Hanging Fence, Sand Land Evangelism, Running with Bulls & Reach One

We made the 300 Kilometer trip to Western Kenya and back three times this week.
The first one was to help Pastor Peter and his church members put up a new barbed wire fence because they have been having a few security issues.

Typically, projects of this type we will help the Church with the costs involved if the Church has made an effort to take up offerings for improvements.
Not only did the Church come through with their offerings to pay for the posts but the members of the Church also had to split the wood and then carry the 67 posts from a site several Kilometers away.
I was told that the Momma’s of the Church carried the bulk of the posts.

The ladies here work so hard not only in the house, but they can be seen weeding in the fields and harvesting often with a child on their back. We spent one of the most beautiful days this week planting posts and pulling wire. While it would have been easy to buy the wire and drop it off we would have missed the blessing of working hand in hand with our brethren here in Western. At the end of the day the Church members were like a teenager with a new car. Not only did they take great pride in their workmanship but they were happy to improve the property of God’s house.

As we were working one of the elders of the village stopped by and said he wanted to contribute 100 bricks to the next project, the latrine. I have always felt that one improvement to God’s house breeds other improvements. God’s people should perpetually have something going on to maintain and improve the House of God, even if it is made of mud.
The next trip to the Western province was for evangelism at a place called Sand Land. The name is derived from the sandy soil which is washed down into a large basin that looks like a lake and then collected to make bricks or cement. It is some of the best sand for building and is exported to other parts of the country.
We had 11 folks come for evangelism. The site of this village is approximately 10 Km’s from the Uganda border and is near where we had already done evangelism several weeks ago at a village called Mayanga. This work is lead by a young preacher named Nixon who is hosting a weekly Bible study.  The Bible study
 is now held in a restaurant/ hotel that Nixon and his wife rent.
These folks were very receptive to God’s Word and 20 people made professions of faith in Christ. At one point Pastor Peter and I ended up at the lake basin where all the sand is dug and loaded on to trucks.
There must have been 30 or 40 people working there who all stopped what they were doing so we could preach God’s Word to them. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people will gather in the middle of nowhere to hear God’s Word.
God’s Spirit was so strong as we stood in the countryside preaching the good news of the gospel and many from this group received Christ. We left that meeting with praise on our lips and hearts touched by God’s Spirit.

As we were walking away I saw Pastor Peter running by me at a very fast speed.
I did not know if he was laughing, leaping and praising God with overwhelming joy from the meeting or what? It only took one look over my shoulder to see that he was being chased by a very large angry bull with very big horns. So rule number one when being chased by a large animal is don’t be the last one left behind, I ran like crazy also.
We probably looked like PBR bull fighters running from bulls at the rodeo as we jumped up onto nearby rocks. When out in the villages we walk past hundreds of bulls that are docile but that one had an attitude.

We laughed the whole way back to the truck.
The third trip to Western was today to meet with the Landmark Baptist Church of Mawe Tatu for a baptism Service. We traveled with three men who recently have been saved through the Eldoret Bible Study. Pastor Shadrach welcomes these men as new members of his church as his Church is the closest to Eldoret.

While I have the opportunity to disciple these men through our weekly fellowship and Bible study he able to teach and preach to them on Sunday’s.

 These men truly love this Church and their young Pastor.

One of the men who was baptized was a young man named Rafael.

He is the one who was brought to Christ by the former Muslim name Mganda. I have attached an ABCD picture to illustrate that each one can reach one.

A. I reached Kennedy, B. Kennedy reached Uganda, C. Uganda reached Rafael. One person can make a difference for the cause of Christ!

Reach One!

Chuck and Terry Fernandez

Western Kenya & Mt. Elgon