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Thursday, September 7, 2023
Florida Plant:, Hurricanes, Baptisms & Blessings
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Floods, The Death A Saint & A Legacy
June 9th, 2023
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Floods, The Death A Saint
& A Legacy Since our last Kenya/Uganda update we have seen major flooding occur in the Nyanza Province bordering Lake Victoria. We have a Landmark Baptist Church located in the town of Siaya which was under water for many days. Pastor George and eleven members lost their homes to the flooding and subsequent mudslides. Since the initial report we have sent aide to help Pastor George and five of the members to rebuild their homes (below); however there are still six families which are in need of mabati (iron) Sheets to put a roof over their heads. Please pray for these remaining six families whose homes have been destroyed. We are thankful for the special offering from the ABA disaster relief to help start this rebuilding process.   The Death of a Saint
 A Legacy Continued This post has to do with
another amazing servant of God. In fact, it is more about two amazing
Women who are servants of God. We recently received a report
that the Landmark Baptist Church at Ndivisi which is located at the base of Mt.
Elgon has started a youth outreach ministry in the village led by Mama Sporta
Wynonyi, the Wife of Pastor Peter Barasa Wynonyi. It seems as
Sis. Sporta who was personally taught and trained by Sis. Terry became inspired
to see the pictures and hear the stories of Sis. Terry going out each week to
reach children for Christ through the Florida Church
Plant. Pastor Peter tells me that one Sunday he arrived at
Church to find one hundred and fifty Children at the Church for the first time
as a result of Sis. Sporta and her co-labors going out into the village to
bring the Children in. In many ways, Sis. Terry’s Kenyan legacy continues
to live on through Mama Sporta’s efforts. With Children being third
class citizens, they have often been overlooked but now our Landmark Baptist
Churches see the necessity to reach the youth at a young age. Praise
the Lord for those who have compassion and make a difference for
Christ. Some would gather roses along the path of life,
and some would gather money and rest from worldly strife. But I would
gather Children from the among the thorns of sin, for I would seek a golden
curl or freckled toothless grin. For money cannot enter in that land of
endless day, and roses that are gathered will wilt along the way. But Oh
the laughing children, as I cross the sunset sea and the gates of heaven swing
open wide, I can take them in with me.   Landmark Baptist Bible
Institute
 Thank you for taking time to
read this report. We want to thank our God for the Churches of the American
Baptist Association as well as individual friends, family and brethren who
partner with Sis. Terry and I in East Africa and Florida. Please keep us and
the Lord's Churches in Prayer as we push towards the mark of the high calling
in Christ Jesus.
In His Service, Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez AKA: Missionary Loboduk &
Mama Terry Your Missionaries
Sending Church: 1st Baptist Church East Bay 10102 Big Bend Rd. River View, Florida 33578
Co-Sponsoring Church Dean Springs MBC 2106 Dean Springs Rd. |
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
FLORIDA PLANT: TENT CITY, CONSTRUCTION & TEN BAPTIZED
April 2, 2023
The (below) pics are of our
weekly efforts at the Church Plant to reach the lost in Hernando
County. We generally send out two or three teams of members visiting
our van routes and or knocking doors. God continues to bless our
efforts of obedience to go in Jesus name by giving constant fruit in the form
of new youth and new families. We are seeing youth and adults
trust Christ and unite with the Church through baptism as a result of our
highways and hedges ministry. We are commanded to go, we are called to go
and we gladly carry the gospel to a lost and dying world. It’s hard
to be light and salt when we hide our light under a bushel.
1Co 3:6 I have planted,
Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Tent City: The (above) pic of Sis.Terry visiting
a homeless camp with fifteen families living in the woods. One of the families
shared with us a heartwarming story of how they were ready to literally give up
on life and turn their Son over for adoption until God brought us into their
lives and gave them hope through faith in Jesus Christ. We are seeing lives
touched and transformed by the power of the gospel unto salvation. In addition
to providing the gospel, the Church plant has provided food, clothing and
shelter to these folks.
Tent & Construction
As you can see from the (below) photos, we continue to make improvements and additions to the building we recently purchased. Over the years we have used a tent for our Church fellowships. It was a laborious process of putting it up and taking down after each event. I have to be careful not to complain as some of our Kenyan and Uganda Churches have to put up tents on a weekly basis for years before we are able to partner with them to build a permanent sanctuary. All of that changed last month with the construction of a new pavilion. We recently had a member give a substantial love offering to the church for this expressed purpose and another member give an offering for the cement which we poured in house. I’m not an expert at anything, much less pouring cement but we did the best we could to get it done before it set up. We now have a pavilion to use for outdoor seating as well as a place to park our vans, especially since we had a recent catalytic converter stolen off one of the Ford vans. God continues to provide for us as we preach the gospel and we give Him all the praise, all the honor and all the glory for the great things He hath done.
Isa 54:2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
River Baptism: 10 Baptized
Over the last two month's we have baptized
ten souls at the Church plant. This would be our first river baptism.
We continue to baptized both youth and adults who have recently received
Christ and also those who were already saved and needed to be baptized into the
Church.
Matt 28:19 Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2023
SHOELESS BEN & MISSION ChALLENGES
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Mission Challenges
While it was
great to return to Kenya and Uganda for the first time since the CV-19 saga
began in 2019, it was not without its challenges. After living and
working in Kenya and Uganda for many years now, I’m afraid that the familiarity
of it all produces complacency in many areas of our lives and ministry .
However, all that complacency and smooth sailing went out the window on this
trip as we faced challenges with Visas and cancelled flights before we even got
out of the USA. God hand of grace has been so great upon Sis.
Terry and I over the years that sometimes we need to be reminded that we still
need Him to protect, preserve and provide for us every step of the way.
And of course then there is the sheer weight of opposition that the enemy of
God throws at us to buffet us, to hinder us and to frustrate our purpose
in life. Even with all the challenges we faced we saw God
blessings during this mission trip. One such blessing was experienced
through our Pokot guide and translator during village evangelism in
Uganda. It was one of those days that we were dragging from fatigue
from the heat and long flights to get in country. We divided up
into three teams in three villages and went Hut to Hut in over one hundred
degree heat. I personally reached my limit and told our guide
that I had done all I could do and needed to return to the truck to pick up the
other two evangelism teams. Feeling I had to appoligize for letting
them down, our new young Pokot evangelist (Pictured Below) and guide gave me
the most encouraging and comforting words a Missionary could ever hear.
He told Me, “Don’t worry Missionary Loboduk (my Pokot name), we
will continue to preach the gospel in these villages after you are gone”.
It does our hearts good to know that Gods work continues with or without us and
the work is in good hands through these young Pokot converts and evangelists.
Shoe-less Ben
Shoeless Ben
There are many moments with God that you experience during these
mission trips that can only be described as heartwarming and
inspiring. One of those precious moments in time would be following
the worship service at the Landmark Baptist Church at Chepsabei in the Kenyan
side of the Kerio Valley. There would be several of our Landmark Baptist
Churches in the area represented at the worship service by sending their
Pastors. After the service, as we were saying our goodbyes next to the
Land cruiser our Driver Ben ask me if he could give His brand new shoes to
Pastor Steven from the Landmark Baptist Church at Morwerris who had
walked over twenty kilometers in worn out tennis shoes with his toes sticking
out to get to Chepsabei. He removed them and immediately Pastor
Steven put them on to see that they were a perfect fit. With every
trip we regularly leave behind our sneakers and boots for the Pastors we work
with but this was different because Ben was giving up shoes that would cost up
to a months’ salary in Kenya. It was these types of acts of compassion
under the Love of Christ which makes every trip worth while to
experience. We knew our Driver Ben who is a born again
believer loved being apart of our mission team but now we saw His heart for His
own people who have so much less. Mat 25:35
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Village evangelism on Mt. Elgon at the village called Masaiek offered yet another opportunity to see the great growth of the work that God has allowed us to be a part of over the years. When Sis. Terry and I made our way Mt. Elgon in 2008 with our team of Kenyan brethren we started at the village of Kipsogon at the house of a Sister in Christ named Mama Rosemary. She would open her home to us to use at a launching point for evangelism as well as letting the Church meet in her house. At that time she was estranged from her husband but remaining with two young boys whom we led to Christ. Since then one of those boys has grown up to be a man God has called to Pastor the Church where we did village evangelism in Masaiek. It was awesome to go house to house doing evangelism with Pastor David (Pictured Below). He was dressed impeccably, well spoken and well received in the village. It makes us feel old but it reminds us that our impact is generational now and is in good hands of these "God called Men. "
One of our final opportunities to invest in the Kenyan and Ugandan side of our ministry during our mission trip was to sponsor a seminar at the Landmark Bible Institute of Ndivisi which is located at the base of Mt. Elgon. Men of God came from Lake Victoria, Mt. Elgon, the Kerio Valley, Kenya, Uganda and now a third East African Nation in the 10/40 window of unreached people groups. As you can see from the below picture: the work has quadrupled in size over the last three years and continues to growth each year. It was an honor to teach several generations of Evangelists, Pastors and Church planters during our seminar. We concentrated our efforts on teaching Doctrine and Eschatology. It was also great to see the completed dormitory and classroom being used. After the seminar we found ourselves limited by sickness in our team which facilitated the need for medical care. So in many ways you could say we ended the trip in the manner we started with continued challenges!
Pastors Peter Barasa & Shadrach
