Monday, June 25, 2012

Window Shopping & The Church That is in Their House

With the help of those who prayerfully and financially partner with us, I was able to collect the windows and doors for two more sanctuaries this week.
Thank you to the many churches and individuals who support this ministry which continues to focus on evangelism, discipleship and church planting.
                                         Sebastian
While the main structure of each of the three sanctuaries is complete, there are still bricks to be made and finishing touches to be completed which will take some time.
The Lord’s Day this week was spent worshiping and teaching at a village called Soysambu.
 
Soysambu is what I like to refer to as a second generation outreach that was started from our first Church plant (LBC Mawe Tatu) sending out their Associate Pastor Japheth.
                                      Pastor Japheth
This is also the village that Bro. Gary Weidenbach and his Macedonian short term mission’s team helped us do the initial evangelism.
With all that said, I hope you can wrap your heart and mind around the fact that we have Churches we have help start, which have now matured and are they, themselves sending preachers with a burden to their neighboring villages to start more Churches.
I believe that our life’s work and legacy will not be measured solely by the number of Churches we leave behind, but rather by the individual disciples we leave behind who are able to in turn make new converts and then disciple those converts.
Japheth is one of those men saved through village evangelism who was successfully discipled and then surrendered to the ministry. 
He is now one of our leading men that help start the work in Pokot and now at Soysambu.
                                          New Christiams
Japheth has been a blessing to this Missionary in so many ways as he is also the man we turn to for laying out the new sanctuaries and constructing them. 
It just goes to show how God blesses the obedience of His servants who will simply follow his commandments as well as His leadership through His Holy Spirit.
In evangelism, you never know who is standing on the other side of that door and whose heart God will prick to bring them to salvation.
...Note to self: God will continue to show Himself faithful by His amazing grace if we will simply continue to be faithful.
The work at Soysambu has followed the exact pattern we have successfully used in Church planting over the last few years.
#1. We always start with house to house village evangelism.
#2. We then teach basic discipleship on a monthly basis to the new converts.
#3. This is then followed by a midweek Bible study and fellowship.
#4. We start to assemble these new believers on the Lord’s Day for singing, teaching and preaching when there is a God called national preacher to lead them.
 #5. We will baptize and organize them into a New Testament Church.
 I know there are many Missionary methods, however, this method has produced much fruit which is now bearing new fruit and I subscribe to the philosophy that as long as it is scriptural and is not broken then there is no need to fix it. 
We met in a small house on Sunday with around twenty folks who have a real thirst for God and a hunger for His word.                       Singing
Soysambu Children
As I taught on the early Church, I reminded these young converts that our meeting place was very similar to that of the early Church.
Rom 16:5 " likewise greet the church that is in their house. "
1Co 16:19 " The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house."
Col 4:15" Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house."
Please continue to pray for Brother Japheth, this young work and the new believers of Soysambu as they grow in their faith.
We are in no rush to baptize and organize this outreach into a Church as African culture teaches that when we are in a hurry we will miss the blessing.  
May God continue to keep you and bless you.

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya

Phil. 4:13

Monday, June 18, 2012

Father and Son Team visit Lake Victoria for Evangelism & Seminari

This week found us traveling to Lake Victoria for evangelism and seminars to encourage the two churches we have planted there.                          Lake Victoria
Both of these two churches are still very much in their infantile stage however their growth is clearly evident through the maturing of their young Pastors and members. Our focus and emphasis with these works has been personal Christian growth which produces fruit. The numbers will come as God see fit to give the increase. We have put much effort into the work at Wichlum, so this time priority was with Pastor Jackson and the members of the Landmark Baptist Church of Got. “Got”, in the Luo language means “mountain” and is the home village of Pastor Jackson whom we led to Christ three years ago while he was living in Wichlum as a fisherman.
                                   Pastor Jackson
His testimony is very compelling and is very much a modern day Apostle Paul type conversion and calling as well as being great testimony of how salvation by grace and being born again can change a person’s life. Three years ago we met him walking out of the lake holding three fish on a stringer. He invited us to his house where he trusted Christ by faith and immediately started a Bible study for his neighbors. Within a short time of his conversion he accepted God’s call to preach and began his training as a preacher of the gospel. Since then he has felt a burden for his home village which he has now returned to start a church there. We have been beside him every step of the way to teach, train and encourage him to fulfill his calling.  
The LBC at Got is the smallest work we have and is so rural that it is going to take some time to bring the folks in.
                      Landmark Baptist Church at Got
With that said, my perspective on the size of Churches have changed immensely over the last few years as I would rather worship in a mud house with a handful of true believers who love the Lord with all their heart than in a huge fancy sanctuary where God is the last thing people have on their hearts and minds. That does not mean that we do not want to see Churches grow, but it does mean that little is much when God is in it. We walked great distances through the village of Got to reach Pastor Jackson’s family and neighbors for Christ. While there were only two whom made professions of faith, the Bible says the angels are rejoicing in heaven and there are now two more potential members for the LBC at Got. This work will be a slow steady growth that will take years but one of the things I admire about our Kenyan Pastors is they have the patience it takes to see the fruit of their labor even if it takes years of meeting with a handful of people. That is great faith that depends on God to give the increase in His time. By the way, one of the ladies who was saved Saturday morning attended the seminar on Saturday afternoon. That is always a blessing and a great encouragement to the Pastor. Since I have been teaching there over the last few years I felt it was time to bring two of our most senior Pastors from the Mt. Elgon region to teach.
Not only are Pastor Peter and Pastor Daniel our most senior Pastors in our work but they are also Father and Son. 
Being Father’s Day weekend, I could not help but to think of how special this seminar was to sit and watch these great men of God share the word of God with these young Christians and to think of how encouraged they might be to raise up a Christian family of their own. It was also special to see the vision I have for these two Churches to fellowship and encourage one another as they continue to mature. We closed our three days of ministry by baptizing a young lady who was recently saved.  
While my body is feeling the pains of camping for three days, my cup is overflowing from being able to encourage these young Christians in the Lord who in turn encourage me. 
                                     Camp Got 
Each night they would assemble themselves under the tent where they would sing praises unto the Lord well past midnight. As one of my former Pastors used to say, “if that don’t light a fire in your heart than your wood is wet”.   
Thank you for allowing us to share what God is doing in hope that He will be glorified.  
May God keep you and bless you.

Bro. Chuck and Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya

Phil. 4:13

Monday, June 11, 2012

Risk Vs Reward & Mountain Top Seminar

                                     Prayer at Mt. Elgon
             Landmark Baptist Church of Cheptabrubru
Our third sanctuary currently under construction, the Landmark Baptist Church at Mayanja, which is located at the base of Mt. Elgon has slowly risen from the ground and is now at the stage where it is a self standing structure with a roof. While it is far from complete and will still need walls, windows and doors, this stage is very important as the church has moved from a temporary tent to a permanent building.          Mayanja Work Crew
Building
Team Work
Mayanja New Roof
This new stage was also well received as the new sanctuary was full on Sunday with nearly half of those in attendance being new visitors from the village. Whether they were curious or seriously looking to worship God will be determined over time but needless to say, some people need to see something with their eyes before their faith can grow. The Pastor and the members will now set out on the very labor intensive part of their investment made in the sanctuary by making bricks, a process that will take many months.
Our ministry is not a turnkey ministry but rather a ministry that challenges and encourages the members of these new Churches to give sacrificially to the Lord and to create an environment that allows them to grow in their faith.                                            
After helping put the finishing touches on the roof at Mayanja, I traveled to Mt. Elgon for three days for a discipleship seminar.
                          Cheptabrubru Students at Seminar
Now I fully realize that there are inherent risks in everything we do but I also realize after working on Mt. Elgon for almost four years that the Lord’s work there puts us at possibly our greatest risk. I’m not talking about having a spirit of fear from working on Mt. Elgon but rather having a realistic assessment of the risk there. The risks involved, include the difficult journey of just being able to climb the steep, slippery, rocky roads that are treacherous enough to leave you shaking after the run is over. Additionally, it is the rainy season now and any amount of rain leaves you completely stranded on the mountain until the roads are dry. Lastly there is the risk that we are taking by being the only white people on a mountain that has a terrible history of brutality where there has been absolutely no value on life. This week that risk and stress factor was compounded significantly as I sleep in the village of Cheptabrubru which is where our second church plant on Mt. Elgon is located. I am not sure if it was a comfort or a concern but all of the Pastors slept at Pastor David’s house where I slept and several of them stayed up all night acting as guards. 
                                Pastor  David & Family
While the days spent on Mt. Elgon this week were without incident
(other than a broken shock mount)  Another Broken Shock
 I was reminded of just how difficult the living conditions are. At over 12,000 feet above sea level and rain every night I was not prepared for how cold it was going to be. It was the coldest I have ever been since arriving in Kenya and the temperature had to dip down into the 40’s. Sleeping in Pastor David’s mud house was yet another reminder of how good we have it. He has six children who all had to sleep in the kitchen on seed sacks because we where there and each morning they would all be out in bare feet, caked and covered with mud with hardly any clothes on. The mud on Mt. Elgon is not only extremely slippery but it sticks to you and just builds up the more you walk in it. Everything I have is absolutely covered in mud from the trip. In addition to the all the mud, there is simply the difficulty of breathing while walking up and down steep slopes at this high altitude. You find out real quick just what kind of shape your calves and thighs are in. The sacrifice required to do God’s work on Mt. Elgon is really nothing compared to having to live in those conditions day in and day out or compared to the great sacrifice our Lord and Savior made for us. While there is a great degree of difficulty and risk involved in the Mt. Elgon ministry there is also a great reward and blessing as well. What started in 2009, which at the time was tent to tent evangelism due to tribal clashes has grown to hundreds of converts and now five Churches in five different villages. It was my great privilege to teach a discipleship seminar which was well attended by people from all five villages who had to walk many mountain miles to get to the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheptabrubru.
Bible Student
Bible Student
The newly completed sanctuary there is also a great source of encouragement to the people for they are so thankful for God’s great provision. One of the other benefits to sleeping on the mountain was that it afforded the preachers the opportunity to spend quality time with me in which they used to ask ministry related questions that they would not otherwise ask in a public setting. After construction, the seminar and Sunday services I am definitely left well spent and an empty tank with nothing left to give. Please keep us in your prayers and thank you for all those who are our prayer and ministry partners in Christ.

God Speed,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya


Monday, June 4, 2012

Traveling Mercy, Village Life and Grandchildren

This week in review is truly one of those weeks that was somewhat of blur because of the number of days of travel which included a return trip from Nairobi, (3) trips to Mayanja (located at the base of Mt. Elgon) and a trip to the village of Namarambi. With the blessings of God’s grace upon our lives and ministry comes many kilometers of travel to get to the people and villages where God has led us. In fact, as we near four years on the field we have logged around 144,000 kilometers of travel and it seems about half of that is off-road. This is one of the biggest issues with a vehicle, for the interior roads include: heavy mud, rocks, rivers, mountain paths and desert sand.  
With all of the aforementioned conditions in mind, we then get on a paved roads and place the demands of high speed travel on a vehicle designed for off-road. This creates a maintenance nightmare on the aged Land Rover which revealed itself on my trip back from Nairobi. The road from Nairobi is newly paved so you can travel up to 100 kph but can be very dangerous in the areas climbing in and out of the Rift Valley. The trip was uneventful, however upon arriving back to Eldoret, while backing down a rocky alley to collect the posts for LBC Mayanja, the steering went completely out. It is a very helpless feeling to be turning the steering wheel and the vehicle not responding.
Keep in mind I had just traveled for almost five hours at a high speed with what turns out to be a stripped spline in the steering column which gave out while backing up at less than 5 kph.                    Steering Rod
That is why we fervently pray for traveling mercies every time we get in the truck.
I will let you draw your own conclusions based on your level of faith and your doctrinal stand on angels but this Missionary thanks God for His great grace and traveling mercies upon his life.   It is one of those moments that causes you to really ponder the “what if”? By the way, we are around 50% of our goal to raise funds for a late model Toyota Land Cruiser. Thank you to all who have already given to this great need.
After getting the truck repaired by two of my trustee mechanic disciples I was back on the road to Mt. Elgon to deliver and start the construction of the Landmark Baptist Church at Mayanja.
We spent three days cementing posts as well as constructing and installing trusses. 
Drilling
Level
Truss
Sanctuary
It is a blessing to see the men, women and even children of the Church come out and do their share in the building process.            Work Crew
Little Helpers
Spending three days working and sleeping in the village gives us a great perspective on village life while creating strong relationships with God’s people. The downside is that we tend to bring back little visitors like bedbugs and stomach issues. When you eat, work and sleep in the village you become very much a part of the village and you are treated more as a resident than a visitor. We especially enjoyed the close of each day when we would gather for a season of prayer and the singing of hymns.
This is something that shamefully has become foreign in the United States of America which breaks my heart.
In closing, Terry and I proudly now have four grandchildren. Our first born son, Chucky, has given us another grandson, Sebastian Aaron Fernandez
while our last born son, Vinny, has given us our first granddaughter, Ensley Adair Fernandez who was born this week.
African culture describes children and grandchildren with one word = Blessings.
Please continue to pray for us brethren.

In His Service,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya

Phil. 4:13