Dedication, Celebration and Summary for 2012 Year End

2012 Summary

We give God all the praise, all the honor and all the glory for the great things He hath done in the name of Jesus.
We also want to thank all those who have stood with us both
prayerfully and financially.
Through your sacrificial giving we have seen hundreds profess Christ as Lord and Savior as well as many New Testament Churches planted on Mt. Elgon, Lake Victoria and the Kerio Valley.
Thank you for celebrating with us when we were on the mountain top and thank you for encouraging us to press forward and lifting us up
when we were in the valley.

Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

923 Professions of Faith

                Through numerous evangelistic efforts and outreach

campaigns we have seen over nine hundred receive Christ by faith during 2012.

Our efforts continue to be concentrated in the Kerio Valley, the Mt. Elgon region and Lake Victoria. This year we were also able to reach interior regions of the Manafwa and Aduot Districts of Uganda where we saw sixty seven Ugandan’s make professions of faith.

God has assembled a great team of people who have a vision and a burden to reach the lost as commanded by our Lord and Savior. 

This compound factor has allowed us to experience a record harvest of souls within a twelve month period.  

We believe and practice one on one and house to house evangelism and have taught this method of fishing for men to our Pastors and their congregations who are regularly preaching the gospel in their villages.  

Please pray for these new converts as we try to disciple and mentor them by teaching them the

Word of God.

" GO YE THEREFORE AND TEACH ALL NATIONS!"

346 Baptized

Over the last year we have seen three hundred and forty~six new converts follow Jesus in scriptural baptism. It is always a great joy to see these new believers make their faith known through this public profession as they start to walk in the newness of life.

It is important to us that these young converts are baptized into one of the 12 local New Testament Churches that we have planted so they can be discipled and continue to grow in their faith.

"Buried in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection."

"Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

4 New Churches OrganizedWe organized three new Churches on Mt. Elgon and one new Church near the River Nzoia during 2012 and we are currently in process of training God called National Pastors to shepherd these new believers. The churches organized include the Landmark Baptist Church of Chepkurukuru, the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheptandan, the Landmark Baptist church of Chemta and the Landmark Baptist Church of Soysambu.

While all of these new Churches are works in progress they have been taught the main doctrines of the Bible and they are now functioning as a body of scripturally baptized believers who have coveted together to keep the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

The hope of Jesus Christ through His New Testament churches continues to be the hope of the world that is transforming one life at a time and one village at a time.

" And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved."

 

15 New OutreachesAs we look back on 2012, we stand in awe of all that God has accomplished and our ministry continues to expand with each one of our twelve churches having reached out to their neighboring villages.

There is not enough room to list all fifteen of these new villages, but make no mistake about it, we have been about our Father's business in Kenya and Uganda

"Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."  

To God be the Glory! 

 

Ordinations, Seminars & Buildings

Over the last twelve months we ordained two national Pastors. Pastor Timothy Loquardo of the LBC Cheposabei in the Kerio Valley and Pastor Alex Kimti of the LBC Cheptabrubru on Mt. Elgon were ordained into the gospel ministry. We also held quarterly Pastors and Preachers seminars to help equip these men of God to fulfill their calling while Terry held six virtuous women seminars to teach the women how to profess Godliness and become better wives and mothers.

We also completed three new sanctuaries and currently have one more under construction. 

Thank You to all who pray for us and partner with us financially as we preach the gospel in Kenya and Uganda. 

Village Christmas,Lake Victoria & Visitors Depart

   Visitors/friends/brethren from Florida,

           Rose Marie & Philip

The challenge over the last ten days was to spend as much quality time with our visitors/friends/brethren from Florida, Rose Marie & Philip, while exposing them to as much of our ministry and people as humanly possible (without burning them and us to the ground).

Last week we were able to visit the Kerio Valley and our Pokot Brethren while this week we were able to spend Christmas near the base of Mt. Elgon with Pastor Peter and His family.

This has become somewhat of Christmas tradition for us where we have a Christmas meal to include a turkey and deliver gifts of food baskets and clothes.  

Pastor Peter’s family is special to us as we have worked closely together through each of the twelve Churches we have planted over the last four years.

Our visit there also gave us the opportunity to visit his Father Daniel who is the Pastor of the Landmark Baptist Church of Namarambi.

                                    Pastor Daniel & Food Basket

These two men are two of the most faithful men I have ever met or worked with.

We had a blessed Christmas day as we devoured the turkey and enjoyed seeing the many smiles of the children as they received their new clothes.

This family is also raising as many as eight orphans who are included as part of their family.

And oh yes, the bubbles are always a big hit in the village. 

Deacon Philip

I am certain that it will be a Christmas that Philip and Rose Marie will not forget as they experienced a humble Christmas Day in an interior village of Kenya where Christ comes first and then family, gifts and fellowship.

After a brief day of rest we loaded up the Rover and took off to Lake Victoria for the finale of their trip.

Lake Victoria

Unfortunately, we experienced some turbo problems with the Land Cruiser but this gave them a good opportunity to get the full effect of Kenyan Roads as well as off- roading in the rough Rover. We used all of the old trucks capabilities as it had rained for five days prior to our visit to see Pastor Jackson at the Landmark Baptist Church of Got.

Well, let's just say we were sideways most of the way as we slipped and slide the final five kilometers to His house and Church. This has become very routine for Terry and I but for first time vistors it can be a gut wrenching experience. We had a great time of fellowship with Pastor Jackson and a few of the members of the Church while giving him His food and clothes baskets.   

Rose Marie and Philip also gave out Bible coloring books and candy

which they had brought from the USA.

It was then off to visit Pastor George and the Landmark Baptist Church of Wichlum at the Lake’s edge.

 

They were practically mobbed by the kids in this rough fishing village as they arrived.

It was as if these rough kids knew they were “fresh meat”.  

After visiting the Lake we had a small Bible study under the tent.

Terry & Rose Marie

Terry's New Apron

 We then preceded to one of the deacon’s house for our visitor’s first opportunity to eat fresh Lake Victoria Tilapia fish heads. Philip and Rosie did the best they could as they ate what is the best that these folks have to offer although I don’t think they ate the eyes, LOL.

 It was another long safari but one that was blessed as our visitors where able to see the areas and people whom we have grown to love through the work of the Lord.

Know I fully realize that you will not be able to get a firm grasp on the miles we have covered over the last ten days but let’s just say that they were able to see three of the regions that we regularly work in and they were able to get an overview of the great work God is doing here in Kenya. We know their lives will never be the same after a Christmas trip like this and the one word that I heard from both of their mouths over the last ten days on a regular basis was “HUMBLING”.  

In the end, they were able to see about half of our mission work.

Please pray for them as they are somewhere between London and Atlanta as I write this journal entry and pray for us as we recover from ten hard days of traveling half of Kenya.

Thank you for your prayers and May God bless you with a great New Year!

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya

                                                    LBC Mawe Tatu

                                                     

 

Drama at JFK,Guests Arrival & Brotherly Love

Last week started with a quick trip to Nairobi to collect our friends Philip Shemwel & Rose Marie Mattingly. It was a trip that almost did not happen as they nearly missed their connecting flight out of JFK because of a flight delay out of Orlando.

While international travel during the holidays is stressful enough, let me show you how God’s favor played a huge role in getting them here on schedule for their ten day safari.

They arrived late at JFK only to see that the plane was loaded and was taxiing out to the runway, however, the plane actually turned around to return to the terminal to collect them for their flight to London after they were told it would be three more days before they could get out.

Now I have never heard of such a thing happening before but I am thankful we serve a God who can even turn flights around for His people.

They arrived on schedule but because of the JFK debacle they had no luggage.  

At least they took our advice and packed extra clothes in their carry on just for such an occasion. Rose Marie and Philip are no ordinary friends as they were members of the Gulf Ridge Baptist Church where I Pastored for nearly five years. 

Philip could always be found by my side as we made every effort to reach Brooksville for Christ through one on one evangelism and Rose Marie could always be found by Terry’s side as they would bring children to the Lord through our bus ministry.

Co-labors and Brothers in Christ make the best lifelong friends.   

We thank God that they have traveled over 8000 miles around the world to be a blessing to this Missionary and his wife during the holidays.  

We have spent the last two days with them in the Kerio Valley at the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei.   

                                    Kerio Valley  

Pastor Loquardo and Sarah

This Church continues to be a strong lighthouse for the Pokot’s to come to know Christ as personal Lord and Savior. 

There were also many members present who walked long distances from the neighboring villages of Katuporot, Aslong, Lopshenkau and Kalas. There was even a man from Karita Uganda present whom we had given a copy of John and Romans to on our last trip to Uganda. God is doing an amazing work in the lives of so many in this region.

We continue to hear dozens of testimonies of how God has transformed their lives through Christ. Rose Marie and Philip were honored in such a way that we have not seen before.

                                  Honored Guests

Gifts

Shuka

Terry Honored

I believe I saw a few tears in their eyes as they were showered with traditional Pokot clothing, necklaces and Philip even received a goat.

I asked him how he was going to get that back to Florida?  LOL 

This gave our honored guests their first opportunity to eat goat and ugali, which they loved. 

                                       Phil Chief & Loboduk 

Terry & Rosie

In turn, Philip and Rosie were able to give out audio Bibles to four elderly members of the Church who cannot read.  

                                   Rose giving Audio Bible

Blind Mamas

Cherish God's Word

Terry Jill and Rose Mary

What a blessed day and powerful day that they will not soon forget.

I am also certain they will not forget the beating that they took on the roads which can leave you black and blue.

Please pray that God will use this opportunity of brotherly love to touch all of our hearts and please pray for traveling mercy as we have much more ground to cover over the next six days.

                                  White Camel

Also note the attached Christmas card,
                          (click on it to enlarge)

Have a Merry & Blessed Christmas

God Bless,

Missionary Carlos (Chuck) & Mama Teresa (Terry)

Phil. 4:13

Recovery Week, Teen Choir and Prayer Requests

                                                Congregation

 

This was one of those weeks that could best be described as a week of recovery for both Terry and I came down with some type of stomach virus.

The bad part is that these types of very common ailments set you back a few days but the good part is that we know exactly what type of medications to take to get us back on our feet in short order.

With that said we did manage to get some work done in spite of our physical issues.

With Christmas just around the corner we have been making preparations to distribute clothes and food baskets to the thirteen Pastors we are currently working with.

Cleveland Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland, Texas gave a generous love offering to be used to be a blessing to our Pastors and their families.

Because all of our Pastors have between 5-7 children and we know that most of them need clothes so we purchased several bails of compressed clothes for them.   

These bails weigh around 100#’s and contain an amazing amount of clothes.

Terry is in the process of sorting and sizing the clothes and we can’t believe what kind of clothes we throw away or donate in the USA as most of these clothes are like brand new.

We will be delivering them next week with our guests who are traveling from Florida to spend Christmas with us.

We are so excited to have dear friends who are willing to travel around the world to spend time with us as the holidays can be extremely lonely for foreign Missionaries.

This week we also were able to visit the village of Kibuke as well as the Landmark Baptist Church of Mayanja both of which are located at the base of Mt. Elgon.   

The survey of Kibuke is tied together with the LBC of Mayanja as one of their members named Micheal (who has surrendered to the gospel ministry) lives there and walks nearly six kilometers to attend church at Mayanja because there is no scriptural Church there.

As with all of these preliminary surveys, we simply visit the village and begin to bathe the village in prayer asking God’s blessing upon the village and for His will to be known concerning any future work there. This process can take months or even years as we wait patiently for “God’s Timing”.

We enjoyed the day of worship with Pastor Nixon and the LBC of Mayanja.

The Church is going on well and we have developed a strong relationship with Pastor Nixon and this dear congregation.

The youth choir did an awesome job as they sang praises unto the Lord. 

 

WHY DON’T WE HAVE MORE YOUTH CHOIRS IN THE USA?

 It blesses our heart to see these teenagers singing and praising the Lord for we know this is our next generation of God honoring Christians as well as the next generation of Church planters,

Pastors and leaders.

We also took the opportunity to present Pastor Nixon with his Certificate of Ordination. He was ordained in 2010 but somehow we overlooked his certificate at that time.

Never said we had it all together, just all together trying to serve the Lord with all of our hearts.   

Terry was blessed with a chicken, eggs and another new namesake (Teresa) who was born two weeks ago.

Terry's Blessings

We both have nearly twenty little (Carlos’s & Teresa’s) out there from Mt. Elgon, Lake Victoria and the Kerio Valley. We are both humbled and honored that they would name their children after us.

In closing, I have several prayer requests on my heart that I kindly ask you to add to your prayer list this week.

A. Please pray for the village we visited called Kibuke

B. Please pray for one of our Pastors who was involved in a motorcycle accident.

C. Please pray for one of the young Pastors on Mt. Elgon who was hit by a falling tree and has several broken ribs.

D. Please pray for our guests as they fly from Florida to Kenya on Wednesday.

E. Please pray for the salvation of thousands more here in Kenya

F. Please pray that God will allow us to plant dozens more Scriptural Churches.

G. Please pray that God will continue to call dozens more preachers to proclaim His word.

H. Please pray for traveling mercies for us as we travel with our guests.

I. Please pray for our Children, Grandchildren, Family & Parents.

Thank you for taking a few moments to unit with us through the spirit in prayer.

God Bless,

Missionary Carlos (Chuck) & Mama Teresa (Terry) Fernandez
Kenya

New Sanctuary Construction & Ordination Service

Work Crew

Part of the joy of writing this weekly blog/journal is that we get to look back and see what God has done over the last week in our lives and ministry. It reminds me of how the Apostles would gather back together after passing through Pasidia, Pamphilya, Perga and then stop in Antioch to meet with the Church and rehearse all that God had done in their lives. In other words, they would give testimonies praising God for His great grace which was upon them and the work they were doing. 

Act 14:27" And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles."  

It is my heart’s desire that everything Terry and I do here in Kenya will glorify our Father in Heaven and exalt the name of Jesus as well as be an encouragement to our brethren to continue to press forward towards the mark of the high calling.  
This week we started the construction of our eighth sanctuary by preparing the steel foundational posts and setting them with help from our building team of Pastors and Church members.  
                                      1st Pole

We have developed a system for erecting these steel structures that has become somewhat routine but nevertheless it is still a laborious and back aching process no matter how good of a system you have.

County Job

Ladder

Facebook

Shadrach & Missionary

Terry Time

Transit

Team Work

With each new sanctuary started, there is an aire excitement from the Pastor, the members of the Church as well as the surrounding village community. As the posts went up one by one, neighbors would stop in one by one to see what was going on. Church building projects are the same globally in the sense that new buildings generally attract new and curious visitors. We are so thankful for our ministry partners who help us build these foundational shell structures in which the Church family is challenged to partner with us to complete.

Sweet fellowship can be found while working side by side to do God’s work, whether it is evangelism, bible studies or buildings.

                        WORK CREW ACCOMPLISHMENT

This week we also climbed Mt. Elgon (elev. 12,000 ft.) to attend an ordination service for Pastor Alex Kimtai at the Landmark Baptist Church of Cheptabrubru.  

                            Full House at LBC Cheptabrubru

 I insert the elevation reference to remind myself why Terry and I have such hard time breathing at this altitude and not just because we are Grandparents. The day was as good as it gets in the life of a foreign missionary as we see the investment which we have made over the last few years in the life of Pastor Alex through prayer, teaching and mentoring has produced much fruit.  

                                    Bible Presentation

Question Candidate

We gathered together to recognize God’s sovereign choice to use Pastor Alex to minister through the local Church at Cheptabrubru.  
Pastor Alex is a person whom I like to refer to as one of the most humble men I have ever met.        

                    Prayer With Pastor Alex

Prayer

 

Pastor Alex has demonstrated that he is doctrinally sound and that he has the ability to carry out his ministry in a manner that is God pleasing and God honoring. In four years he has already taken the teachings we have poured into his life and trained and sent out three of his young preachers who have planted three more Churches on Mt. Elgon.

Recently he has led efforts to start our newest outreach located at the base of Mt. Elgon in a village called Chemondi.   

During the introductions yesterday I also heard two more young men refer to themselves as an “evangelist” which tells me he already has another new crop of young preachers he is training.

                                       Presbretry

In my humble opinion, one of the ways a Pastor or Missionary makes full proof of his ministry is to 'commit thou to faithful men the things that thou has been taught,'

which is exactly what Pastor Alex is doing.   

Our prayer is that Pastor Alex’s message will continue to be Christ centered as to draw sinners unto salvation and to produce Christ centered lives.  

Thank you for allowing us to share all that God is doing in us and through us.

God Bless,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Kenya