Rough Week & Turning the Corner

Let me preface this journal entry by saying that I am not a “poor me” type of person or somebody who is looking for attention. However, I do want to remind those who join us on this journey of faith that I have purposed in my heart to share our “experience” as transparently as possible so that our Heavenly Father may be gloried and the name of Jesus will be praised.  

With that said, this week has been one of the roughest weeks we have experienced since we arrived on the field in January of 2009. We were unable to hardly get anything done this week with regard to ministry other than translating a few sermons into Swahili as I was fighting a third straight week of some pretty serious illness that effected almost every part of my body. Let me also say that medical care here in Eldoret is better than the clinics in the interior but you would probably not take your family dog to most of the facilities here and the best tropical disease clinic in the country is located five hours away in Nairobi. So needless to say we commonly experience a wide range of regular occurring minor illnesses which we generally have learned to self diagnose and are able to purchase multiple meds without prescriptions which are readily available at a very inexpensive cost. I guess sometimes you pretty much have to become your own best Doctor while living on the foreign field. What makes this week different is this is actually the third week in a row with symptoms that have been regular occurring and growing in intensity which raises a lot of red flags.

Those symptoms include: Fever, rash, headaches, joint ache, abdominal cramps, L.B.M. and chronic fatigue which has resulted in the loss of twenty three pounds. To make a long story short, those symptoms appear to be related to a very common disease known as Bilharzia (Schistosoma Mansoni) (Google: Bilharzia+Lake Victoria) which is very easily contracted from the first thirty feet of the water in the largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria. Not only have I experienced the exact symptoms of this disease but I was in Lake Victoria seven weeks ago where we baptized and also bathed (with clothes on). Additionally, my hunting buddy, Chad Harris, who was with me on that trip has suffered the exact same symptoms as I have over the last three weeks. He took treatment for Malaria, which he regularly experiences, two weeks ago and the symptoms did not go away. Researchers say, the easiest way to diagnose Bilharzia is symptoms + exposure = treatment. Here is the interesting thing about this water borne disease, it can stay in your body with a ten year life cycle where you can suffer with many other great vague symptoms which can become serious or you can take a single curative dose of three tablets at a cost of $1.00 and be done with it. As you can probably guess, I took the meds three days ago and the fever is going down, the aching is minimal and lets just say the others symptoms are going away as well. Now before you get to excited, let me also say that if those symptoms come up again this week, we travel to the tropical disease clinic in Nairobi and start all over.

In Closing, there is no doubt that your body surely affects your spirit and this week, even though I have had the best caregiver in Terry, I have felt more discouraged than ever before. Satan definitely uses weakness in our bodies as an opportunity to buffet us, which is what I have experience this week like at no other time in recent memory. For those of you who pray for us regularly we thank you, and we ask you to pray that God will continue to strengthen us both physically and spiritually. While the week was somewhat rock bottom due to having to cancel our ministry plans to travel back to Lake Victoria because I was in bed most of the time, there were some things for us to be encouraged by.

While we were providentially hindered, our preachers from Mt. Elgon traveled into Uganda to preach the gospel where fourteen where saved.

Additionally, while we had to cancel our teaching seminar at Lake Victoria, one of our young converts and preachers named Kennedy from Lake Victoria stepped up and taught for two days. In the end, we were encouraged that God’s people whom we have trained are doing what they are supposed to be doing without us and that is our mission goal.

Sorry I have not attached any pictures this week as it was not a pretty sight.

Thank you for your love, your prayers and your support.

In His Service,

Chuck & Terry Fernandez
Kenya