Eugene Walter Bunkowske

1. 7/3/1935, Wecota, SD USA

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Bernice Elvira (nee Bock), b. 1/27/1938, Uniontown, MO USA

1. 6/18/1960

Children: Barbara Bernice (Sorge) (1961), Nancy Ann (Smith) (1962),

Walter Eugene (1964), Joel William (1965)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1960-74 Nigeria Evangelistic Missionary

1974-80 West Africa Bible Translation Consultant

1980-82 Kenya Bible Translations Coordinator

 

Biographical Summary

Eugene (Gene) Bunkowske attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, graduating in 1960.  Gene and his wife, Bernice, met during his vicarage year (1958-59), while Bernice was attending Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois. She had taught at Crystal Lake the year before (1957-58).  They were married in June 1960, shortly after Gene’s graduation from the seminary.  He had been called by the Board for Mission Services to be an evangelistic missionary with the Lutheran Church of Nigeria (LCN).

 

Arriving in Nigeria, Gene was immediately assigned as District Superintendent for the oldest district of the Lutheran Church of Nigeria (LCN), the Nung Udoe District.  At that time each missionary pastor served as supervisor for a district with full pastoral and administrative responsibility of a number of churches and schools. At that time the Nung Udoe District had twenty-five churches and twenty schools, and Gene was kept busy leading classes in congregations during the week; supervising schools regularly; teaching teachers; conducting pastoral counseling as necessary; preparing congregants for communion; and leading Sunday worship services at churches.  Each congregation could only be visited once every five weeks, and Gene saw each congregation for a Sunday service only twice a year, at which time he would preach, service communion, baptize and confirm those who were ready, and conduct marriages – services were generally about two to three hours long at that time with some services running as long as six hours!  He recalls that members of the LCN took great joy in their church services, singing and dancing as they were moved. Often it also included eating a meal together after the service. On Sundays when the district pastor, in this case Rev. Bunkowske, was     not available to a particular congregation, a semi-trained lay-preacher (often a school teacher) was responsible for the service. The lay-preacher, according to ability, was also responsible for preliminary training of confirmands and Bible study for children and adults.  The main obstacle the new missionaries, including Rev. Bunkowske, faced during this time was language. In most cases the unsatisfactory answer for this problem was a full-time interpreter. For Rev. Bunkowske this was a great communication barrier. His great desire was to talk more directly to the people.  After a few months he could understand most of what was said, but creating his own sentences was of course more difficult, particularly when it came to spiritual matters.

 

When the Bunkowskes first arrived in Nigeria, Bernice put her training to work teaching at a girls’ school in Nung Udoe.  However, she soon focused on taking care of the family, as their four children were all born between 1961 and 1965.  Rev. Bunkowske notes that “she kept me alive by feeding me!” and also saw the family through illnesses, particularly during the first term when they were still building up immunity to new diseases.

 

After six months of work in the Nung Udoe District, Rev. Bunkowske became convinced that some of the experienced lay-preachers, teachers and interpreters who had received at least some Biblical training could and should be called as full pastors. He felt that some of the larger congregations could and would support their own pastor. The goal would be to make possible fuller nurture and training in mature Christianity in the language of the people by men who are cultural insiders and therefore understand the way of life, culture and language of the people of the congregation. Through his work and intervention with the Missionary leader (Mission Field Superintendent), first one congregation and then all of the congregations in the Nung Udoe District became indigenous, which is to say that they called and supported national pastors who could minister to them directly. This made the Nung Udoe District the first indigenous district of the LCN.  From this good start other districts soon followed.  It was a great encouragement to Rev. Bunkowske and the other missionaries that congregations were ready and willing to fully support their own pastors.  Since that time until today (2008) the Nung Udoe district has always had their own Nigerian pastors, and after Rev. Bunkowske left for Ogoja, it had its own supervising pastor (District President) as well.

 

As things proceeded, the theological training given in Obot Idim developed into a full Seminary for the training of more pastors, which allowed missionary pastors to phase out their work in the southern area of Nigeria and focus on new mission fields further inland in Nigeria, especially in Ogoja Province.  A Nigerian national named Mr. Amankpa was also appointed as superintendent of schools, which freed up additional missionaries for missionary expansion.

 

Already in the late 1950s, LCMS mission work had begun in Ogoja Province. By late 1961, Rev. Bunkowske was elected by the missionaries to be part of the “Mission Planning Council” and a few months later to the “Mission Executive Committee.” Already before this time, a group from the Board for Mission Services had determined that because the people in the Ogoja region had very pressing health needs, the best way to begin the work of the Gospel Proclamation in that area would be through building a hospital somewhere in Ogoja Province.  The first missionaries who went north to Ogoja had some familiarity with the Efik language and could recognize that the people of the Ogoja region did not have Efik as their native language. However, they did not know knew just what the language situation in Ogoja was.  In the end, they discovered sixty different languages in a 100-square-mile region.

The roads of the area came together in a town called Yahe, so it was determined to build the hospital there, and Rev. Bunkowske was appointed by the missionary executive committee to get the work – both of evangelism and of the building – started in the area around Yahe. By then it had been determined that the language of that area was Yala.  Other missionaries came to evangelize in other areas and to serve in schools.  Some of the early ones were the Lails, Ottemoellers, Watkins and Fajens. Because of the multiplicity of languages in the Ogoja area, after much consultation and discussion (often vigorous and heated), the missionaries through the “Ogoja Worker’s Planning Conference”  committed themselves to putting a strong emphasis on getting the oral languages into writing and then proceed with literacy work and Bible translation.

 

Rev. Bunkowske worked on getting the hospital, later know as the medical center, built, but he was also convinced that language work was very important for the Yala-speaking area.  Therefore, when the Bunkowskes went on furlough in 1963-64, he studied at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (also called the Wycliffe Bible Translators) in Seattle and then completed an M.A. degree in linguistics at UCLA.  He also helped to found the Lutheran Bible Translators organization.  Upon their return to Nigeria, the Bunkowskes lived among the Yala people, eventually settling in the “capital” village of Okpoma, where the paramount chief of the Yalas had his palace.  At about this time, Rev. Bunkowske was elected chairman of the mission field in Nigeria and served in that capacity for three years, along with his supervision of medical and other work in the Oogoja area.  He worked hard in his position as chairman to demonstrate that indigenization was both possible and necessary and that the Gospel would be spread in the best way by taking seriously the needs and abilities of Nigerian nationals.  Besides keeping their home, Bernice acted as a first-line evangelist to the Bunkowskes’ household helpers as well as to their neighbors.  She taught the women who helped her at home the Gospel in word and deed and about how to evangelize, as well as some basic skills in English – an “informal Bible school.”  When these home helpers had worked with Bernice a year or two, the Bunkowskes would encourage them and their families to seek further training, and many went into medical works, midwifery and informal and formal evangelism. Some served important functions in the developing Bible school.  Bernice’s work produced many fine Christian leaders.  She also mimicked the Yala women in spending most of her time outdoors, including cooking, where she could both teach and learn from the women and children of the village.  A man named John Odey, who became a leader in the church as well as in the Nigerian government, was one of the children influenced by Rev. Bunkowske and Bernice to do the Lord’s work.

 

Rev. Bunkowske was very interested in learning and working with the Yala language, so it was agreed that he should learn the language, reduce it to writing, and prepare materials for new missionaries to learn.  However, when the Biafran War came in 1967, the Bunkowskes, who were due to go on furlough soon, were asked by the other missionaries to take care of their wives and children in their evacuation back to the United States.  When they arrived in the U.S., Rev. Bunkowske immediately began further linguistics training at UCLA and encouraged other missionaries to do so when they were evacuated a few weeks later.  His own studies eventually led to a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

 

Upon return to Nigeria, Rev Bunkowske worked with a Nigerian man named Ferdinand Oji.  Over the next several years, they together translated almost the entire New Testament into Yala.  Ferdinand was also a talented musician who wrote many songs that brought the Gospel to the Yala people in a way they could understand and enjoy.  Bernice was an invaluable assistant in the work of translation, taking on the job of “checking” translations.  She played tapes of the material for groups of Yala people and noted their reactions regarding what spoke to them or did not. The Yala translation team then used these suggestions to improve the translation, particularly in terms of natural Yala language expression of the Biblical meaning.

 

Because of Rev. Bunkowske’s approach to Bible translation work, he was asked by the United Bible Society in 1974 to serve as Bible translation consultant for West Africa.  After prayer and reflection, the Bunkowskes came to understand that this was another important way in which God was going to expand the Gospel in Nigeria and later to all of Africa through Bible Translation.  As he had worked with Ferdinand Oji, Rev. Bunkowske worked with native speakers in other languages on the translations, asking those language groups who wanted the Bible translated to recruit their brightest and most committed Christian men and women to do the translation.  Rev. Bunkowske (now Dr. Bunkowske) would visit the translators in each language every 3-6 months to encourage and teach.  When he was asked to move to Kenya in 1980 in order to coordinate Bible translation for all of Africa, he recruited and encouraged other talented Bible translation consultants to get involved in assisting more than one translation. Soon with twenty consultants, each supervising approximately twenty language teams of translators, the translation projects for different languages across Africa numbered four hundred.

 

In 1982, Dr. Bunkowske was called by Concordia Seminary at Fort Wayne, Indiana to be professor of missions, so after more prayer and careful thought, the Bunkowskes determined to return to the U.S., where Dr. Bunkowske taught at Fort Wayne for twenty years until 2002.  For the last six years (2002-2008) he has served as Fred and Selma Fiechtner Chair Professor of Christian Outreach at Concordia University, St. Paul, MN.

 

Note Bene

 

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

Overcoming the traditional animistic beliefs of the people with whom they worked was a struggle for the Bunkowskes and other missionaries.  Many people who were Christians and attended church did believe that Jesus Christ was their Savior and that, because of his death and resurrection, they would have eternal life.  However, many people still relied for everyday things on their belief in evil spiritual powers that would bring misfortune to them and their families unless placated by visiting a traditional spiritual practitioner and offering a sacrifice.  Dr. Bunkowske found it necessary to undertake a lot of instruction regarding the place of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life.  Even so, many people would come to him and ask to pray with him because they assumed he had a “stronger spiritual power” than they did.  To a certain extent this was because the Bunkowske family was in relatively good health, had enough to eat, had a car etc.  It caused Dr. Bunkowske to reflect that he was still an outsider even though living among the people, which was one reason he continued to enlist members of the community for leadership in the church and its evangelism.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

From the beginning of their mission, the Bunkowskes made it a point to live as close as possible (geographically, culturally and mentally) to the people with whom they served, as well as to involve Nigerian nationals in the work of the church.  Dr. Bunkowske believes that the work God did through him was most importantly that of indigenization.  He was used as a catalyst in many ways to bring the LCN to a point where Nigerian nationals were leading, pastoring, and doing Bible translation.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

The Lutheran Church of Nigeria is a thriving and indigenous church, a partner church with the LCMS.  The LCMS still sends some missionaries to work with the LCN, which itself is a mission church with missionaries in Gambia and Jamaica.  A group of Yala Christians, mostly professionals, have formed the “Yala Christian Club” which, unconnected with the LCN or LCMS, sends its own missionaries to the Cameroon and other places in Nigeria.

 

Lessons Learned

• Live with and among the people as best you can.  For a time, the Bunkowskes ended up in conflict with the Board for Mission Services over their living arrangements among the Yala people.  The board, concerned about the health of the family after the Bunkowskes’ oldest daughter suffered a serious case of malaria, asked the family to move closer to the medical center.  Dr. Bunkowske was very reluctant to go, since their living in close proximity to the people they served was a very important way to connect and to teach the people that there was not a “white man’s land” with its own spiritual powers (the hospital included) and a land for the Yala, Boki, Kukelle etc. with other spiritual powers.  The Bunkowskes agreed to move closer to the medical center for a time.  Eventually they moved to Okpoma, which was a very good place for their work because of its centrality and the fact that the paramount chief of the Yala people lived there.

 

Best Practices

• It’s important to do evangelism through the “vessels” that people understand – their own language, culture, and perception of the world and of reality.
• Bible translation should be done by nationals who know the language as their own, with the help of foreign missionaries as necessary, and is the most critical component in evangelism for groups who have not yet had Scripture translated into their own language.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Dr. Bunkowske was called to Nigeria upon his graduation from seminary.  Bernice had always dreamed of being on the mission field, so this call was both exciting and fulfilling for her.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

• Dr. Bunkowske tells a story of his work among the Yala people.  He says that “God went before us there,” because in order to do build the medical center in Yahe, Dr. Bunkowske had to consult with the chiefs and elders of the people.  This meant that he got to know many of the elders across the region.  When the Bunkowskes moved to Okpoma, Dr. Bunkowske went to the chief, Oga Ipuole, and told him that he wanted to become a part of the Yala people as much as a white man could; Oga Ipuole kindly arranged for the Bunkowskes to live with 7 families in the Okpufie (extended family area), in the center of Okpoma.  By stages, Oga Ipuole became a Christian, and he announced this to all in an incredibly effective way at a sub-chief’s installation at which all the chiefs of the area and from other regions were in attendance.  He stood up and announced that the sub-chief’s life would be different from his own: he would not need sacrificial altars and spirit shrines around his dwelling, because Oga Ipuole had learned from Ibokachi (Dr. Bunkowske’s name in Yala) that God loves all the people in the earth.  God loves the world so much that he sent his son and nailed him to the cross-sticks, and God’s son died for all the rebellion and all the wrong things all the people in the world had done.  Oga Ipuole continued that the people had taken Jesus down from the cross-sticks and had put him in the ground, but after “seven” days he came back to life (Dr. Bunkowske remembers an impulse to correct the chief on the number of days, but restrained himself – he could not interrupt such a witness).  Because Jesus came back to life, we know that his payment, his sacrifice for all the wrongdoings of the whole world means that we no longer have to sacrifice.  It says in the book that Ibokachi brought and translated, that Jesus died once for all and there is no other sacrifice needed again (Hebrews 10:10).  What a good news that is for us!  After this, Oga Ipuole turned to the sub-chief and said, “you don’t need all those sacrifice altars, all those shrines for those jujus and those altars – all you need is to know Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God and your Savior.”

 

By this, Oga Ipuole introduced the Gospel to the whole Yala nation as well as to

other language groups who had sent their leaders.  This was God’s way of exploding the mission work in the region. The effect of that public testimony by the paramount chief of the Yala people was to say to all that it was all right to be a Christian and that he was a Christian himself.

 

• When Dr. Bunkowske was working in Nung Udoe, he became convinced that if people were to fully understand Christianity, instruction would need to be given to them by one of their own people – from their own tribe and language.  There was already a school (Seminary in name) for training leaders in Biblical theology in order for them to become better versed in God’s Word at Obot Idim. However in the colonial system, before the time of independence in 1960, no national was given the responsibility of being a full pastor of a congregation of believers. That position was reserved for white missionaries only. Dr. Bunkowske thought that some of these trained interpreters/Christian leaders should become pastors, as many were in their 40s and were experienced Christians.  After some time, he spoke to the superintendent of the mission, who did not deny that indigenization would be a good thing but believed that the people would never pay someone to be their pastor.  However, he was willing to try an experiment, so the missionaries went to the people of one of the larger churches and found that they were willing to pay a pastor even more than what the superintendent would have required, and they were also willing to build a house and garden for him.  That person, though under Dr. Bunkowske’s supervision, worked independently as a pastor for that church.  After six months, the church had doubled in size, and giving had increased by threefold.  Since it had become evident that indigenization was in fact working quite well, during the next half year the mission worked to find pastors for the other larger churches or for “parishes” which were groups of smaller churches in the Numb Udoe District..  Eventually, the twenty-five churches and twenty schools in the district came fully under the leadership of four Nigerian men, who after a time of preparation, training and internship were then little by little ordained into pastoral ministry.

 

• The Biafran War in Nigeria began in 1967, and it was necessary for wives and children of the missionaries to evacuate and return to the U.S.  Dr. Bunkowske was asked by other missionaries to supervise this evacuation, since he was due for furlough shortly.  Initially his reaction was that he should stay in Nigeria and continue his work, but he was talked into going.  The missionaries believed that the government had provided a way for their wives and children to return to the U.S., but when the Bunkowskes, along with all the other missionary families, arrived in Lagos, they found that any arrangements for their transportation ended there.  They had no idea how to get out of Nigeria – all they could do was hope and pray.  However, the LCMS had sent some money overseas through the bank, and Dr. Bunkowske’s prayers were answered when he got in touch with a British banker in Lagos who recognized the plight of the families and helped them retrieve this money in order to buy plane tickets home.  Dr. Bunkowske is not sure what he would or could have done if it had not been for this sympathetic individual – a true “Godsend” for all the families.