Mac Med Event

Dear Family & Friends,

Below is our latest journal entry & pics from our mission work over the last several weeks. We are now settled in a city called Eldoret to start our language studies. Our Internet and phone service has vastly improved being in a more populated area. We can send and receive text messages now. Our phone # is 011-254-736509043. Feel free to call or text, we miss u all much and we are adjusting well. Terry continues to battle food poisoning so please continue to pray for her.

God Bless U all.

Chuck & Terry Fernandez

We have been without Internet and phone service for the last week and a half but now we are back online. We have spent the last several weeks in Lodwar, Turkana. During that time we have had the privilege of preaching at the villages churches as well as meeting local chiefs and officials in advance of the Mac Med team that was scheduled to arrive on the 22nd. All of the chiefs that we meet with were very thankful that the doctors were coming from America and pledged their full cooperation so that their people could get the help they need. During the week before the arrival of the Mac Med team we also had personal items to take care of like insurance on the truck. The nearest insurance agency was 8 hrs from Lodwar. We located an Insurance agent that caught a bus and traveled the 8 hrs from a town called Kitali. He wrote our policy and delivered the insurance certificate for 500ksh or $8.00 US. Not only did we need to get insurance but we also needed to find an extra spare for the truck because one spare in a desert filled with thorns is not wise. After visiting the local fundi (Mechanic) we found an extra tire and rim. It is not like the US where there is a junkyard on every corner. It is a good thing we found a second spare because we had 4 flats and a broken hub in the first two days of the medical campaign. The team of translators would joke saying our camel has weak feet. Every day we would travel out of the bush and take flat tires to have them repaired. At one point I was complaining to myself ( and maybe the Lord) about the amount of tire changing, when the Holy Spirit reminded me that there was a time in my life when I use to change tires 4 times on one night of stock car racing. The Lord sure knows how to keep things in perspective. The days moved fast and furious with the arrival of the doctors from the USA. They were well trained, equipped and prepared to put on the five days of mobile medical clinics. Our first task was to transport the volunteer translators to the villages. Including Terry and I, we transported as many as 12 people starting at 6 am in the morning in the “green camel” as they called our Land Cruiser. These people were essential for the doctors to communicate with the patients. Each of these men and women gave up a week of their to time to help others and serve the Lord. Wonderful bright people many of which could speak three languages. The medical team was well organized and hit the ground running. They set up a registration, a triage, nurses stations, doctors stations, eye care and a pharmacy every day. The average was near 300 patients every day. This was all done in a make shift hospital (usually in a church). The weather was in the 120’s everyday and some days the sand was blowing so hard that we were all covered with dust. They did a wonderful job of keeping the people moving. They treated everything from TB, malaria, intestinal problems, worms, skin diseases and even had chiropractor adjusting backs, neck, etc.. It was an impressive week of God’s love in action. For me the three most memorable patients was a man who was pulled and pushed in a worn out wheelbarrow because he could not walk. Now I have never seen leprosy but there was a boy who walked many miles by himself to see the doctors from a serious infection that could have passed for leprosy. He was so pitiful. In addition to these were the babies that were dying and the doctors could do nothing but pray over. Please continue to pray for all those that were treated and those that made professions of faith. Thank you for taking time to read our journal.

Looking & Longing 4 Jesus,

Chuck & Terry