Broken Record, Hard Ground & Meat of the Word

                       Landmark Baptist Church Mawe Tatu (3 Stones)
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I hesitate to write in my journal blog that the week started again with vehicle repairs.    While last week’s turbo repair enhanced the performance of the Land Cruiser, I could not get over the fact that there was still an issue that had to do with the injectors.   As stated before, I am not an expert at anything but I do have access to probably the finest diesel mechanic in the world, my Son In Law Kevin, who owns his own diesel repair business.   At his advice we went forward with pulling the injectors which we found were in terrible shape from contaminated fuel.   After some reconditioning and reinstalling the performance picked up a little more.   Thank God for Kevin who makes himself available for any 911 diesel repair call and is going to order new injectors to put in within the next month or so.

This week we also traveled to Soysambu to start the construction of another new sanctuary.   Landmark Baptist Church at Soysambu was started with the help of Bro. Gary Weidenbach and the Macedonia short term mission trips team in January 2012.   In just two short years, while meeting under a tent and under the leadership of their Pastor Japheth, who incidentally is the leader of our building team, they have grown to point where they are ready for a permanent sanctuary.    In case you have forgotten, our building philosophy is to come along side of this group of born again believers who have coveted together to keep the commands so the Lord Jesus Christ and help provide a plot and basic building materials to help bring the sanctuary to a usable state and then challenge them to finish the structure by faith and sacrificial giving.    The Pastor and the members where extremely excited to see the poles start to go up one by one.
                                    Hard Ground

Pictures do not do it justice but the ground is extremely hard to dig as it is full of rocks.    My heart went out to the men as they laboriously dug each hole.   As they undertook this difficult task I was reminded that they farm this ground each year so it is nothing new to them.    With sweat running off their foreheads I also realized that these young Christians are not lazy or scared of work but only lack the resources to build.

                                        Cement Mixing

Construction Superintendent 

                               Children Helpers

Thank God for His people and Churches in the USA who have given to this worthy cause.     They even broke the big rocks into little rocks with hammers to be used in the cement.    Now that is real work!   They have so much more work ahead of them as they have to move hundreds of cubic yards of dirt because of the extreme elevation on the plot.    We are so thankful for the privilege God has given us to be a part of their Christian growth.     Building a sanctuary may not seem like that big of deal but for this young Church I can assure you that they are praising God even more because he has provided something they have been praying about for two years.    This is where the physical God has provided meets the spiritual prayers that He has answered.    It blesses my heart just to think about God’s goodness and provision by His amazing Grace.    This Lord’s day we worshiped at Landmark Baptist Church Mawe Tatu (3 Stones) This Church was our first Church plant which dates back to 2009.   Needless to say, they have become a strong Church under the leadership of their young Pastor Shadrack.   Teaching this group has really challenged my Swahili Bible vocabulary as they are no longer on milk but are now on the meat of the word.   We do not track the growth of the Churches simply by the number of members.   While I am happy to report that there was a good number present for worship there are so many other signs of growth within the body of believers of this local New Testament Church.   For example, Pastor is currently training two associate Pastors and has sent one of His Associate Pastors (Japheth) to Soysambu to plant the Church there.    While we were in the states doing more deputation they managed to raise funds through special offerings to build a kitchen, cement the floor and put stained glass in the windows.

Kitchen

God’s people sacrificially giving whether here in Kenya or the USA always touches my heart and to me reveals a great love for God as well as spiritual maturity.   We know that they are growing because they are not only gaining Bible knowledge but we see them applying it to their lives.  Thank you for allowing us to share what God is doing in our lives as well as the work here in Kenya.   We desperately need your continue prayers as we labor to reach the lost and disciple the saved.  

God Bless,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya

                                     Another Theresa

Terry's Crew