Raid Update

Martha emailed me this morning. Here's what she says about the raid:

Oh, please pray for the people of Nakaale - I know you do already, but this was a tough week for them! There was the one of the biggest cattle raids ever around here, a few miles away up in the mountains behind Tokora. All the Nakaale people had their cows up in the hills, & the Pokot from eastern Uganda came & took them. A couple of warriors were killed (maybe 3?), a few injured, & a couple of shepherd boys are missing now. Our workers Lokoroi & Patrick came here in the middle of the night, while the shooting was still going on, & asked Bob to call the commander in Nakapirit. He did, & the comm. said he'd send troops, but we don't know what he did - in any case, the cows are all gone. One or two got loose & wandered home, but that's about it. People are devastated. It's like the stockmarket crash of '29. So we've visited & consoled a few. One man who was killed is from Joyce/Rose's home, the father of a little girl called Sunday, the nephew of one of our church members. They're feeling very lost, so we went & talked & prayed with them some. I was encouraged by another worker Loumo Peter's comment yesterday, though, that," well, they were only cows; I look around & see my children, we're OK, so it's really not so bad. Things will get better eventually."

I hope I'll have that attitude if I ever lose a large part of my possessions. But if the cattle don't get taken back, and there are no real retaliations against the Pekot, could this perhaps change things a bit, as far as asking for many cows for the bride price, etc.?