Jeff Barker - Sioux Center Sudan: A Missionary Nurses Journey

Contents

Sioux Center Sudan: A Missionary Nurses Journey (eBook edition)

Copyright 2018 Jeff Barker

Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC
P. O. Box 3473
Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473
www.hendrickson.com

eBook ISBN 978-1-68307-202-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Scriptures quoted in this book, unless otherwise noted, are the authors own translations or from the King James Version. On a few occasions, Scriptures are recorded as they were paraphrased within historical documents.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission.

Portions of the stories in this book were previously published by the author in The Storytelling Church and adapted for use in his plays Sioux Center Sudan, Iowa Ethiopia, Zambia Home, and Arlene: An African Trilogy. Quotations from Arlene Schuitemans unpublished diaries and letters are her own words, although internal portions have occasionally been removed or slightly edited for clarity. Although Jeff Barker is currently the holder of her journals, letters, photographs, and other documents representing her medical missions career (19432017), these papers will eventually be sent to the Joint Archives of Holland in Holland, Michigan.

This book owes a debt to Eleanor Vandevort for her friendship and permission to borrow from A Leopard Tamed, especially the chapter about Eleanor and Arlenes Sudanese friend Yul Bithow. The chapter titled Yul is a combination of Eleanors and Arlenes versions of the same story. The chapter titled Fishing Day is indebted to Marian Farquhars unpublished letter describing the event.

Cover photo: Eleanor Vandevort

Due to technical issues, this eBook may not contain all of the images or diagrams in the original print edition of the work. In addition, adapting the print edition to the eBook format may require some other layout and feature changes to be made.

First eBook edition April 2018

For Daniel,
who loves books and stories
and is a truth-seeker

But this is the one to whom I will look,
to the humble and contrite in spirit,
who trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:2b (NRSV)

Acknowledgments

At the time of this writing, the town of Nasir in the South Sudan has diminished into rubble, the detritus of war. This book tells stories that together reveal the arc of the life of that little town. And one Iowa town. And one woman who loved them both.

When Arlene lived in Nasir, the nation was known as the Sudan, which is how Arlene refers to it in her journals and letters. Now there are two nations, and the map shows that Nasir is in the country known as the South Sudan. This book adheres mostly to the name of the nation as it was in the mid-twentieth century.

The sharing of these stories would not have been possible without, well, so many helpers that it astonishes me to think of it. This is the culmination of a long journeyincluding Arlenes faithful life of journaling and letter writingthat became plays, songs, and stories, all trying to hint at the larger story of God at work in the world.

Arlene has put countless hours into this years-long project. Her patience, courage, intelligence, wit, and wisdom have been nothing short of a joy to me, enriching my own life beyond measure. Even though I am this books writer, I should note that some of the best phrases come from Arlenes own writingwords that were crafted in faithfulness at the end of exhausting days. I do not know how she kept up her practice of journaling, but she did. Arlene has been a diarist throughout her adult life. If she had not kept those records, the details would have been lost by the time I met her. Her journals include written prayers, talking to her Maker as friend to friend. In addition, Arlene has been a disciplined letter writer and filer of old letters, both sent and received. These journals, letters, and other papers are a remarkable collection, a glimpse into a unique landscape of the soul, a long journey of faithfulness. Arlenes trust in sharing so many of these materials with me is a gift I will forever cherish.

Arlene introduced me to her friend Eleanor Vandevort, who also is called Vandy, Van, and Nyarial. Vandys book A Leopard Tamed is a treasure, and you should read it for a smart and gripping view into Sudanese culture. By the time I met Vandy, her book was out of print, but thankfully A Leopard Tamed is returning to print at the same time as this new book (originally published in 1968 and republished for its fiftieth anniversary in 2018 by Hendrickson, including a new introduction from Elisabeth Elliots daughter, Valerie Elliot Shepard). Although Vandy has gone to be with the Lord, surely she would throw up her hands in delight to know that her version of the story and her dear friend Arlenes version are being shared side by side.

Vandy was sheer delight. One day I answered the phone, and all I heard was singing. It was Vandy, singing me a song in Nuer. That was the first time I met her! Vandy and Arlene were the closest of friends, and I was privileged to observe that friendship. Vandy read some early chapters of this book, and then we lost her. She died on October 26, 2015. I dont know if there will be books in heaven, but if so, I am eager for Vandy to fact-check me. She will tell the truth, for if anything, Vandy was honest. I loved her for it.

Together, Arlene and I created three short plays that were presented in the United States, Japan, and Ethiopia: Sioux Center Sudan, Iowa Ethiopia, and Zambia Home. These plays were then collected into a longer (and slightly different) play called Arlene: An African Trilogy, which was presented at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, as a celebratory culmination of a decade-long theatrical project. While the plays are a mere foundation to what you now read, all those early helpers in that longer project should be remembered here.

The theatre artists who were part of the earliest Drama Ministries Ensemble productions of the plays walked patiently with Arlene and me through the difficult and sometimes scary journeys of those three world-premiere productions. They are Kristen Olson-Jones Brind, Kristi Woodyard Christenson, Stephen Stonebraker, Margareta DeBoer Maxon, Lois Estell, Tessa Drijfhout-Rosier, Rachel Foulks, Megan Hodgin, Brady Greer Huffman, Matt Hulstein, Tracey Pronk Hulstein, Micah Trapp, Brett Vander Berg, Lindsay Westerkamp Bauer, Hannah Barker Nickolay, Dan Laird, Jackson Nickolay, Dan Sikkema, Kristin Trease, Aleah Stenberg, Shelby Vander Molen, Amalia Vasquez, Huiyu Lin, Tesla McGillivray Kasten, Jacob Christiansen, Brianne Hassman Christiansen, Marisol Seys, Ali Sondreal, Eric Van Der Linden, and Megan Weidner.