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DAN DEBBIE
BADER
Turkana Tribesman
Dan, Debbie, Hannah, Greg
1304 19th Street NW
Canton, OH 44709
216/456-6348
CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP Pra 'er/\/eu)s/eer
N o v em b e r 1 9 92
Home
Swee t
Home
We r e
home
I
t h i n k .
Four
years ago we left for th e T u rk an a
tribe
of
Kenya
trembling wondering
ho w we were
going
to
make it living
so
far from home
for so long.
Everything was
strange
and mysterious.
B ut slowly
imperceptibly
i t
al l
became
familiar
and comfortable. We made friends
true
friends;
and we
lived in
a
p la ce f or m or e years than any
other place in our m a rri ed lives. What do yo u call
a
place
like
that except
hom.e\
Yet,
during those
four
years
we
didn t think
of
it
as home. We longed for ou r
home
in
the S tates.
We longed for yo u al l -- family an d friends. We
longed for
th e
convenience of living here
a nd t he
peace
of
knowing
there
wa s
a grocery store or a
ga s
s ta ti on r ig h t a ro u nd t he corner.
We
longed
to
speak English American English
al l th e
time
and
to
no t
have
to work so hard
to
unders tand
o u r f ri e nd s o r to k n o w
what
th e
culturally
appropriate thing to do was .
B ut
when
we
go t
b a ck h e re
we
found
th at
we
had
a very special place in ou r hearts for Kenya
especially
th e
Turkana. We found
that
we
had th e
s a m e
a c h e
in
our hear ts fo r them as
we ve
had fo r
yo u these past four
years.
We found
that
we miss
ou r
excellent
team
of missionaries over
there
veiy
much
an d
realized just how much they mean to
u
So,
are
we home? Yes. We re home; an d we love it
But i t s t rue also tha t t h e Turkana an d o u r
teammates i n K en ya have stolen a
piece
o f o u r
heart and will
never
give
it back.
For
the rest o f o u r lives we ll be homesick
fo r
on e
h o m e
o r t he other . . .
whi l e a t home.
Wh a t
a
we l c ome w e rece ived
L a st s u mm e r
we
stepped
of f
a
p l an e i n C a nt on
Ohio,
i nt o t h e
arms of
many
close
friends
an d
supporters
from
several churches.
We
felt like
conquering heroes returning from th e battlefield
an d
enjoyed
every
minute
of it .
W e
knew be for ehand
t h a t
F i r s t
Chr i s t i a n
Church
wa s
going
to set
us up in
a n a p ar tm e n t
b u t
we
had no
idea th e
emotions
it
would cause
until
they
showed us in
th e door. To have
our
ow n place
with
hot
water indoor bathroom soft carpet nice
appliances
a
huge refrigerator and
all
th e
electricity we could ever want wa s overwhelming;
especially
when
we l e arned of th e incredible
amount
of work
that
so
many
people had
put into
getting
it ready. We were humbled by their love
an d support.
We
had just about enough time
to
u n pa ck o ur
bags before
packing them
back
u p again
for a
six- week
s a f a r i to
Neb ra s ka a nd
K a n s a s .
W e had
a wonderful
r eu n io n w it h f am il y w ho m
we
hadn t
seen for four years.
For a
while
i t
seemed as
if
w e d
n e v e r
left.
Everywhere we
went
people were so gracious,
dispelling every fear we ha d about being
forgotten.
Our
only regret
about that whirlwind
trip
is
that t he re w as
too
l i tt le time
to
spend with
t he m an y
people who
mean
so
much
to
us .
By
th e time
we
ar rived back
in
Canton
we
were
totally
an d
completely exhausted.
September
is
just a
blur
that we somehow stumbled through.
People have bee n so helpful
an d understanding
we
just can t
believe it. I m sure we'll
wake up
anytime
no w
and r e al i ze i t s
al l
been
ju st
a
dream.
We
appreciate
all
of y ou v er y m uc h.
Some
common questions:
A r e y o u going back?
Yes, we're going back: June 10, 1993. We spent seven years
preparing for this work. We
can t
imagine no t spending at
least that same amount of time on th e field. In reality, we
consider
this
a life work depending on God's will.
W as
i t
w o r t h it ?
This is a question we seriously looked at ourselves before
leaving Turkana. Even though we like
th e life t he re a n d felt
fulfilled
in th e O u r T u rk a n a firiends
ministry,
it
was pretty hard at times, threw us a wonderful
And, it was four
years
outofour lives. g> g-away party.
They
also
included
our
co-workers,
Keith andKathy
Ham who live in our house
w h il e w e
re on
furlough.
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I (Dan)
taught
a
group of fifteen leaders
a t a
two-day
leader 's
course.
1 love
these
guys.
J
undreds
ofmen nd
women f rom a ll
directions
have had
seeds
planted in
their
hearts due to ou r
large
courses where
we
spend
three day s out i n
a
dry
riverbed teaching,
singing,
praying,
eating,
and
playing
together.
Fif teen men have
been
meetingwithme often
over the last couple
yea rs and are now
effectively beginning
to
lead. They're regularly teaching at
various villages, as well as their
own.
We call these nomadic
home
churches because
they can
move
as
th e
nomadic family moves.
The
worship times
are
exciting
and
powerful, conducted in a very
traditional
style that speaks di
rectly to
their hearts.
The
greatest
things we ve seen, though,
are
th e
changes in individuals. Some lives
have
been
so
drastically changed
you would hardly recognize that
person today if you'd known him
four
years ago.
A clinic
was built and staffed,
also.
Through
it, people live
today that
wouldn 't have
otherwise.
O ur
co-workers.
Dr.
Bob
and
Karon
Chapman, have
faithfully come
and
vaccinated
t housands of kids
over
the years
and
treated
S ^
the
sick
Ontopofthat, W C
there are countless *
others who we hauled
t o Lodwar (three
hours
away) because
they
were
sick,
or
that
Debbie
t reated
before
the
clinic
was bui lt .
Is the drought inAfrica affecting
T urkana?
The drought
is
hitting the
Turkana hard.
They've
had
essentially
no rain
for
two years
now and
small
rains
th e
two
years
before that.
It's al l
catching
up
with them this year. Tve been
proud to
know
these people who
have managed
to
survive
throi^h
unbelievable
odds
already.
But, if
i t doesn ' t
rain in
November (when
small rains sometime
come),
I'm
afraid
they
will have come to th e
end of their
rope.
If it
doesn't
rain
in
November, ou r
co-workers will
have
to drop
everything and
expand feeding programs that
have
already started
on a small
scale.
If that happens,
I ll
be
writing to ask
you
to help
support
those
efforts. I
hope it doesn't
c om e to
tha t
PLEASE
PRAY F O R T H E RAINS
IN
NOVEMBER. There
are some
other things
I
wanted
to
bring
up
for
prayer this time,
but
this
is so
important that
I am
dropping
everything
else
and
asking you to
pray dai ly for r ain.
Love O , ^
Dan,
Debbie, Hannah, and
Greg
Bade r
Also, we
had
to think about the
many
people who gave sacrificially
to
keep us there.
But,
yes,
our work
in
Kenya was
worth
everything
it
took
In a
place where people
have
only a
vague
idea
that
there is a
God ~
and an
uncaring one a t tha t
- who ha s to
be appeased
to ge t
what
they want, the
gospel of
God s love
was truly
Good News.
To a people who live in
fear
because of th e power ofothers
to
curse
them,
the
gospel of peace
w as Good N e w s
To a
people
who have
to
pay a
diviner to
communicate with
God
for
them, th e
gospel of
the
Holy
Spirit
was
Good News indeed.
But most important of a ll was
the Good
News
t h a t J e s u s Christ
has
made it
possible for therh to go
to heaven. They
at e
it up and
couldn't ge t enough.
How
is
the church
doing ?
In our immediate area, over 300
people
have
been
baptized. It
isn't
just a few
here and
a few
there
but
most of the
people
in
th e
area.
Whole famil ies have
been
baptized. Two churches
meet
regularly; one of
them started and
led by two Turkana
men totally
on
their own.
Last
year
alone
they
baptized
40 people
they'd
been
working with. Later, I
baptized
e lev en o lde r m en
in
t h a t same
area
whom they'd
already
spent
t ime with
Turkana
men c lean goa t in te s tine s toge the r
before
a
goat roast. In America these days,
I
think
it
would
be called
male
bonding.
When you add th e
exciting things
going on
in the other areas of Turkana
our colleagues in before a
Turkana, we very
it
would
definitely
have
to say,
It
was worth
it. We
can ' t
wai t to
see
what another
term
will bring
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