Monday, August 30, 2010

Camp Bondo, Hunting 202 & Tent Raising at Mayanja

What started out last year as somewhat of retreat to go hunting has turned into another great opportunity to do evangelism and discipleship. This week we returned to Bondo for our second annual traditional hunting expedition.
Bro. Chad Harris, who is an avid hunter and also a missionary here accompanied us once again on this second trip. Last year we led most of our host family to Christ and this year we challenged them to grow in their walk with the Lord.
In the Bible, from time to time we find the Apostles would be reunited with their young converts to encourage them to continue in the faith.
Retuning to Bondo to hunt again this year afforded us this same opportunity.
Act 14:21 "And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."

Each day we had morning devotions and each evening we taught and preached the Word of God, sometimes up to three hours. Not only did we minster to our host family but their neighbors and extended family attended the teaching services as well.
We also took the opportunity to do evangelism near Lake Victoria at a fishing village called Wichlum where we saw ten people trust Christ as their personal Savior.
We were blessed to encourage people in the Lord and one of the rewards was fresh fish every day.
Being from Florida I sure miss fresh fish on a regular basis but I think I made up for a two years of loss in just four days.
After evangelism, Bro. Chad and the Pastors decided they wanted to take a boat ride. I took the attached picture of about 12 people crammed into what was no more than an oversized canoe.
I love boating but I was not about to get into a small unstable boat with a dozen people.
                       Somebody had to live to tell the story.
In any case, there were no problems. However it was the first time all the Pastors had ever been in a boat. After doing the work of the Lord for several days it was time to go hunting.
This year we hunted a new area that was not quit as dense and did not have as many animals.
The men we hunted with were as rough and rowdy of a crowd as I have met anywhere in the world.
Traditional hunting with a hundred men here in Kenya is somewhat like war, organized confusion and absolute Chaos. I am sure they know what they are doing but it is hard to figure out with dogs and people everywhere.
What I learned from last year’s hunt is I needed to be at the leading edge of the hunters because with all the dogs barking and people yelling the animals are running in front of the skirmish line. After I positioned myself at the front of the line I could hear people yelling as they were coming through the woods towards me. I heard the bushes rattle with what I thought for sure was a big buck antelope only to find that it was two dogs that came busting through the shrubs. With my spear in hand I came within a slit second of killing one of the hunting dogs. Needless to say, we had a great time and eventually ended up with fresh antelope meat.
The most memorable moment for me came from my hunting partner Pastor Shadrach. Pastor Sharach had never seen anything like this before. Most of the animals are taken alive by the dogs and then speared.
He could not stand hearing the gazelle bellow and whine after being taken. He asked if we could just let it go but I believe he changed his mind after he was able to eat fresh gazelle.
These types of shared experiences only grow us stronger as a team. After four days of sleeping in a tent it was good to get back in a real bed.
Sunday we spent the Lord’s Day at a village called Mayanja where we saw six more people make professions of faith. We also made good on a promise by delivering a tent for these new converts to meet under on a weekly basis.
What started as a Bible study of four has turned into group of more than fifty that meets three times per week. Many of those in attendance were people who made professions of faith during the course of our evangelism efforts over the last year. (Confirming the souls of the disciples). Please pray for these new converts.
May God continue to bless you and keep you.


Chuck & Terry Fernandez
Kenya, East Africa
Phil. 4:13

Monday, August 23, 2010

Building The House of the Lord

Christian School Kids
In addition to multiple areas of ministry taking place on a weekly basis that include Bible Studies, evangelism and discipleship we have turned our attention back to building once again.
Over the last month we cut timbers for two churches and now that the wood is sufficiently cured we have began construction at both locations.
Construction here in Kenya is nothing like I have ever experienced before and if you are the type of person that needs a transit and a level to build you would get totally frustrated here.
The only thing used here other than a chainsaw to process the trees is a hammer, a machete, a string and a hand saw. During the course of the week there was a great temptation for me to interject my thoughts and ideas of how it should be done but I had to remind myself that if we are building indigenous Churches out of mud and timbers, who really knows what they were doing?
The answer was obvious, our Kenyan brethren are the ones who have all the experience and expertise at building these types of structures and they are the ones who will have ownership of the sanctuary.
So at various times during the course of construction I had to step back and watch them work.
In many ways, I find the physical building part of our mission work here indicative of our ministry philosophy. There are areas of responsibility that I feel I need to take the leadership role in but more times than not I find myself simply coming along side of our brothers here to help them do what God has called them to do.
That is not just opening a wallet and handing them money or giving orders but rather working closely together to see scriptural New Testament Churches planted with believers who will serve and glorify God over a lifetime and into eternity. Framing, trusses and roofing were our goal this week.
Through several days of hard work we have brought the first building to a place where the mudding can start.  That is definitely something I have never done before but I am looking forward to trying my hand at it. From what I understand there is a certain type of branches that are woven in between the framing which is filled with a mud that must be made with very precise specifications.
Once the mud is shaped and dried it is nearly as strong as concrete.
You may be asking why we are not using bricks.
The reasons are as follows:
A. With five simultaneous Church plants going at one time, we simply cannot afford to build with bricks (other than restrooms as they are small)
B. We are building the type of structures that are found in the interior areas where these Churches are located (indigenous).
C. These are the type of structures the Pastors have asked for.
One of the things that we have been reminded of here in Kenya is that it is the people who make
up the Church and not the building.
Some of the Churches we worship with here are so full of God that it does not matter if they have a roof over their head or not and in many instances they may only have a tent we have provided.
But God’s presence and blessing is seen week in and week out in the lives of these believers.
I personally have come to a place in my life where I would rather have God
than padded pews and air conditioning any day.
As long as Jesus is the head of the Church and the Church is scriptural, give me a branch, a seed sack or sand to sit on and we will worship.
On a final note:
this week we also purchased a plot of land for the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheptabrubru on Mt. Elgon. That is the third plot God has provided in less than two years through faithful giving people back home.
As my Missions Treasurer says: “Ain’t God Good?”
Thank you each and everyone who partners with us through prayers and finances to see the great commission being fulfilled right before our eyes.
We give God all the praise for what He is doing and what He is going to do as we serve a mighty God.

God Keep You and Bless You,

Bro. Chuck & Terry Fernandez
Kenya, East Africa

Monday, August 16, 2010

Striving to Preach Where Christ has not been Named &The Perfect Day

We have spent the last four days in the Kerio Valley in an effort to reach the Pokot Tribe.

This tribe lives towards the northwest corner of Kenya near the Ugandan border. They are pastoralist who live in a semi-arid region and have somewhat of a bad reputation for illegal guns and cattle raiding, however, after spending four days with them it is clear to me that they are just people who need Christ. My heart’s desire is to bring the gospel to areas that are void.
Rom 15:20 "Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:
Rom 15:21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand."

This outreach has been the culmination of three months of prayer for these particular people. We took our Mt. Elgon evangelism team of four as these men are the most committed and effective at preaching the gospel I have ever met. It is amazing how like minded and like hearted we all are when it comes to doing God’s work. I count it a great privilege and honor that God has placed us together in one accord for His honor and glory. Before I record what is our first Missionary journey among the Pokot, I think it is important to preface this by saying that our prayer for this Pokot outreach was very specific and was so specific that it include the following five criteria. We were not placing demands on God but rather simply believed,
"That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."
#1. We prayed that God would allow us to reach an area of Pokot where Christ had not been named.
#2. We prayed that God would lead us to a people which were accessible in the same amount of travel time that it takes us to reach Mt. Elgon.
#3. Don’t laugh, but we prayed God would lead us to a village that had good roads, or as good as there could be while working deep in the interior.
#4. We prayed that He would lead us to a village with a large population that would welcome the Word of God.
#5. We prayed that God would give us a man of peace who would be able to translate from Swahili to the Pokot language.
Day One:
After assembling our team we arrived in Pokot around mid-day and headed for the Kerio Valley. Upon leaving the main road we came to a peak where you could overlook the valley from the surrounding mountain range. As I look down into this beautiful semi-arid valley I knew in my heart we were in the right area. We descended from the cool air of the hills to a somewhat desert region that was hot.
We spent our first day with a Pokot named Thomas who knew the area well and led us throughout many regions of Northern Pokot.
Since there are no maps of the area we had to draw our own and actually ended up in Uganda for a brief time. We were a little disappointed at the end of the first day as we had covered a large area of Northern Pokot without having any success, however, we did grow in knowledge of the region and we were able to eliminate some areas.
Day Two:
Started at 4:30 am with an hour of prayer and worship through songs. It was an awesome way to start the day even though I was weary from the previous day driving. Breakfast was MRE’s which our Kenyan brethren had never tasted but seemed to like. We were on the road by 6:30 am heading deep into what would be West Pokot this time led by a young Pokot man named Vincent.

It seems as though I am always complaining about the off road conditions here and just when I think I have experienced the roughest area of Kenya another trip into the interior takes the cake. This day would prove to be such a day. The area Vincent was leading us to without any churches or Christian influence turned out to be a four hour trip in which we would cross six flowing rivers, what seemed to be thirty gorges and countless ditches that was an extreme off road excursion.
Now there are times when I actually enjoy four wheel drive trips but about half way into this one I was so concerned that I almost decided to turn around.

Had I not been compelled by the preaching of the gospel to unreached people I definitely would not have gone any further.
During the course of the trip I was thinking of #2 and #3 on our prayer request knowing that to start a mission point in an area this rough would not be possible.
In any case we had made a long and hard trip to an area that so remote that nobody has ever worked there before.

Finally we arrived at what was a small border town in the middle of nowhere which was the border of the Pokot and the Marakwet tribe.    Selling Goat Milk


Upon arrival I told Pastor Pete that he was going to have to preach as my head was pounding and spinning from the trip.

We spent several hours sharing God’s Word and lead fifty-four individuals to Christ along with countless others in large groups. Only eternity will reveal the final number. So again after a fourteen hour day in which the Land Rover and the occupants were beaten to a pulp we knew that God was going to have to call someone else to reach that border region as it would break us to try to work there on a regular basis.

On the way home we purchased a nice Pokot Goat to roast for dinner
and also had to make an emergency stop at a dentist for Pastor Shadrach to have a tooth pulled that had been hurting him all day.
So I guess the only casualties of the day were Satan, the goat and the Pastor’s tooth.

Day 3:

Up at 4:30 am, prayers and songs of praise before another day in the desert which has a particular beauty about it in the early morning and late evening. Today we would not use any guides other than the Holy Spirit. We headed back to Northern Pokot praying God would lead us to where he wanted us to work.

From our day one experience we knew that we were close but we were not quit in the right area.To make a long story short, after being blocked by two impassable rivers we found a very well maintained desert road and followed it about 40 Km’s. We stopped one time for the Pastors to buy charcoal as it is cheap and of good quality compared to what they buy in Western. As we stopped we shared the Gospel with a dozen folks.

Five made professions of Faith and while we were witnessing a truck of Kenyan Army soldiers pulled up to buy Charcoal.

We concluded that the reason the road was so smooth is that the Kenyan Army uses it to transport troops to the Ugandan border to keep peace and for training exercises. Now we knew that we were close and God had answered two of our prayers. We were definitely on the right road and heading in the right direction. We traveled deeper into the interior on what has to be one of the smoothest dirt roads in Kenya until there was nothing but bushes and camels. For some reason we stopped to look at camels crossing the road when we notice a young girl (13 years old) running from out the bush towards the truck. We asked her where she was coming from and she said a village about 1km from here. She said her name was Teresa and there was no Church anywhere near the village. We turned into the bush to find a village of 300-400 people and we were met by a 15 year old boy named James.

Prayer # 4 answered. James was a resident of the village called “Chepsebei” and was able to speak Swahili and Pokot. Not only did James gladly receive Christ but he became our guide and interpreter the entire day.
That is an answer to prayer #5. After meeting with the village Elders, not only did they give us permission to work in their village but eight of them received Christ.
None of them had ever heard of Jesus and that was our #1 prayer request from God.


They were also particularly happy to hear the spoken Word of God for the first time in their life through a solar powered Audio Bible in the Pokot dialect which we left with them.

After meeting with several more groups we saw a total of twenty-four people receive Christ and they were eager to be taught the Word of God.


Our promise to this God given village was to return on a monthly basis as simply a mission point to preach God’s Word.
Pokot Grandma
Depending on your level of faith or skepticism, I will let you draw your own conclusions on what turned out to be the perfect day for those of us trying to follow God’s will through His Spirit.
Feel free to question our methods but you must know that or motive is simply to fulfill the great commission so that our Father in heaven will be glorified through faith in His Son Jesus. We left Pokot knowing God’s goodness and faithfulness in answering our prayers.
Please continue to pray for this new area of outreach.
          God Bless You
          Terry & Chuck Fernandez 
          Kenya    Phil. 4:13


Monday, August 9, 2010

Answered Prayers, God's Clan & Blessings Beyond Measure

God has answered our prayers this week as Kenyans turned out to vote on the new constitution which was passed by a great majority. The vote on Wednesday took place in a peaceful and orderly manner. There seemed to be a great sigh of relief and a huge step forward for a country that was torn apart just two years ago through the post election tribal clashes. Thank you to all who prayed for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Since there were no negative side effects from the vote we turned our attention back to the work God has called us to do. Saturday we returned to a village called Myanja or sometimes known as “Sand Land” for its abundant building sand which is sold all over Kenya .

It is located within ten kilometers of the Ugandan border and at the southern part of Mt. Elgon. For over a year now a young preacher named Nixon has been holding a weekly Bible study there and we have gone on many occasions to support his efforts through village evangelism.
However, during the course of our visits it seemed as if Nixon would run into one problem after another.
For some reason it was a real struggle for him:
 #1 To even find a solid meeting place,
 #2 To find people who were genuinely interested in knowing and walking with God
 #3. To build a work that would eventually turn into a new testament church.
Barriers, walls and hurdles seemed to be the norm for this new work until this month when God opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing. Throughout all the trials and struggles this young preacher kept seeking and searching for God’s perfect will until it was clearly revealed in a great way.
Before I go any further it important to realize that large villages such as Myanja are made up of many different clans. Previously we have done evangelism with two other large clans within the village that were cold and indifferent at best. From the first time we visited Myanja, My wife Terry said, “there is something wrong in this place”. It is funny how a wife can have spiritual insight and discernment ahead of a husband from time to time and I am not ashamed to admit that Terry was absolutely right on this one. I hate to think what it would be like to try to do God’s work without a help met that compliments me in every way. However, through prayer and repeated efforts God led us to the right place and the right people at the right time. As ten of us met to do hut to hut evangelism it was as if we were in a different world because the hearts of the people were so open and eager to hear God’s Word. Keep in mind we were in the same village but just witnessing to a different clan.
We met at a village elders house named Joseph who said he had been praying for years that God would bring someone to his clan to teach them God’s Word. To hear someone say that we are part of an answered prayer they have been praying for years goes beyond the routine and into the realm of providential.
William Cary, the great missionary to India once said “To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map.”
Looking back on this Sand Land experience we can see God’s leading from Clan to Clan without finding true peace until we arrived at the right area on the map. We pray above all things that God will lead us as our hearts desire is to give Him the glory for every soul saved and every life transformed. As we visited house to house the reception to the gospel and God’s people was overwhelming. When each one of the four evangelism groups returned for prayer the reports were all the same. People who did not know Christ gladly received his word and were so thrilled to know that they had a Bibles study they could attend to learn more.

We are not talking about people who were receiving food, medical aid or clothing but people who were happy to know that God loved them and now would have a weekly meeting place where they could come and grow spiritually through God’s word. The people were so enthusiastic about hearing God’s Word that they were practically begging us to come and share the Bible with them.
There were twenty five precious souls that trusted Christ from this clan and there are literally hundreds more waiting to hear the truth. Since this group has exploded overnight and outgrown their ability to met in a home I told Nixon that we would get a tent to him as soon as possible. I thank God he has called this young preacher to Myanja and we can expect great things now that we found God’s clan.
A prepared people for a prepared preacher with a prepared message about a prepared Savior.
It does not get any better than that.
Sunday we taught and worshiped at Mawe Tatu with Pastor Shadrach.
The Landmark Baptist Church at Three Stones, as we affectionately call it, is busting at the seams with their tent overflowing as God continues to bless this young Church. When I take the time to reflect on what God is doing on Mt.Elgon and in these surrounding areas where we are working I am completely and utterly amazed by God’s grace and I want to praise Him more and more. We ask you to pray and possibly fast if you are able as we will travel Tuesday through Thursday to bring God’s Word to the Pokot tribe.
Our survey team was granted permission last week from the appropriate Chief and DC’s to allow us to preach the Gospel to this often troubled tribe. God is able if we will be faithful and obedient.
May God Keep you and Bless you.
The 'Hands Picture' of  Friends is Nelson & I.....Both safe in the Hands of Jesus....
A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS


Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya, East Africa

Phil. 4:13