Life in the fast lane is a great description of American
culture. Don’t get me wrong, Terry and
I don’t mind staying very busy serving the Lord and we try to be good stewards
with our time, but the busyness of American life continues to be a great
challenge in so many ways. Contrasted to
life in Africa, which is viewed as a journey traveling on a river, which is best
enjoyed when the river is moving slowly to allow those on the journey to more
fully appreciate and experience the scenery along the way. We much prefer the slow moving river pace of
life but we are learning to adjust to life in the fast lane. Besides the normal activities of living and
family, ministry tasks that keep us busy are visitation which includes our van
route, hospital/nursing home visits as well as new contacts and visitors. Additionally, we continue our weekly in-home
Bible studies and I am also preaching each week at the maximum security prison
located in Cross City. And then there is
the regular tasks that every Missionary or Pastor can relate to regarding lesson
and sermon preparation. And of course,
throw in meetings and deputation appointments as well and you’ve got a recipe
for a busy life or as my Pastor, Dr. Myers likes to call it, “the rat
race”. Part of the meetings for this
local Church sent and local Church supported Missionary includes the American
Baptist Association Annual Messenger Meeting held in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
While out in that neck of the woods we were
able to spend Father’s Day with our Co-Sponsoring Church, Dean Spring MBC. They are indeed family to us in so many
ways. We were also thankful to Pastor
Scott Pevehouse and S. Lakewood Baptist Church for allowing us to present our
work during this trip. We gave reports
on the work we are doing in Florida/Kenya and we left greatly encouraged by
brethren from all over the country.
The East African side of our
work included a baptism service at the Landmark Baptist Church at Mayanja which
is located at the base of Mt. Elgon where they baptize a dozen new
converts.
LBC Mayanja was one of the
hardest villages for us to break into with the gospel but we can now see God’s
hand in all of it and can see the investment of prayers, sweat and tears was
worth it. It does our hearts good to
see our converts pressing towards the mark of the high calling in Christ
Jesus.
This week we also received pictures of our
historic first Uganda Sanctuary nearing completion as the members of the LBC
Butiru. Our Florida building progress
is slightly different but in many ways the same. We needed room at the Florida Plant for our
youth and decided that converting a ready-made shed was the most feasible and
practical way of adding to our current sanctuary without creating a huge
building project on a building we do not own.
I guess we continue to be African in many ways and look for unique and
flexible solutions which we learned on the mission field. Thank you to each and every one of the
Churches and individuals who have given special offerings to help us meet this
special need.
In His Service,
Chuck & Terry Fernandez
Kenya/Uganda/Florida Plant
