Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Back to the Desert-Turkana Report

Sorry for the delay but we have not had a good Internet connection since we arrived in Turkana, hence this report is several days old.
We left Eldoret around 4:30 am and arrived in Lodwar, Turkana at 1:15pm without any problems. The truck ran great, the new tires make an unbelievable difference and the brakes held up this trip. Bro.Eddie is able to make this trip in about 7.5 hrs in his Prado so I feel we did very well in the “green camel”. During the trip there are many reminders that we have re-entered a territory that is far removed from the rest of society in Kenya. For example one of the villages we pass through around day break had a large gathered next to the road. As we approached the crowd we could see that they were looking at dead man next to the road who had obviously been beaten with his hands bound behind his back, feet bound and severely beaten or dragged through the streets. That is not something you see every day but serves as a reminder of the harshness and sometimes brutality of the land where God has called us. There is another region known as Polcot country or “no-mans” land that we came through around 9-10am where you see small groups of men on the road with AK-47’s, always a little unnerving but we moved right on past with many waves ,however, I notice my foot gets a little heavier on the gas around those men. As we enter into the South Turkana game park we did not see the elephants as we did last time we came through with Bro. Eddie. The one thing that we immediately notice was the change in temperature. Eldoret is almost 7000ft. above sea level with weather comparable to Seattle, Washington while Turkana is like sub-Sahara and weather comparable to Death Valley, Arizona in the hottest part of the year. So we have transitioned from what they call “smiling weather” in Eldoret to what
we call relentless heat of the Turkana, desert. The only consolation is that the heat reminds us of our home state of Florida where we have lived our entire adult lives and it does not bother us. Special thanks to Bro. Eddie for letting us stay at his place. We are thankful for the blessing but it comes complete with mice (1 Dead), Huge scorpion (1 Dead) and plenty of palmetto bugs as we called them in Florida. While we are here we taking care of some repairs to the fence at the house we have secured for our August move to Lodwar.
Seems that the neighbors goats have taken up residence due to the numerous holes in the fence. We also journeyed this way to make way for Bob Clark who is the missionary we bought all our stuff from in
hopes that he will leave his Discovery Land Rover with us when he is done with it. It is a complex story that is too lengthy and in-depth to cover but there is a possibility that he will let us use his vehicle while he is in the states under the condition we maintain it.
We are praying to that end because it is a much newer vehicle than we are driving. We are thankful for all those that have given to the repairs ($5,000.00) for the “green camel” and it is in so much better shape than when we bought it. So we will see how it all works out.
This also gives us a much needed break from language school and gives us the opportunity to use what we have learned as not many people speak English in Turkana. We will also try to see all of Bro. Eddies
Pastors while here and take care of his needs with the Bible Institute. So while our back’s are sore from the beating yesterday on what is probably the worst road in the world we are glad to back in Turkana. Thanks for taking the time to ride along this journey of faith with us and I will send pictures when we get a good enough Internet connection.
God Bless you all.

Chuck & Terry Fernandez

Kenya, East Africa

Monday, April 20, 2009

Women At The Well

Baptismal Site
We continued evangelism efforts at Mawe Tatu
(3 Stones) on Saturday in the western province. Much to our surprise and delight the team has grown from 6 people to 8 people. There was a new lady named Florence that joined Terry’s team of ladies and there was a new young man named Moses who is an Associate Pastor at a Church near Pastor Peters home. He had ridden his bike with Pastor Peter and a lady named Mary on the back for 4 hours Friday evening to spend the night in Mawe Tatu to do evangelism Saturday morning. If I ever start thinking of complaining about having to drive a couple of hours to reach Mawe Tatu I am immediately humbled by the thought of having to ride a bike for 4 hours to do evangelism. The kind of increase we saw with new people getting a burden for the lost is typical of the Lord’s faithfulness to his servants. If we will just do our part and be obedient to the Lord’s will he will give the increase. One person can make a difference in the lives of many others when they surrender and yield to the will of God. After Chai (Tea) & Makate (Bread) Pastor Peter shared a great report from his church in Indivisi. The week before Terry had taught the Mama’s in his church on evangelism. He said that because of the teaching there was now a team of Ladies that were going out on Saturday to do evangelism at his home district while he was at Mawe Tatu visiting with us.. He was so excited that those ladies had lead 3 people to Christ last week and they were going again on Saturday. One of our main goals and mission is to train Kenyans to reach Kenyans. We thank God that we are already seeing fruit from our labors in this respect.
As we increased in number we were able to divide up into more teams to cover more area. Terry and the ladies must have walked 10Km to (6 mi.)the forest where hundreds of people were planting crops on this
Saturday morning. I took the men and drove the green camel into the heart of Mawe Tatu where the actual 3 Stones are located. As you can see from pictures the 3 stones are more like 3 small mountains.
We found a good safe location to park the Land cruiser at an old Mama’s house named Violet. She told us she was so glad to see us and that she was a born again Christian. She said she has been praying for many years that her neighbors that live around the stones would come to Christ. With this beginning I knew the Lord had a great day planned for us. While we visited dozens of homes there were seven people who we shared the gospel with that made professions of faith in Christ. The English names of those that trusted Christ were: Rebecca, Wycliffe, Joseph, Martha, Naomi, another Rebecca and a lady named Chribili. Please pray for these that professed Christ as Savior. While I praise the Lord for all those that made decisions there were two very powerful meetings that took place Saturday. Women at the Well...

The first one was when we walked up on older Mama and her two granddaughters who were drawing water from a well out of the ground with a rope and a bucket. It was a moment when the Word of God was so alive in our hearts as we shared the Love of God with them. It was as if we were back in Samaria with Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. We shared the passage from John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, "Give me to drink." John 4:14 "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. "What a powerful moment in time as Peter prayed with the Grandmother and her granddaughters to receive Christ at that well. I explained to them that God gave them a real blessing because every time they return to the well to draw water they will remember the Lord Jesus and their salvation. Makes you want to cry with joy! There was a second meeting that took place Saturday which had nothing to do with the people we shared the gospel with but rather took place in the hearts of 4 preachers on the top of the largest of the three stones.

What started as an adventure to climb one of the 3 stones ended with Peter, Moses, Shadrach and myself looking out over thousands of shamba’s (farms) each with a mud house. The tin roofs reflected in the sun as
a reminder of the scope of the work at threes stones. We stood at the

edge of the rock looking possibly 1000 ft. into the valley below and
we saw the awesome responsibility the Lord has entrusted to us. The battle is great but as David said “is there not a cause”? The weekend closed with services this morning back at Landmark Baptist Church in Indivisi. Before services we visited a Pastor named David in our work with a small group of believers meeting in a rundown school. What a precious group of God’s people worshiping without the out the trappings of religion, just a pure simple faith in God. Terry and I left the western province with many blessings that included: 1 live Chicken, 6 eggs and a stalk of bananas. God’s people giving out of love for their God.

Thanks for sharing our Journey of Faith,

Chuck & Terry Fernandez
Kenya, East Africa

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Heavy Hearts and God's Grace

Yesterday started out as normal day. Still being weary from our week-end trip to Nairobi for truck parts we were a little slow moving but back to school to continue our language acquisition. The Lord has given us a great teacher named Wycliffe. He is on staff here at the Indiana University where they have an extensive Doctor training program in conjunction with the Moi Teaching Hospital located here as well in Eldoret. Wycliffe is systematically, patiently and methodically teaching us to speak Swahili. Just towards the end of our morning lesson the phone rang. It was Missionary James Taylor who said he was parked at the front gate of the Indiana University compound with a family who are members of his Church in Melindi (15hrs) away. He had traveled all night with the family to bring them to Western Kenya to bury their infant new born that died the day before. To compound his problems James told me that his daughter, Lydia, has fallen and shattered her elbow the same day this family lost their infant and needed immediate surgery. James dropped his family off in Nairobi in the middle of the night and made his way to Eldoret to see if Terry and I would finish transporting this family to Western Kenya about 3 hrs away. I told him we wanted to help him get through this crisis in any way we could. We cut our language class short and proceeded to the house. As James passed with his van I noticed the red ribbons all over indicating a funeral and in this case a hearse. It was a sobering reminder of the gravity of the situation. We transferred the family with their belongings and the body into our truck. As they loaded the little miniature casket into the back of the “green camel” (as the Turkanan’s affectionately call it) I thought to myself that they deserve better than this. However, this is Africa and you make do with what you have. We prayed with James and put him on his way back to Nairobi so he could be there in time for his daughters surgery. Please pray for a full and speedy recovery for his daughter. Last word was that the surgery went well. They decorated the Landcruiser with red ribbons and we proceeded to Western Kenya. We were a total of 9 packed and with their belongings and the baby. During the 3 hour drive my heart continually went out to the Father (Ricklyn) and Mother (Momma Esther). I watched in my rear view mirror and saw Rickly crying in the back over his Child’s coffin holding it tightly as we drove the rough roads. Momma Esther was in state of shock and appeared to be in post-delivery pain. As we got deep into the interior of Western Kenya we started the (off-road) portion of our journey. While I
get stressed driving the old Landcruiser on the roads it is one of the best off road trucks for Africa. We traveled past many villages on dirt roads until we reached a junction that lead down a trail. As we
proceeded down this rough trail that can best be described as washout where the rain runs I noticed that there were dozens of Momma’s running behind and beside the truck. It took me a few minutes to realize that these were Ricklyn’s and Esther’s family members who had been waiting to accompany the body to the home. By the time we made it to the home, boulders and gullies, there was a large crowd around the truck. The body was immediately taken by the grandmother to the house to prepare for the burial. After greetings and a meal we were prepared to start our trip back to Eldoret when Ricklyn asked if we would stay so I could preach the funeral. I told them I would be honored. After many songs, introductions and testimonies I
stood before a large crowd of people and a small open grave. As Easter Sunday approaches I have been studying all week on the resurrection. It is in the resurrection that we find our hope and power. Jesus conquered death hell and the grave through the power of the resurrection. That is what I preached and will continue to preach for it is the foundation of our faith. The Lord gave me two more passages to share with them about men in the Bible who had lost their children.
King David and Job lost children. Both exhibited great faith in the Lord during the time that Job described as every parents “worst fear”, losing his children. The gospel was presented during the message it started to rain and we hastily made our way back to the truck to start our trip back home. While the day was somewhat stressful to say the least the Lord through His grace gave us great peace as we traveled home. Great peace in the fact the God is able to comfort a mourning family. Great peace that He is faithful and true to his Word. Great peace that those parents will see their child in heaven one glad day. We also had great peace and relief as we looked into the eyes of Ricklyn and Momma Esther when they made it home to have the support and outpouring of love from their family.
While the day is a reminder of the importance of our work here it is also a reminder of how much we miss our family. Please pray for this young couple as they will be mourning for months to come.
Thank you for taking time to share in our ministry.

Bro. Chuck & Sis Terry Fernandez
Kenya, Africa