Village Evangelism & A Heart of Worship

Children's Shelter

There are two items of business I need to clear up before I enter our weekly journal blog. #1: As you can see, I have used a new venue to post our weekly journal in the form of a Picasa photo album. My hope is that we will be able to share more photos along with the blog entry by using the Picasa slideshow format.
  (NOTE: Any feedback with regard to this new method of sharing our ministry would be deeply appreciated.)
  Kindly drop me a reply at your earliest convenience with your feedback, good or bad.
#2: Somebody has hacked Terry’s Yahoo account and is using our ministry mailing list to send out money making emails without our permission. We are not here to make money but rather to do God’s work so please disregard. However, if you have made millions on line and want to give to God’s work, feel free to do as God leads you. LOL. Terry is going to close her Yahoo account for this reason. Sorry for any inconvenience.

This week we traveled to the Kerio Valley to minister to the Pokot tribe in the villages of Katuperot and Cheposabei. The village of Katuperot is the neighboring village to Cheposabei where we have planted our first Pokot Church. Many of the members of the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei along with their Pastor Timothy Loquardo participated in the evangelism efforts. Make no mistake about it, Terry and I share God’s Word but we have much joy in watching our children in the faith growing up and sharing God’s Word with their neighboring villages. We believe that good Disciples of Christ make other disciples through one on one evangelism.
        Bible in Hand....

Our leader for this week’s evangelism was Solomon. In the pictures you will recognize a young preacher who is physically impaired with a deformed foot from birth. You probably have to see Solomon walking first hand through the desert heat on crutches to appreciate the effort he is putting forth but take my word; he is determined to deliver the gospel. The average Christian will not walk across the street with two good legs to share God’s word and here is a man with make shift crutches walking many miles to be a witness for Christ. It is very humbling to walk behind him as he struggles with each step and I often think to myself just how much he loves the Lord and how obedient of a servant he is. His testimony is much like many of those in Cheposabei where he was a drunkard and actually avoided us our first two visits in 2010. It would be our third visit that God would speak to his heart and told him to go and hear what we had to say. During this visit he would accept Christ by faith and a year later surrender to preach the gospel. He is now the Assistant Pastor and a key leader in the church. After house to house evangelism we gathered everyone together at the water hole for afternoon teachings. The folks of Katuperot are definitely getting more comfortable with us and it does our hearts good that they now call Terry by the name, “Mama Teresa” and of course I am known by the name of “Carlos”.  
                           New Solar Audio Bible 

Teaching

Village Evangelism

They love to see us come for teachings and we are building strong relationships with these folks as we move from planting seeds to watering them. There were twelve more that accepted Christ this week and are now birthed into the family of God through salvation.   
                               Evangelism Team 

This makes dozens who have professed Christ over the last month and we are now strategically aiming the teachings at basic discipleship. Terry takes the ladies to one side of the river while I take the men to the other side and we taught them about what is means to be a Christian, the early Church and this week I also taught on lessons from the Sermon on the Mount. The words of Jesus are still the bread of life that every man needs to live by. What an honor! 
                                     Terry and Watoto

This trip also afforded us the opportunity to survey the new plot which we will start building on at the end of the month. We had great worship services on the Lord’s Day with the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei and judging from the singing and testimonies the people really have a heart to worship. Their testimonies will bring tears to your eyes, about how God is not only transforming lives but also the entire village.
                                           Prayers.....

They recall the days before we brought the love of Christ to their village as days of darkness and without peace. We know what a difference the Lord has made in our lives and every time we visit Cheposebei we see firsthand the difference God is making in this desert village. On our trip back to Eldoret Terry and I had a good laugh as we wondered how many of our brethren in America have the opportunity to set up the tent to worship under, or how many of our brethren had camels surround the sanctuary and interrupt the service by eating loudly or how many people are blessed to eat MRE’s on the way home from Church on the Lord’s Day?
All I can say is that we are blessed!

In His Service,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya
Phil. 4:13