Full Throttle Construction & Man Down...

Three sanctuaries under construction simultaneously may seem like a bit much, but you have to remember that nothing happens fast here in Kenya.    It is necessary to start the process at several different locations so that there is always something that can be done somewhere, otherwise you find yourself waiting on materials and being delayed.   Besides we serve an awesome, almighty God who put in our hearts the desire and goal to start five more sanctuaries within the next year.   One thing we do not lack is a great love for our Lord and a great ambition to see God’s work progress so that He will be glorified in every aspect of our lives and ministry.   With that said, we took three trips into the interior this week to deliver materials, to build and for worship services.

Our first trip involved dropping off the new steel trusses at Landmark Baptist Church at Soysambu, hopefully to be installed this coming week. 

Additionally, we traveled to the base of Mt. Elgon to put up purlins atop the LBC at Ndivisi. 

This sanctuary was started last year before we left for deputation but is counted in our goal of five sanctuaries because we were operating on borrowed funds at that time.

The next step is to install the tin roof at which point the Church family can start using the building.   Even then, there is a ton of work which needs to be accomplished but it will be at the point where we step back and allow this group of believers to do what they can do as God provides for them.

We will still give them assistance with pews, windows and doors but they will be responsible to bring the new sanctuary to completion.

As I labored alongside the men and looked over the structure it is clearly apparent that by no means is it an engineering marvel and while it might not meet building codes in our country, in their eyes it is a thing of beauty compared to a mud building.  

                                                       Mama Helper

We also traveled deep into the Kerio Valley to visit our Pokot ministry and the

 Landmark Baptist Church of Cheposabei.  

 I carried along with me one wounded and hurting soldier, Terry.

She had picked up something somewhere and was suffering in a great way from a bacterial infection; however, she would not let me travel by myself. 

Now I am probably bragging a little, so forgive me and give me a little liberty here but she is one of the toughest and most faithful servants of God I have ever known.   A lot of men I know would have been laid up in bed crying the blues.  While the pictures don’t reveal it, she was very sick and operating at about half speed.   To make matters worse, the road into the valley has been totally destroyed but thank God the truck was strong going down and back out on these rocky roads.

I often describe this experience as driving over a cattle guard which basically shakes the stirring wheel out of your hand for hours.   It will take us a couple of days to recover from our weekly battering.   It was good to visit our first Pokot Church after being away for nearly a year.

The core of the Church remains intact and their young Pastor Timothy Loquardo is leading them and teaching them in a good way.  It was awesome to hear three ladies in Church discussing a Christophany.   I’m afraid the average Christian could not define Christophany and while I do not want to debate the theology of it here on a blog journal I can only say that these are the depth of teachings they are receiving and if you can imagine these young believers in a remote village of the Kerio Valley who have only been saved for around three years.

                                                    Women of Prayer

On the flip side and joy of seeing your children of faith developing and growing there was the sad news that we lost one of key Pokot translators, Solomen, who had become backslidden over the last year in taking another wife, #2.   This is a huge cultural battle that is very real within these young Christians and is huge lose to our ministry team.

The news is not all bad because after the Church lovingly administered discipline and upon His true repentance, Solomon was restored to fellowship but not allowed to be a leader in the Church. 

These are all lessons this local New Testament Church is learning as they walk the Christian walk.

                                            Pokot Tribe Given Audio Bibles

                                                       Audio Bibles

Pokot Youth Choir

                       Terry, Sunflower Girl, in good times and bad...

In closing, this visit also afforded Terry the opportunity to distribute pillow case dresses and student bags which the ladies in the Churches of America had made. 

Thank you for praying for us, for giving and allowing us to share this journey of faith.

God Bless,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya

 Monthly Support:  This week our hearts were saddened by receiving the following letter:

"Brother Fernandez,

As you may be aware, our church has been supporting you through our Faith Promise giving. Because of the steep decline in the funding of this program we will be unable to continue supporting you".

This is some of the most discouraging news a Missionary on the foreign field can receive as we pour our hearts and lives into God's work. Would you consider filling this void by partnering with us on a monthly basis so that we may continue to win the lost and disciple the saved?

Broken Record, Hard Ground & Meat of the Word

                       Landmark Baptist Church Mawe Tatu (3 Stones)
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I hesitate to write in my journal blog that the week started again with vehicle repairs.    While last week’s turbo repair enhanced the performance of the Land Cruiser, I could not get over the fact that there was still an issue that had to do with the injectors.   As stated before, I am not an expert at anything but I do have access to probably the finest diesel mechanic in the world, my Son In Law Kevin, who owns his own diesel repair business.   At his advice we went forward with pulling the injectors which we found were in terrible shape from contaminated fuel.   After some reconditioning and reinstalling the performance picked up a little more.   Thank God for Kevin who makes himself available for any 911 diesel repair call and is going to order new injectors to put in within the next month or so.

This week we also traveled to Soysambu to start the construction of another new sanctuary.   Landmark Baptist Church at Soysambu was started with the help of Bro. Gary Weidenbach and the Macedonia short term mission trips team in January 2012.   In just two short years, while meeting under a tent and under the leadership of their Pastor Japheth, who incidentally is the leader of our building team, they have grown to point where they are ready for a permanent sanctuary.    In case you have forgotten, our building philosophy is to come along side of this group of born again believers who have coveted together to keep the commands so the Lord Jesus Christ and help provide a plot and basic building materials to help bring the sanctuary to a usable state and then challenge them to finish the structure by faith and sacrificial giving.    The Pastor and the members where extremely excited to see the poles start to go up one by one.
                                    Hard Ground

Pictures do not do it justice but the ground is extremely hard to dig as it is full of rocks.    My heart went out to the men as they laboriously dug each hole.   As they undertook this difficult task I was reminded that they farm this ground each year so it is nothing new to them.    With sweat running off their foreheads I also realized that these young Christians are not lazy or scared of work but only lack the resources to build.

                                        Cement Mixing

Construction Superintendent 

                               Children Helpers

Thank God for His people and Churches in the USA who have given to this worthy cause.     They even broke the big rocks into little rocks with hammers to be used in the cement.    Now that is real work!   They have so much more work ahead of them as they have to move hundreds of cubic yards of dirt because of the extreme elevation on the plot.    We are so thankful for the privilege God has given us to be a part of their Christian growth.     Building a sanctuary may not seem like that big of deal but for this young Church I can assure you that they are praising God even more because he has provided something they have been praying about for two years.    This is where the physical God has provided meets the spiritual prayers that He has answered.    It blesses my heart just to think about God’s goodness and provision by His amazing Grace.    This Lord’s day we worshiped at Landmark Baptist Church Mawe Tatu (3 Stones) This Church was our first Church plant which dates back to 2009.   Needless to say, they have become a strong Church under the leadership of their young Pastor Shadrack.   Teaching this group has really challenged my Swahili Bible vocabulary as they are no longer on milk but are now on the meat of the word.   We do not track the growth of the Churches simply by the number of members.   While I am happy to report that there was a good number present for worship there are so many other signs of growth within the body of believers of this local New Testament Church.   For example, Pastor is currently training two associate Pastors and has sent one of His Associate Pastors (Japheth) to Soysambu to plant the Church there.    While we were in the states doing more deputation they managed to raise funds through special offerings to build a kitchen, cement the floor and put stained glass in the windows.

Kitchen

God’s people sacrificially giving whether here in Kenya or the USA always touches my heart and to me reveals a great love for God as well as spiritual maturity.   We know that they are growing because they are not only gaining Bible knowledge but we see them applying it to their lives.  Thank you for allowing us to share what God is doing in our lives as well as the work here in Kenya.   We desperately need your continue prayers as we labor to reach the lost and disciple the saved.  

God Bless,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez
Kenya

                                     Another Theresa

Terry's Crew

Turbo Charged, Technology & Teaching

The more things change, the more things stay the same.   This  saying holds true with our ministry here in Kenya due to the  fact that our week generally starts with servicing the vehicle. Next to our Bible and prayer, our vehicle is our most valuable ministry tool and like our Bible study and prayer life, it must be impeccably maintained.With that said, we installed the new turbo which increased the performance of the Land cruiser by about 90%.  I believe we still need some injector work done in the coming weeks due to contaminated diesel which  is the norm here.     Turbo Repair Having trusses constructed and locating building materials also consumed much time this week as we are resuming the construction process.   I am not a building expert by any stretch of the imagination but having been involved in the construction of eight sanctuaries of various methods here in Kenya, I can say that the new materials and engineering is looking better and better with each build.                                                  Truss   We were also able to reconnect with the three Pastors who have been instrumental in every phase of our ministry here in Kenya.    Our trip to Mawe Tatu (3 Stones) gave us the opportunity to test drive the repaired truck and also gave us an opportunity to have fellowship with Pastor Peter,  Pastor Shadrach and Pastor Japheth. There is no hierarchy in our work but these three men are the cream of our crop of young Pastors that we are currently working with and they encourage us as much as we encourage them in the Lord.  Not only did we update each other on the work but we also shared our deputation experiences as well as calendar planning.  The  meeting gave me the  opportunity to introduce to them to the new technology I am trying to get up and running to further their education. The logistics and scope of our ministry is somewhat of a  nightmare as we are working with four different tribes  scattered in three different regions of Kenya and our latest work in Uganda. Those conditions present a formidable challenge when it comes to giving those twelve Pastors a solid  seminary level education.   Our methodology thus far has included transporting the twelve to a central location  for quarterly seminars and of course me coming to  them to teach.   However, given the fact that I am one man and the fact that we are limited in our finances I felt I needed to come up with a method that would bring the Bible Institute to them on a daily or weekly basis.Technology can be a beautiful thing if used in the right way and my  goal is to use the latest electronic tablets loaded with video Bible institute lectures so that each Man of God  can continue his training in his home in between our quarterly seminars. The package I have in mind is basically an 8" tablet with SD card capability, a solar panel and a battery for charging.   I will load one video lecture at a time and then test them accordingly before I will load the next lesson.    At this stage it is only a  pilot program but as we develop it I can see the benefit as they will have quality lectures to watch and learn  from as much as they want.   Special thanks goes out to Bro. Lynn Raburn for donating  His entire library of lectures to this needed cause. This Lord's day we were able to visit two of our Churches at the base of Mt. Elgon.    It was refreshing to return to the African style of worship which has so much heart in their singing, preaching and praying.                                        Praying The heart and mind of the Missionary seems to always gravitate to evaluation of where the Churches are and while I must admit there was a little bit of that on my mind, we just thoroughly enjoyed a day of worshiping the Lord and having Church with God's people.                                        Brick Walls I am happy to report that all the churches are healthy and that many have made progress raising funds to build kitchens  and laid bricks while we were home raising funds.This is  the perfect representation of how we are working together for the Glory of God. Please continue to pray that God will continue to provide as well as lead, guide and direct us in all that we do as  we get reconnected with the people He has placed us together with during this season of life. Thank you to all of you who faithfully pray for us and for every dollar that is sacrificially given so that others  might hear the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In His Service, Bro.Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez Kenya                     Terry and Pastors Wives   Welcome:  We would like to say "Karibu" which means welcome to Pastor Jim Callen and Eastern Ave. Baptist Church, St.Cloud Fla. for partnering with us as we preach the Gospel here in Kenya. Terry and I have a special place in our heart for this Church as it was where my Grandmother was a member for many years.

Back In Kenya

Let me preface this journal entry by wishing each and everyone a Happy and Blessed New Year in Christ.  Terry and I started the New Year on the 1^st in the air making our way back to Kenya. 
This two day process involves three flights from Tampa to Miami, 
Miami to London and London to Nairobi as  well as a taxi and two bus rides.

Believe me when I say that you pretty much feel beaten and battered at the end of two days of dragging luggage, security check points, layovers and jet lag.
That is the beginning of the Missionary re-entry process which is only accomplished by the grace of God. As we return to our field for our third term, there is an interesting phenomenon that takes place in our lives and hearts each time we return.  This phenomenon is probably very hard for people other than foreign Missionaries to totally understand but possibly can best be described as a divided heart.   My wife does a great job of describing it as she tells our brethren, "as we leave to return to the people and land that God has called us to we still leave half of our heart behind with our family, friends and brethren". 

Even thou this is our third term it is still a heart wrenching experience to say goodbye to our amazing children and those blessed little grandchildren who affectionately call us Pop Pop and Gigi.  

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is not getting any easier.  Additionally, there was a real struggle this time to leave my dear Mother behind after recently preaching my Fathers funeral and her also suffering from a broken hip.   It would be so easy to say that the sacrifice is just too much if was not for God's call and a Savior that has sacrificed so much for us to have eternal life.   If there is anyone who could relate to this kind of separation it would be our Lord and Savior Jesus who left heaven and made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men to pay our sin debt in full.   It is that kind of love that constraineth us to go in Jesus name. 
The apostle Paul faced this same kind of paradox with regard to living on earth while desiring heaven.  
Php 1:23  For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.   While we arrived on schedule, we cannot say the same thing for our luggage as three out of five pieces got left in London by British Airways.  We always travel with extra clothes in our carry on for this very reason however one of the bags was held by customs because of a new turbo I bought for the Toyota Land cruiser.    They wanted me to pay taxes on it because even though it is only about a $500.00 item in the USA, it is about a $2,500 item here in Kenya, hence my reason for buying it stateside.   Needless to say, we have paid the tax and still came out about $1,900.00 cheaper by buying it on eBay.

We have made Kenya our home since 2008 so the road home looks all too familiar.
                                                                           Gazelle

                                                                         Ekasia Tree

We arrived at our house in Eldoret on Friday to find that it had been invaded by rats, the water meter had been removed and that the hot water heater is not working.

                                               Uninvited Guests....

We are thankful for a few good Bible Baptist Missionary friends on this side who helped correct all of the aforementioned items.   Oh well, those are a few of the scenarios and challenges we face living in a third world country.   We were not able to visit the work on Sunday but did attend church here in Eldoret.  It is a very busy and tiring first week back while suffering from jet lag and adjusting to living at over 7,000 ft. above sea level.   The work load involves getting the vehicle ready to travel, the house cleaned, work permits/visa's processed and many other details required to live here over the next two years.    We will hit the road into the interior this coming week as our brethren here are anxious to resume our work together.  We can only hope and pray that many more souls will be added to the kingdom of heaven and that we will be an encouragement to our young Churches, Pastors and Members.  Please continue to pray for us brethren.

In His Service,

Bro. Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez

Note:  I try to be a faithful and regular journal writer to share what God is doing and so our brethren best know how to pray for us.  If you do not want to receive this weekly journal please use the SafeUnsubscribe listed below.