My primary goal during this first year ofministry is to i de nt if y and recruit the disciples as led by God.
These disciples
will
be
the
future leaders
who
will make th e church strong
and
able to continue
i n Tur
kana long after we re
gone. When
tiie
time comes for choosing I ll be asking
you
to
pray again, but
fo
now Pleasepray
that
Godwill be helping us developthe r i t relationships that willlead me to Hi
disciples in fhe
foture.
C
Saturday )
God
blessed
us la st
year with
a
smooth
transition to
hfe
here
and
has constantly
pro tected us . There
have been many
people
praying
for
us and I m
positive Hiat s
why all has
gone so well. Please don
stop. We rejoice
in the
good life we
have begun in
Turkana and for the
future work He
will bless
u
with. This is an exciting place tobe now. Please thankGod for Hism i ty
provision
for us last
year.
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(Continued firom Page 1
Debbie jokingly
said,
I f
you
were my rela
tive, I would die. We waited anxiously
to
see how
he would
ta ke th at, but
he loved
it .
We all howled for a
long
time and now it s
become the standard joke.
We told
him t h a t
we d want
two trucks, a
motorcycle,
and
1000 chickens if he were to
marry Hannah. He didn t bat
an
eye at the
trucks and motorcycle, but he says the
chickens are impossible. Everyone under
stands it s
a joke.
It s
no t
al l
fun
with Loangaleia
though. Last
week the whole community
was up
in
arms
because
of a
rumor
going
around
about
him.
I
a sked several guys how
they could
prove
the
rumor. They said
the old
men
would
discuss
it
and
what
they said
would
be
what
happened.
At
one
point they asked meto fire
1 0 / 8 9
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY
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26306, 5674
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ADDRESS
CORRECTICN REQUESTED
him
and send
him away. I agreed to obey
whatever th e old
men
decided; but
later
an
other
man
talked them into deciding that the
r u m o r s
w e r e
Hes. S o t h a t s
w h e r e
i t e n d e d
Loangaleia is a lmost like a son to us ; I
have
many st rong
feeUngs
about his
situation.
He s
so mixed up ,
but
on
top
of that his
world
has been turned upside-down
by our
coming.
Somehow
he has to integra te our world
into
his old, traditional world then make sense of
i t all. That s
a lo t
to ask of
a
teenager who
has al l
th e
normal things
to worry about,
too.
Please pray
for
Loangaleia,
especially
that
the jrood
News can
penetrate
his life and
give him hope.
jJj
Dan, Debbie,
Hannah, and
Greg
Bader
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