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Dan and

Debbie, Hannah

Gregory

December, 1988

DAN

DEBBIE

BADER

P.O. Box 381

Lodwar, Kenya

AFRICA

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Prayer Newsletter

T U R K A N A

Howcan

you

live

there?

we

were asked

time

ajfler t ime as we

made

presentations

about

Turkana

before leaving

the S ta tes

last

June. I

have

to

admit

we a^ed

th e

same

question many

times, wondering,

How

can

we

l ive

in such

a bar ren wilderness? We

told

ourselves we

could do

it with God help,

but,

nevertheless,

we were nervous.

It s uncomfortable doing

things

when

you re

not sure

of the outcome.

It s ou r

na

ture is to s ti ck with things we understand

and can

control. In coming to Kenya, we

were very uncomfortable because

there

se em ed to b e so l i t t l e

w e c ou ld c on tr ol

o r

u n

derstand. That was one big step for us , but

since then

we ve

been confronted by Uttle

s teps o f the same kind one after another.

Here are

some examples:

Wha t s your

react ion to the idea of dr inking

sour goat s

milk

with

big

lumps in

it

(when

you ve heard that sometimes urine

is

put

in

to make i t more sour)? Makes you a

little

uncomfortable,

doesn t i t?

Soon

after we

ar

rived,

Ralph Brune , a fellow Turkana t eam

member,

took me to the

home of a

close

friend.

I

hadn t

given

much

thought

to

drinking sour milk, but suddenly

I

was

confronted with a b ig con ta in er of i t, lumps

an d

all

What do you do? My world view

says

give

it

to

th e dog

if

it s

sour,

and throw it

away if

i t

has

lumps. Here was a

Turkana

friend

of

fering

me

a

great

giftperfectly soured. I

had to make a decision, so I began to drink

it

when

they weren t looking because I

didn t want them

to

se e me almost g ag each

time I

took

a drink.

My

world

view was

so

strong

that i t affected

me

physica lly. My

s tomach was

trying to

refuse

what my

bra in told i t was bad Since t hen I ve

had

sour

milk

many

t imes, sometimes

much

worse

than that first time, but

I ve found

that

my bra in and

stomach

now

agree that

it s okay.

It s

not myster ious anymore .

Here s another example.

One

day I

was in

vited to someth ing

called

Lodanga.

I d

heard i t translated

as

Jumping, and I d

heard

uncomfortable rumors about wha t

might

occur.

The

Lodanga

was being held

under a full moon a

couple miles

from

ou r

house.

The

picture

in

my

mind was

one

such as

I d

s een on

television

with people

doing

al l kinds of wei rd things. I wasn t

too anxious to go, but 1

felt

for

some reason

God wanted

me to, so I ag reed . A ll

evening

I

kept

hoping they d forget to

come

get

me,

but no such luck. They

were even early in

picking

me

up .

I

grabbed

a

sheet and

a

hat (essentials

for

Lodanga I d

been

told), and we

began walk

ing through the dark. A lready some of th e

mystery began

to

wear

off.

The

moon

was

bright,

and

we could

see

very well. I was

going

with

a couple of famiUes; old

men

down to

little

kids. There

was

electricity in

the air, especially in the kids. They ran

al l

around us, jumping the way I

would see

la ter , laughing and

chattering

al l the way.

Upon arrival , the

electricity

crackled even

more as

other

families

began

to arrive. We

drank some sour

milk (naturally),

and

went over

to

whe re Lodanga was bemg

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held

I was still ejecting something bi

zarre up

to

this

point,

but

something finally

chcked...

this was

like a family reunion

back home.

The

old men a nd

o ld women (that s

a com

pliment

here) sat around the outside of the

circle and

chatted while the

kids,

up to

about

my

age, jumped

in th e

circle.

It

was l ike

a

high

school

dance, only

with

more chaperones.

I could see the boys and girls flirting and

making

eyes

at each other just

as you d

ex

pect, but

it

didn t goany fuirther than that.

It wasn t

mysterious

anymore.

I t

was fun,

and later

even a

little

boring.

On another

night, Debbie and the kids went

with

me

to

Lodanga.

Debbie

escorted a young

girl

to

one on

ano the r occas ion

so h e r

fa the r

would l et her go. He reminded

me

of fa

the rs

in America .

Somet imes

th e

Tu rk a na t hi nk we re a Uttle

mysterious. We have a big dog that we

t reat

royally compared to how they treat dogs.

When we left

fo r

a

few

days , we gave

some

food to a

young

Turkana boy to

feed the

dog.

It was food that people eat, so I somehow

had

to make

i t

clear t ha t i t was

only

for the

dog.

The Turkana are

always hungry, and

it s

unthinkable

to give a

dog

food. I also

had to m ake h im unde r s t and t h a t

h e

was

not

to treat th e dog the rough way

that

he

would

normally.

I

finally

told

him

that

this

dog

was l ike

an

old man s favorite bull. To an old

man,

a

favorite

bull

is h is bes t

friend. He sings

2 88

CHRISTIAN

MISSIONARY

FELLOWSHIP

P.O.

BOX

26306,

5674

CAITO DRIVE

INDIANAPOLIS, IN

46226

ADDRESS CORRECTIONREQUESTED

songs about

it and

treats it

very

gently. So I

told LongeleiOy This dog is my favorite

bull.

He

understood

immediately

even

though

I m sur e he thought I

was

a little

strange. Slowly, we re becoming a little

less mysterious to

him.

Since

June, we ve

been confronted

with

mysterious confi:ontations like these one af

ter

another.

As we ve

worked

our

way

through

them,

we ve discovered

that

they re

al l

perfectlv

normal.

I t just

takes

a

l eap of faim into uie

unknown,

and

we

trust

God to

help and protect us.

We re

very

anxious for

people fi:om

home

to

visit

us, so t hey can sha re the joy of finding

something normal

ou t of what

seems so

mysterious. Start planning now

to come.

The

family s doing

fine in every area. None

of us have been very sick, we re all adjust

i ng to

the

people

and the

climate

of Turka

na

very

well. Debbie

and

I are working

hard

at learning

t he Turkana language.

This

is

one

area

where we

still ask for

your

prayers. We have such a

long

way to go.

There

isn t

room to expla in

why we can t

seem to get any pictures to you, but the

next

newsletter

should

include

some.

Also,

there should

be a videotape available soon.

Check

with the Christian Missionary Fel

lowship office.

In His

service.

Dan, Debbie,

Hannah,

and Gregory Bader

Nonprofit Organization

U.S.

Postage

PAID

Permi t No. 975

Indianapolis, Indiana

miss ion se rv ice s

editorial

dep t

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