Update March 2012

Hello All,

I have copied below a recent email on the growth and maturing of the church in Turkana. It is not stated, but when I talk to church leaders they tell us wells, farms and CHE training like the one described have had a major impact on the church. In the last three regional council meetings of the church, I have seen the attitude of the church leaders change from, “what do the missionaries want to do”; to “how can we work together using our resources first and asking the missionaries to join us.” Your prayers and support have helped make this possible. Praise be to God!

God bless, Gene

Hi team,

I got the 2011 church plant info from the Regional Council last week. Here it is:

Turkwel Cluster: 5 churches planted, 177 baptisms.

Napusimoru Cluster: 1 church planted, 58 baptisms.

Nakor Cluster: 5 churches planted, 472 baptisms.

Kangagrisae Cluster: 2 churches planted, 319 baptisms.

Kakamat Cluster: stagnant

Total: 13 church plants and 1026 new believers baptized.

I have the village names and baptism dates if you need all that.

We completed the three day training with the Regional Council last week. The topics included: committee roles and responsibilities, goal setting and step planning, honesty and financial integrity, and fundraising. The lessons went very well. They took the training seriously and went over their responsibilities many times – it was obvious they want to do it well. Eric Lorupoe did a great job teaching and I appreciate him being involved. The two goals they set and made a plan to implement were doubling the number of TBTI students from 20 to 40 in the next year and planting 30 new churches in the next three years (going from 50 to 80). Both plans were well thought out and relied on local resources. It was a great change from the prayer and vision meeting two years ago (Feb 2010 I think) where their goals for the future all depended on CMF funding. They have come a long way.

Preaching at church

Students Newspaper

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NEED HELP

 

It is that time of year again.  High School has started for the continuing students and funds are finished.  Now, in the next 2 weeks we will have freshman students coming to ask for funds hoping to have a hope for a future.  If you would like to help even a little for a student to have hope please contact us at gmmorden@ejoka.com  or go directly to CMFI donate page at: https://p2p.paperlesstrans.com/default.aspx?i=cmftur  In the Student ID space mark it for Kenya Students Turkana .  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  God has provided in the past and we are counting on his powers now.  Thank you all for being great supporters.

Displaced People in Shock

Turkana usually build homes no closer than 500 feet from each other. I can count 25 homes in representing 7 families in 100 feet. These are temporary huts people who were driven from their homes in August have constructed. I was told people were going back to their homes, but when I found out maybe 5% have gone back and those are the ones farthest from the river. No one has returned to homes west of the Kerio River or to their homes along the shores of Lake Turkana. Everyone still talks of their fears of sleeping at night and being killed. People are in shock. These people are usually industrious and weave mats from palm leaves to sell; none are being made. They usually collect nuts and roots from bushes, but no one is going near the river to get them. They all want to know when the soldiers will come. Commerce seems to have ceased. I was there on market day and the market normally full of people. I found one man, one woman and about 15 kids sitting under a tree near the market. It reminds me of the shock we experienced in 1996 when we were robbed at gunpoint. WE could not make decisions even about when to eat yet alone what to eat. We were much more cautious at night for at least two years. The shock and numbness, the helpless feelings are hard to explain, but they came back as I talked to these displaced people. Please pray the Kenyan government will send security forces they have promised to protect the people. Please pray for these people to gain courage and return to their homes.

Nov prayer Turkana

Nov 26, 2011

Grace, Mercy and Peace in the name of Christ.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Dear fellow prayer warriors,

We pray that a small amount of peace will return to the people who used to live along the Kerio River soon. As I reported in October about 6000 people had been displaced and living in the mostly open desert areas under the few small trees along the Natome River. Many of them have lost some or all of their animals to the raiders. The people are drinking dirty water as they are afraid to go to the clean water pumps at the Kerio River. The schools are closed and children are missing education. People are living in fear, often sleeping in trees.

When the bandits killed two lake people as they came into shore and took everything in the boat, all the people from the Lake moved to Kangirisae. Now no one is living east of the Kerio River and most live along the Natome. It is a big camp. Red Cross goes two times a week to give away medicines and distribute food to the Lake families only. They say they are the only true IDP’s. About 40 people have died from measles, chicken pox and malaria according to reports and most are very hungry and some claim the deaths are due to hunger, but none of our people can confirm that. Everyone says the people are very hungry.

The DC has allotted 1000 bags of corn and 200 bags of beans, but says he does not know when the food will arrive in Lodwar. He still says there is not a real security problem along the Kerip and has not dispatched troops. The people are living in makeshift huts. They left with only what they could carry. Most do not have skins to keep dry during the now weekly rains. The Red Cross has described it as deplorable. We are praying for peace and security to return to the area so the people can go home.

Please pray for the raiders to be caught and be convicted of their crimes.

Praise God for the rains that have provided grass and will provide milk from the few animals people were able to carry with them. The goats are having kids right now.

Oh God, show us your plan for us in what looks like a big disaster that we don’t understand.

Thanks and God bless you all,

Gene

Prayer update on raiders

Grace, Mercy and Peace in the name of Christ.

Dear fellow prayer warriors we pray that a small amount of peace will return to the people who used to live along the Kerio River soon. A delegation went to see the DC, District Commissioner, (he is like the governor and head of security for the district) to ask for police help in fighting against the bandits. They told him all the people (about 6000) had been displaced and living in the mostly open desert areas under the few small trees in the area. Many of them have lost some or all of their animals to the raiders. The people are drinking dirty water as they are afraid to go to the clean water pumps at the Kerio River. The schools are closed and children are missing education. The raiders make regular visits to villages at night and are eating the food from the irrigated farms during the day. People are living in fear, often sleeping in trees. The DC told them since it is Turkana bandits attacking Turkana the people would need to handle it themselves. Since the DC ordered everyone to turn in their guns about 3 months ago, very few people have rifles. Those who have been designated home guards have guns and a few hid their rifles in the sand. They are now on patrols and have had running battles with the raiders twice.

We have sent bags of corn to the area twice to try and relieve some of the hardship.

On Saturday, Michael Lopunga confronted (he said argued with) the councilor for the Kerio River area about needing help. Michael told him about the fishermen killed on Lake Turkana as they came ashore last week. The raiders took all their fish and the supplies of food they had brought. The councilor finally called someone and said they would send a post of police to Kangirisae if CMF would allow them to use the house there as a temporary base of operation. The team agreed that was an excellent idea. The councilor then said he needed fuel and a truck to carry the police there as the DC had grounded all his vehicles from going to that area. We agreed for the second time to provide fuel to carry the help to the people. We are praying the police force will make a difference and people can return to their homes and begin rebuilding their lives.

Please pray for the raiders to be caught and peace to return.
Thanks and God bless you all,

Gene & Melba Morden
turkanawater@gmail.com
www.turkanawater.org

Too many tomatoes

DSC06120

This woman was picking green tomatoes because the vines were so loaded they were beginning to touch the ground.
Sylvester helped her stake and tie them and encouraged her to wait until they turned orange. Oh yeah, the green tomatoes did go ahead and ripen.
Have a God day, Gene

Update Turkana 9/30

Turkana Raid Update

Two of the bandits have been caught and taken to jail. Many of the people are away from the river at a place called Natome. Two days ago an elderly man from the mountains, near Lake Turkana, called a pastor over and said the raiders are coming from my village. I know them all. In fact that man over there is one of them. The pastor did not believe him and called his brother over who was still skeptical as they both know the accused man. They called some other men over to hear the story and then they all called the accused over. He refused at first and then as the group moved toward him he came over. When they began to ask him about the killings, he began to shake. He then confessed he was with the raid that killed the man and his two sons, but had stopped going after that. He identified all the bandits. He said they take the animals to some Pokot men to get more bullets and some cash. The accused is in jail. The police are not going to search for the others as they are a seven hour walk on the other side of the Kerio River.
No one from across the Kerio River has gone home yet. A few have trickled back into Nakor and Kangirisae, but the majority are refugees near Natome and scattered west of the north/south road to the west of Nakor and north. All animals have been moved another 30 kilometers north near Kerio town.
Please pray the government will send the police out capture the bandits are most people are afraid to go home as long as they are still free.

Thanks, and God bless,

update

Hello All,

I will update you on the current situation in the Kerio Area. I will also try and answer some question that have come up.

The bandits are walking over the mountain with guns and coming into different villages. Some say it is Turkana attacking Turkana and other are saying it is Pokot.
We have not found out the answer to that. So far 4 have been killed with a possible 5th. All have moved from the areas to areas 20 kilometers away. Most were taken out by vehicles others walked out or I should say ran out. So far it looks like the bandits are only after animals.

The last we heard the police had went after them and there was gun fight in the mountains. The 2 chiefs were following the police. How do we get the news? Well there are what they call hot spots for quite a ways out in the bush now days. Technology has changed thing a lot some phones are cheap and it only cost if you call.

As far as the farms in the areas we do not know what will happen. As of today we are told everyone has left all the villages. Where they are staying is too far to walk back and forth everyday. We will keep you posted. We just have to believe that God has a plan.

Please pray that peace would come to the area.
Pray for the families of the dead will be comforted
Pray that the bandits will be caught so families can move back to their homes
Pray fo wisdom in knowing how to handle different situations that may come up

Gene is in Nairobi taking care of business so I get the pleasure of updating you.

We love you all,
thank you for standing beside us,

Melba Morden
Turkanawater.org
gmmorden

Prayer

Melba and Gene,
We are praying and will pass your request onto others who we know will pray likewise.
God Bless
Bob

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 23, 2011, at 11:39 AM, “Morden Melba” <turkanawater> wrote:

Dear Faithful Prayer Partners:

We have an urgent prayer request. As I am typing one of our areas we work in (Kangirisae & Kamekwi) is being attacked by bandits. Everyone is scared and wants out. This is the forth attack in 2 weeks. Police don’t even want to help. Please, Pray for peace.

Melba Morden
Turkanawater.org
gmmorden