Everyday Life, Building Progress and Happy Mother's Day

Looking back at our week in review, we have slowed the hectic breakneck pace we set since the beginning of the year.  However, even during the times of forced slow down when we are not on ministry safari doing evangelism or discipleship training in the Kerio Valley,  on Mt. Elgon or at Lake Victoria, we are still busy fabricating poles, trusses, windows and doors for the five new sanctuaries we are trying to complete this year. 

Additionally, Terry is getting ready for a Women’s seminar for the ladies in our associated work on the 22nd, 23th & 24^th of this month.  Teaching

Prayers

Then there is the less glamorous part of foreign mission work and that is just living life.

Tasks like purchasing food, paying bills, ie: rent, electric, internet and phone are all part of our everyday life in East Africa.   Let me add that nothing here happens fast and things are not generally well organized so the simplest of task in a developing country can be difficult.

Let me also add that if you are not accustomed to waiting for prolonged lengths of time to accomplish the simplest of tasks you will live a very frustrated life.  Fortunately, both Terry and I have assimilated well and after nearly six years we have adopted the Kenyan moto:  “Hakuna Matata” = “No Worries” or “Haraka, Haraka hiena Baraka”= “Hurry Hurry and there is no blessing”. 

 Our one trip to the interior this week was to worship with the Landmark Baptist Church at Ndivisi which is located at the base of Mt. Elgon. 

                                                  Inside New Sanctuary

New Sanctuary

The rainy season has started and it was extremely muddy and the roads, trails and paths we traveled were very slippery.   It is for this reason we run the best mud terrain tires money can buy and we simply would not be able to visit many of our churches without them and four wheel drive.   Walking down muddy paths with running water up to your ankles is not something Americans generally experience while dressed up in their Sunday best to get to Church but is the norm this time of year in Kenya.                                      Muddy Roads

The LBC at Ndivisi under the Leadership of Pastor Peter is really making great progress on their new sanctuary and is nearing completion. 

As you can see from the pictures, they still need to install windows, doors and cement the interior floor.    During the Sunday service, one of the members brought one bag of cement as a love offering.  

It may not sound like much but that one bag represents about one weeks pay in Western Kenya.

Not to mention it was very moving to see the man and the Chairman of the building committee kneel and pray over the bag of cement together as they gave it to God. 

Since Sunday was Mother’s Day and since they do not observe Mother’s Day in Kenya, I took the liberty to teach the congregation about our tradition in America of honoring our Mother’s.    It was during that time that I presented Terry with a painting that our daughter Carla has commissioned by a local artist in Eldoret.  

Terry was both surprised and touched by this expression of love. 

It is on these type of holidays and special occasions that we miss our family the most and our hearts are somewhat torn from being so far way from those you love. 

In closing, I want to wish my Mother, Faith Fernandez a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! 

Thank you for being a great Mom. 

Abraham Lincoln once said,  "I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."

God Bless All of Our Mother’s

Bro.Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya

Kerio Valley Evangelism, Uganda Tent Raising & The Missionary's Wife

Teaching 

Terry and I just returned from three days in the Kerio Valley and Uganda.   While our hearts are running over with joy from experiencing God working in so many lives through saving faith, serving faith and sanctifying faith, our bodies are weary and battered from hundreds of kilometers of interior trails and paths.   I thank God for calling us to do His work in East Africa and we feel extremely honored and privileged to go in Jesus name, but I often ponder the uniqueness of this calling to literally hazard our lives on hard, rough and rocky roads to bring the good news of the gospel year after year.  However, we do not have to look far to find this same pattern repeated by preachers of the gospel through the pages of the New Testament and by other Missionaries who have gone before us.   In any case, we will definitely need a couple of down days to recuperate this week.    Our first stop would be at the village of Moriweris to do village evangelism and to follow up with our new converts there who have been saved for around a month.   Desert Evangelism

Evangelism

                              

They have been assembling themselves on a week basis to listen to the audio Bibles we left them in March.  The importance of these follow up visits accompanied with basic discipleship teaching cannot be overstated as we feel such a sense of responsibility to bring these babes in Christ to a level of maturity where they know how to daily walk with God and will be able to stand firm in their faith and doctrine.   This level of commitment on our part helps confirm their salvation and builds a strong relationship that goes beyond anything this world has to offer.    Next to living out Christ in our own lives, bringing these dear folks to the saving knowledge of Christ and properly disciplining them is our greatest priority.   In addition to village evangelism and discipleship training at Moriweris we also delivered new pews and repaired old ones at the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei.

This is extremely noteworthy because the Church has numerically outgrown the original amount of pews and is now in need of more.   We praise the Lord that he has given the increase!  By the way, when is the last time your Church had a seating problem? 

After visiting Moriweris and Chepsoabei we crossed the border into Uganda to visit our newest Church located in the village of Kakaron to deliver the new tent and for worship service. 

                                                Alter Prayer

Alter

Since our last visit in March, the Church family has doubled in size and I was beginning to wonder if the tent we brought was going to hold everyone.   We had a great day of worship and many came forward at the end of service to receive Christ.  God’s presence was truly felt among His people and He is truly doing something great through this local indigenous New Testament Church at Kakaron.   They had a teen choir that was unlike anything we have heard since we arrived in Kenya in 2008. 

The harmony that was as good as anything you would hear from a professional choir;

Terry and I were simply amazed. 

Our three days concluded with Terry teaching the Pastor’s wives how to bake the bread for the Lord’s Supper.   These are the more practical hands on lessons that could easily be overlooked but are also very important when it comes to the ministry.   

Mwilimu

Terry is an amazing woman and help met that enhances our ministry tenfold.  I could not image not having her by my side every step of the way.

As I processed the pictures from this week’s travels, my heart was truly touched as I looked at all that she did for me and others.    Check them out for yourself and you will see a woman of faith in action.                         Terry Desert

Terry Helper

Terry Heart

 Thank you for praying, for giving and for those of you who take the time to respond to these glimpses into our hearts and ministry here in East Africa.

 

God Bless,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya 

 

Tent Making & Roofing 101 @ Lake Victoria

Terry  Children with Balloons....

                                        Teaching Under New Roof....

 Each time we fabricate another tent, as we did this week, our hearts and minds are drawn back to the Apostle Paul and the tentmakers found in the book of Acts. 

 Act 18:3  " And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers". 

The tents we use for new outreaches and newly organized Churches and are indicative of where these young Christians are in their faith.   These are mostly newly born again believers who are starting to assemble themselves on a weekly basis to pray, sing praises and to study God’s word.

We view the tents as a temporary stepping stone which allows these young believers a shelter to assemble under free from the elements while they are growing numerically and spiritually.

Right or wrong, the tents have been a great blessing to these young Christians and have become a very effective and low cost method of Church planting.

There is a lot of cutting, welding, fabricating and painting that goes into these tent kits which includes: (10) small pews, the steel frame, the tent fabric, rope, stakes, side curtains and a pulpit for the Man of God to preach God’s word.     Painter Terry

Chainsaw Ready

Each one is assembled with great love, care and reverence for there is no meeting place more important than where the New Testament Church assembles to worship our Lord and Savior on a weekly basis.

In addition to chasing down steel, wood and paint this week we traveled to Lake Victoria for three days to help put the new roof on the Landmark Baptist Church of Got. 

                                                      Roofing

                                                        More Roofing Work

This permanent sanctuary project comes at such a crucial time in the continued growth of Pastor Jackson and this young group of believers. 

They have faithfully raised and lowered their tent for three years now.  While the tents are great for a specified amount of time, there is a threshold that is crossed where they start to carry a negative stigma that says the Church is only temporary.    Needless to say, we saw great joy on the faces of Pastor Jackson and the members of LBC Got as the roof was completed. 

Pastor George from Landmark Baptist Church at Wichlum Bay also came over to help with the roofing.          

             Pastor George with solar powered video tablets

These two lakeside Pastors love each other and it does our hearts good to see the fellowship and encouragement they provide to each other which in turn give strength to their ministries. 

                                               Pastor Jackson

LBC  Got Church

These two Churches and Pastors are probably our least mature but I have to continually remind myself and others from time to time that these fishermen have only been saved for around four years and already have shown themselves faithful by starting Bible studies in their home and then surrendering to God’s call on their lives to preach the Gospel.   I am so proud of their faithfulness and we are watching them mature before our very eyes into solid fundamental Pastors and Gospel preachers as we pour lesson after lesson into their lives.    This trip also afforded us the opportunity to deliver Pastor Jackson and Pastor George their solar powered video tablets for their continuing education. 

          Pastor Jackson with solar powered video tablet for training 

We are firmly committed to teaching them one on one as well as at our quarterly seminars but this seminary level video program is going to accelerate their learning tenfold.   Please continue to pray that God’s grace will continue to be great upon these young Christians and Churches.    Our three day trip ended with us worshipping together with the Landmark Baptist Church at Got under the newly completed roof.   Before I preached from Nehemiah 6, I reminded them that we should thank God first and foremost for His provision and also remember that God has used our brethren in the USA who have given sacrificially so that they might have a permanent sanctuary.   Terry and I firmly believe that if we are going to leave behind a permanent work for God in Kenya we need to provide a permanent foundational structure for these young believers.   We fully understand that the Church is a body of local visible scripturally baptize believers who have coveted together to keep the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ but we also fully understand that coming alongside of these young Churches encourages them greatly in their new faith.  Remember that we challenge them to bring these structures to completion so they make a sufficient investment into what is their sanctuary and not ours.   May God bless you and keep you by his loving grace and mercy.  Please pray for us as I will be taking Terry for what will be her first trip into Uganda this week to deliver a tent to our newest Church there.

 

     God Bless,

 

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya/Uganda

 

 

 

Why I Write, Pews & Resurrection Sunday

Easter Sunday

A few years ago a Nobel Prize writer of poetry made these remarks,

“All my writing in the world cannot add more than a crickets chirp to the voice of life,  But no one can write as authentically about my life’s experiences, my hearts feelings, my outlook on life as I can.  Therefore these same experiences of life find their way into my poetry, my communication and hopefully into the lives of others.  That is why I write.” 

While the poet has hit the nail on the head regarding writing and sharing our experiences here on the mission field, I would add to it that I know my writing is rambling, far from grammatically correct and some might say horrible as I have difficulty keeping a cohesive thought pattern because there is so much to share and remember week in and week out.

But, the bottom line with regard to our lives and journaling can be found in the

book of Matthew 5:16 

" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,  and glorify your Father which is in heaven. "

 Our hope and desire is not that people would read of our mission work in Kenya and say,

 “What a great Missionary”, but rather people would read of our mission work in Kenya and say, “What a great Savior”.  

Our lives continue to be consumed with construction and developing the leaders in the fourteen Churches we have helped organize.   We have started construction on four of the five Churches we raised funds for during last year’s deputation work and in addition to the those four new Churches under construction we have three other Churches which we are giving limited assistance to who are putting up brick walls. 

The math says we have seven new sanctuaries simultaneously under construction which totally blows me away.

God is a great and awesome God.  

In addition to continued construction, this week we assembled pews to go with the new tent we are currently fabricating for the work in Uganda.  

It is always a blessing to wrap your hands around a project that you know is going to be used for the glory of God.   As I cut, drilled and assembled these small pews I could not help but to think and pray for God’s precious people who will be praying, praising and learning God’s word

while sitting on them. 

Believe me when I say that it provides a whole nother level of passion and commitment to performing the simplest tasks in our ministry.  Finally we had a great resurrection service at the Landmark Baptist Church of Soysambu which is located near the river Nzoia. 

We did not make it a sunrise service but meeting under the roof of a Church with open air sides still provides a glimpse of God’s beautiful creation.

I preached from I Cor. 15 on the hope that the resurrection of Jesus gives us and the admonition to be steadfast, immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for we know our labour is not in vain.   Amen! 

                                           Sunday School Helper

 After our traditional Church family meal, we traveled to Pastor Japheth’s home to set up his solar powered tablet and video lessons.

Tablet Teaching

Bible Students

                                      Thank you to those individuals and Churches who have helped purchase these ministry transforming tablets for our Pastors. 

                                                            Terry Helping

                                                        Terry and Pastor's Wives

If you are interested in helping with educating Men of God we still need another half dozen or so.    We covet your continued prayers and we thank you for allowing us the privilege of sharing our journey of faith.

 

God Bless,

 

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya/Uganda

Phil. 4:13

The Ebb & Flow, Holding the Rope & Building Walls

As I start this journal entry, I fully realize that people may read it and come to the conclusion that we have not slowed our pace since the beginning of the New Year but we have, slightly.

Being from Florida and an avid West Coast fisherman you must be able to read tide charts and interpret the ebb and flow of the tide down to the minute, (if you want to catch fish).  

There are so many dynamics at work serving God on the foreign field that we must regularly and continually pray for wisdom and discernment to know how much to do, when and where. 

With the size and scope of ministry now reaching into Uganda we can become consumed and cumerbered about with so many good things that we become beat down, wore out and useless to God and the dear people whom we try to be a blessing and encouragement to, week in and week out.

So I say all that to say this, that we know from our spiritual condition as well as our physical condition that we needed to pull the throttle back this week and we did.

However, even though we have not been running as hard we still managed two trips into the interior during this past week.

Our first one brought us to the river Nzoia and the Landmark Baptist Church at Soysambu to deliver ridge vents and help dig the hole for the latrine.

We had a great day of fellowship with Pastor Japheth and the members of LBC Soysambu who showed up for their work day.   Our hearts prayer is that God will somehow use us to be a blessing and encouragement to the folks as these young churches continue to develop much like He did in the book of Acts with Paul and Barnabas. 

These men were sent out to their Sister Church at Antioch and as they were sent they said.

 “it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you”,

 Act 15:25.                    Ridges

Progress

So we go to try to be a blessing and encouragement to them and they always end up encouraging us.    It was neat to see the excitement on Pastor Japheth’s face as he shared the news of having a record number in attendance in their midweek fellowship.

Our National Pastors are way more patient then Americans when it comes to results and particularly growth but nevertheless still get excited when God gives the increase. 

As I was helping dig the hole for the latrine with a rope and bucket I was once again reminded of the ole Missionary illustration of the great support group God has given us through the many different ministry partners used in many different ways who “hold the rope”, while we are down in the well digging.   In this case, it was a latrine but that does not matter.  I learned a long time ago from my Grandmother, that a person can get things done for God if you don’t care who receives the credit.

You know who you are and God knows what you do but please know that we are grateful for each of you who prayerfully and financially support our work here in Kenya and Uganda.

   Php_1:3  "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." 

In addition to Soysambu, we were able to travel to the base of Mt. Elgon to worship with the Landmark Baptist Church at Mayanja on the Lord’s Day.  We were so pleased to see the progress of the brick walls going up as they have almost reached the half way point.    After nearly four hours of singing, praying, teaching and preaching and after a fellowship meal with the church family we traveled to the neighboring village of Netima to visit Pastor Chester Moore’s home and to help him set up his solar panel, battery and tablet so he can begin his home Bible Studies via video. 

This home video Bible Institute training program is going to enhance our educational program by leaps and bounds.       Teaching

   

                                            Tablet

                        Chester learning Tablet for Bible Institute Training

Chester Family

 

 Pastor Chester is one of our older Pastors at around 55 years of age, I know that is young cause Terry and I are in our 50’s, lol, however he is one of the exceptions with regard to exposure to technology as he does not own a cell phone.  Funny thing about Kenya is that the majority do not have electricity or running water but they almost all own a cell phone.
  After about an hour of training he grasp the concept of the touch tone screen and will be watching his first four video lessons on:  History of the Church, The Church that Jesus built, Marriage and Evangelism.   It is amazing to see this technology being used in remote interior African villages for the glory of God and it is going to help our Pastors be the best Bible Teachers and Preachers they can be.                Open Bibles

Training Material

In closing,  the people continue to express the great love they have for my dear wife as Terry was given another chicken which she promptly placed in a bag so it would not mess all over the truck.  We have learned from experience and no, it was not a shake and bake bag.  

Blessing

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your life as we preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

Blessings,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya/Uganda

Newsletter March....

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