Rev. Dr. Paul Charles Bruns

1. 10/11/1938, Rockford, IL

 

Spouse/Family

Wife: Ruby Lydia (nee Rakow) b. 12/30/1938, Suring WI; married 07/21/1962

Children: Pamela Jean (husband, David Stephanson), Jeffrey Paul (married to Kris), Lisa

Ann (died at birth), Paula Elizabeth (husband, Kevin Landdeck)

 

Dates of Service Field Call Assignment

1964—1997 Nigeria, West Africa Evangelistic Missionary, Linguist, Translations

Consultant, Professor

 

Biographical Summary

Paul and Ruby Bruns each attended a Concordia College: Paul graduated from Concordia College in Milwaukee, WI, in 1958, and Ruby from Concordia Teacher’s College in River Forest, IL in 1964 with a B.S. in Elementary Education.  Ruby taught first and second grades in Mt. Prospect, IL while Paul earned a B.S. in Theology from Concordia Senior College in Ft. Wayne, IN.  They were married in 1962, with Ruby continuing to teach in Wyoming and Missouri while Paul pursued his M.Div. degree (with a vicarage year in Wyoming) at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1964.

 

Upon Paul’s graduation from seminary, Paul and Ruby, who by this time had had daughter Pamela, were called by the LCMS as missionaries to the Bokyi people of Nigeria.  They first studied linguistic theory and anthropology at the Hartford Seminary Foundation in Hartford, CT in 1964-65 and then traveled to Surrey, England to attend the Wycliff Summer Institute of Linguistics in 1965, studying practical linguistics.  They arrived in Nigeria in September 1965.  Paul’s assignment by the Lutheran Church of Nigeria was to serve with two other Lutheran missionaries to plant Lutheran churches in the Bokyi language area of about 70,000 people, which did already have three Lutheran congregations led mainly by elementary school teachers.   A group of LCMS missionaries who had preceded them in Nigeria had developed a three-phase plan for spreading the Gospel in language areas where the language was unwritten.  Phase 1 would be language analysis and Bible translation; phase 2 literacy; and phase 3 church-planting.  The three Bokyi missionaries (Rev. Charles Brehmer, Rev. Del Springer, and Rev. Paul Bruns) decided that each missionary would live in and learn one of the five dialects in the region, and each would supervise all three phases of the project in different areas.  This turned out to be especially effective during the language analysis phase, because it proved crucial to compare linguistic data from three very different dialects in order to establish an orthography for all dialect areas. This also made it possible to publish all Bokyi materials in only one dialect.  Both Paul and Ruby got to know the language of the Bokyi people well, and they set about recording and collecting oral materials from the people of the area in order to study the structures of the language.  Their son Jeffrey was born during this time, in 1966.

 

Along with other missionaries, the Bruns were evacuated from Nigeria in 1967 because of the Biafran Civil War.  However, this unplanned furlough proved to be a blessing, as it gave Paul the chance to attend the University of California, Los Angeles for further study of linguistics.  During this time, the Bruns transcribed and prepared the Bokyi narrative material they had collected to create a computer concordance of the sounds and words in the language, a task that would help them prepare the literacy primers for the language.  Paul and Ruby undertook further study in the summer of 1968, attending a course in primer preparation at the Wycliff Summer Institute of Linguistics in Norman, Oklahoma.

 

When the Bruns returned to Nigeria in 1968, the first part of the work of the Bokyi team was to check the orthography decisions they had made for the Bokyi language by doing a linguistic survey of the two dialects that had not yet been studied by the missionaries.  Once the orthography of the Bokyi language had been established, Paul and Ruby began work on primers and the accompanying teachers’ manuals that the teachers in the elementary schools would use to teach students  how to read and write their language.  Along with the Brehmers and Springers, they then took the next step of beginning to establish literacy programs  in the three dialects where they lived. The Bruns’ daughter Lisa Ann was born on June 2, 1970, but survived only fifteen hours.  Her call to be with God so shortly after her birth was the most difficult time for the Bruns during their thirty-two years in Nigeria.

 

The literacy programs begun by the missionaries were just getting started when the Springer family had to leave Nigeria in 1971.  The Bruns also left on furlough from the summer of 1971 until January 1972; during this time their daughter Paula was born.  When they returned, and while the literacy program continued under the supervision of Bokyi men, Paul and his colleague Chuck Brehmer decided to begin the task of Bible translation. Their plan was to train two teams of three Bokyi men; one would work on the Old Testament and one on the New Testament.   However,  about that same time, the Brehmers were asked to take over the position of house-parents at the boarding school in Jos, where the Bruns’ and Brehmer’s children attended school along with other missionary children. .  This left Paul to finish the training of only three translators to begin work on the New Testament, which took place from 1972-75.  Paul also continued to work with the three Lutheran churches in the area.  Ruby, meanwhile, proofread and edited manuscripts of the translations, continued to manage the Bruns household, compiled a Bokyi/English dictionary, hosted many missionary families traveling to and from the boarding school in Jos, and even found time to work with women in the Bokyi Lutheran congregations, trying to organize the women to meet together on a regular basis for fellowship and Bible study.

 

After all their linguistics and Bible translation work, the Bruns had a furlough in 1975-76 during which they prepared the now-complete manuscript of the Bokyi New Testament for printing.  The Brehmer family also left Nigeria in 1975, at which time they terminated their ministry in Bokyi.  When they returned to Nigeria in 1976, Paul’s translation team began work on the Old Testament (albeit part-time).  Though he continued supervising the translation project, at this time Paul became more heavily involved in supporting the three existing Lutheran congregations and planting new churches by training lay leaders and - preaching in a different church each Sunday, aided by the New Testament translation the team had produced.  During the translation process, copies of the Gospel and Epistle readings were distributed to all Bokyi churches of all denominations, but in 1978 the published Bokyi New Testament finally arrived for use by all!  To train leaders, Paul made use of Theological Education by Extension (TEE) materials, one of which he wrote himself, and he met with leaders once a week to go through the materials, study the sermon text for the following Sunday, and discuss how to prepare a sermon on that text.  To start new churches, teams from existing congregations would visit villages that had not been evangelized one whole weekend.  Friday and Saturday evenings they would dance through the streets singing Christian songs, then preach short sermons at various points in the village.  During the day, they would visit the chief of the village and others who stayed home from their farms, and would stay until Sunday morning for a worship service to which all were invited.  When the weekend was over, a trained lay-leader would remain in the village to lead  the new preaching station.  By 1987, Lutheran churches were established in fourteen villages in the Bokyi area.  Meanwhile, the Bruns together wrote a book on Christian marriage for the Lutheran Church of Nigeria, which Ruby typed, edited and produced in a TEE format so that it could be used at the seminary as well as in local churches all over the country.  As ever, the tasks did not end there; Paul served as translations consultant for the United Bible Societies supervising the translation projects undertaken by the Bible Society of Nigeria in the southeastern states of Nigeria; and in his travels for this position, he and Ruby were also asked by the Lutheran Church of Nigeria to supervise younger missionaries in various areas with their language-learning and serve as counselors for those who had just arrived.  Ruby also helped younger missionary wives gain skills in cooking from scratch and home-schooling their children.

 

In 1986 David Erber and his family arrived in Nigeria and were assigned to evangelistic ministry in Bokyi. After working together for about 1½ years, the Lutheran Church of Nigeria asked Paul to leave his work in Bokyi in order to teach at the Lutheran Seminary in Obot Idim.  He taught homiletics and doctrinal courses and served as Academic Dean of the seminary for nine years, as well as assuming the role of Missionary Counselor for all of the missionaries. Ruby also worked at the seminary as a librarian, assisting students and teachers as well as cataloguing and shelving books which had never before been organized.  She also ran the business office for the missionaries for several years.  The Bruns left Nigeria in 1997, after 32 years of mission work.  Since returning to the United States, Ruby has written a chapter of the book Dreams Dawn in Africa, published in 1999 by the International Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, and Paul is currently writing a Mission Annotated Commentary to be printed in the God’s Word to the Nations Bible, for which he has finished commentaries on Luke, Acts, and Romans and is currently working on the commentary to John.

Nota Bene

Mbwop Kashu-Nwet-Bokyi (Bokyi Primer series of 6 books), by Peter Odu Byisong, Paul Bruns editor, F.C. Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1971

Nwet Mu Ntange Nwet, Mbwop Kashu-Nwet-Bokyi (Bokyi Teachers’ Manuals, 3 books), by Ruby Bruns, 1976

Byipang-Byiraa Mbyi Bokyi (Bokyi-English Dictionary), Ruby Bruns editor, 1975

Nwet-Byiraa-Osowo Bampem Mbe Banong Kyi-Kim ne Jisos Karas (The Bokyi New Testament), The Bible Society of Nigeria, Lagos, 1976

An Introduction to the Study of the Bokyi Language, (A primer to read Bokyi for Bokyi people literate in English) by Richard Tawo Asu, Paul Bruns editor, 1977

God’s Plan for Christian Marriage, (TEE format) by Paul & Ruby Bruns, 1984

Nwet-Byiraa-Osowo (The Bokyi Bible), The Bible Society of Nigeria, Lagos, 1985

Phase 2 Information

Biggest missiological issue faced?

The overarching issue in this work always had to be a firm commitment by all missionaries to learn to speak the target language, in order to proclaim the Gospel in the “heart language” of the people; this took time and effort on the part of the missionaries, but produced incredible results.

 

A problem the missionaries faced when establishing literacy programs was that, because the Bokyi language had never been written down, the people of the area did not automatically value literacy in their daily lives.  This created an obstacle to evangelism through literacy, and literacy programs could easily fall to the wayside if a missionary was not present to supervise.  Since the Bruns left Nigeria, another family, the Rupprechts, has arrived in the area to help rejuvenate the literacy programs, with some success.

 

Once the Bokyi language primers were written, it took much time and effort to convince officials at the Ministry of Education to buy primers for use in schools in the Bokyi language area.  Not many officials were interested in the Bokyi language, since the group was a small minority and had no representation in the state government.  When the government of Nigeria invested oil money into education, the first year’s worth of primers were bought for schools in the Bokyi area, but to have reading and writing in the Bokyi language taught in schools remains an uphill battle.

 

Most significant contribution during missionary service?

• The dedication of the Bokyi Bible in December 1985 was definitely the highlight of the Bruns’ 33-year career in Nigeria.
• More than 30 Bokyi lay church leaders were trained through Paul’s efforts using the TEE materials, and he was able to teach 300 pastors and evangelists in the seminary.
• Through the efforts of the Bruns and other missionaries, eleven new congregations were started in the Bokyi region.

 

Connection to today’s mission?

• Literacy programs and translation projects in a language are like a husband and wife; both are needed to produce results. No one will hear the Gospel if God’s Word remains inside a book; therefore, in their Bokyi work, the Bruns began the literacy program before doing any Bible translation. Furthermore, promoting literacy and Bible use will always be ongoing efforts. This is the reason why Ed and Wilma Rupprecht have recently returned to Nigeria to promote in Bokyi and three other languages. They have been busy reviving local literacy committees, so that they will continue to carry out this work.
• The more than 300 pastors and evangelists trained through the seminary and TEE programs have had and will have a great impact on the future mission outreach of the Lutheran Church of Nigeria, and some of these men have also returned to their home countries of Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon to do ministry.
• The Lutheran Church of Nigeria now has a baptized membership of over 100,000 people.  Eleven LCMS missionaries continue to help the LCN in its church-planting and leadership development programs.  LCMS maintains a Regional Business Office in Nigeria as one of a few remaining administrative offices on the African continent.  Volunteers also continue to be sent to Nigeria through LCMS.

 

Lessons Learned

• The most significant qualification for a missionary is patience, and people in the third world immediately recognize and value patience.  The Bruns note that it took a full ten years after they began to encourage and support the use of drums and traditional instruments in worship services for the churches to begin to use these instruments!
• In mission work, it is important to distinguish between form and meaning.  Paul learned this particularly when working with Bible translation.  It holds for worship as well: Western forms of worship point to a meaning but do not in themselves hold meaning; the challenge is to transform the form of language or worship into an indigenous language or worship which retains the meaning of the Gospel message.

 

Best Practices

• Learn to speak the “heart language” of the people!  This is a best practice that the Bruns emphasize again and again.  Learning the language of the people and witnessing in their own language is important for relationship and for the effectiveness of the witness.
• In this situation, the use of literacy programs and translation leading to church-planting worked well for evangelism.  Whether three missionaries each take on one phase of the project or all three take on all three phases, this three-phase program is still a good way of doing mission work in a place with no written language.

 

Phase 3 Information

Inspiration for entering foreign missions?

Neither of the Bruns had considered mission work until 1963, when Paul was asked if he would be willing to take a foreign mission assignment upon graduation from seminary.  This question took a lot of thought, since the Bruns were newly married and expecting their first child!  Ruby reports that her initial reaction was negative; she had gone to college with friends who had grown up in mission fields and attended boarding school, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted her children to be in boarding.  However, with further prayer, conversation, and discussion with other seminarians (some of whom had agreed to mission work and some of whom had refused), the Bruns realized that they “couldn’t find a good reason to tell God no” and decided to go through the preliminary health exams for mission work.  When they passed the exams, they took it as God’s call that they were meant to do mission work.  They were grateful for the year of study before they traveled to Nigeria, since it both prepared them for linguistic work and gave them time to become excited about the mission that lay ahead.  Importantly, both of their families were very supportive of their decision, and they also found encouragement in the support of congregations in the United States.

 

Quotation by/about or brief story:

• After we moved to “the mission house” in Okundi and before the Lutheran church building had been built on our compound, our lay preacher was conducting morning devotions every morning at 5:00 a.m. under a mango tree in our back yard. A very old woman who lived in a compound that bordered on ours started coming to our morning devotions every morning, even though we knew that she belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. Then, one day we heard that she was very sick; and a few days later the Irish priest came to give her last rites. I knew that she had not understood one word of English that the priest used, so after he left, I went to visit her with my Bokyi Bible and read Psalm 23 to her in her own language, and reminded her of what Jesus did for her. Before leaving her with a last blessing, I asked her if she believed in Jesus; and she answered, “N/bange.” “I believe.” That’s the very reason why we put so much effort into learning the Bokyi language!

 

• The method we used to start a new Lutheran Church of Nigeria preaching station in Bokyi was to go to the target village for a whole weekend. Usually most people who went were from our youth group. Friday and Saturday evenings, after everyone was home from their farms, we would form a line and march through the village singing Christian songs. Then, we would stop at main corners in the town and give a witness to the people who gathered. Sunday morning we held a church service; and when we all left, a lay preacher stayed behind to carry on the work.

 

• However, when we went to Okwabang to start a preaching station, a terrible tragedy happened. When the youth were marching along a tar road in Okwabang village, a car came speeding by and swerved into their line killing three girls and four boys! What a horrible start to a church! It was the evil work of satan—no doubt, but the Lord of the Mission can even use evil events to glorify his name because when we held funeral services for these young people in five different Bokyi villages, the services were not in church buildings but in public places where literally thousands of Bokyi people (no doubt many for the first time) heard in their own language that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And there still is a growing Lutheran Church in Okwabang yet today!

 

• During the years when we were in the process of starting new Lutheran Church of Nigeria preaching stations in Bokyi, each church was lead by an Evangelist, who was trained in the seminary for two years, or a lay preacher. Ruby and I visited a different church each Sunday, I preached in Bokyi and we celebrated Holy Communion.

 

• However, as soon as we arrived one Sunday morning, the lay preacher came and told me that several of our members had sacrificed to an idol that week. Therefore, I set the sermon I had prepared aside, since it had nothing to do with that subject, and simply read from Psalm 115, which says in part, “their idols… have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see…Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” God’s Word spoke his Law very clearly that day because it was in their own language! But I, of course, also added very clear Gospel that Jesus forgives those who repent of their sins. And we praised God that day because several people knelt before the altar confessing their sins before they received their Lord’s body and blood and his complete forgiveness.