Construction Zone & O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

 Here in Kenya, I am affectionately known as “Missionary Carlos”.  

 When we arrived in late 2008 I discovered that our Kenyan brethren could not pronounce “Chuck”,  it would come out sounding something like “Jack or Shark” so I just told them to refer to me as “Carlos” which is my given name.  

However, this year I am thinking about changing my name to “Bob the Builder” due to the fact that our Church development plan has brought us to the place where we are ready to start our fifth new sanctuary since January. 

Terry and I collected the steel poles and trusses this week from our fabricator here in Eldoret.

His name is Sebastian and each time we visit him he asks how his namesake is doing in Florida.  He is so proud of the fact that we have a grandson named Sebastian as well. 

                                         Sebastian the Fabricator

Seabass, his namesake

 

In any case, our house is starting to look like a construction zone again with a pile of steel ready to be transported up Mt. Elgon.  

It will be a great challenge this time of year with the daily rains on Mt. Elgon but we have done it before by the grace of God and God willing we will be able to do it again.    Terry has been studying diligently in preparation for her Women’s Seminar this coming week. 

 I Thank God for her and I am so blessed to have a wife who is able to teach the women in our associated work the Word of God.  

Women like Terry are extremely hard to find in this day and age but the women here are able to see the love of God  in action through Terry’s personal ministry to them and the children. 

This week we got a call from one of our Landmark Baptist Churches in Western Kenya, LBC Namawanga which was planted by another American Baptist Missionary. 

They explained that their Pastor, Wycliffe Wekesa Malone,  had died and they wanted me to come preach the funeral.

Now before I go any further, it is important to understand that when God called Terry and I to Kenya, our prayer was very similar to what we see in the Apostle Paul’s writing in the epistle to the Romans: 

 Romans 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.  

While we love and pray for the other Missionaries in our associated work here in Kenya we wanted to be sent where Christ was not named and we did not want to build on another man’s foundation. 

It would be through this heart’s desire and prayer that God would open the doors for us to start planting Churches on Mt. Elgon, Lake Victoria, the Kerio Valley and Uganda.  

So needless to say, we have focused and concentrated all of our efforts in areas where no other Missionary had worked before.   I believe this is one of the keys to the increase God has given us over the years and I believe this an important ministry philosophy that will work anywhere in the world. 

Find somebody, somewhere who has not heard the gospel. 

In other words, Go where nobody has gone or where is no one is willing to go.

Alright, enough preaching! 

I would not say that we have isolated ourselves but this type of Church planting philosophy has limited our contact and exposure to other Churches in our associated work which were started by other Missionaries.

With that as the background of this week’s request to preach the funeral, it did not take me long to reach the conclusion that an opportunity to preach the gospel and honor a Man of God who died while serving the Lord surpasses any of the aforementioned circumstances or ministry politics which should have no place on the mission field.  

It is always right to do the right thing and I believed it was God’s will because the family and the Church specifically requested me.  Congregation  at Memorial 

Congregation

Congregation

Coffin

The funeral lasted all day as there must have been around one thousand people in attendance. 

The introductions and testimonies alone lasted four and half hours. 

Pastor Wycliffe was well loved by many people but perhaps the most moving part of the service was when hundreds of students from the schools he has taught at over the years filed by the casket one by one touching it softly.   

As we moved through the order of service the crowd continued to swell.

I do not get nervous preaching to large crowds but I do pray that God will hide me behind the cross so that Jesus would be lifted up and draw them unto himself.   

 

 I preached the death, burial and resurrection for the lost and about the hope and comfort God gives us through faith in Christ.   The results are up to God and we may never know on this side of eternity who or how many where saved but we do know that an opportunity was given through the preaching of the gospel.          Choir

With that many people in attendance my hope and desire is that they would be numbered in the great chorus that would sing.
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing in honor to our King. 
 Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer's praise
The glories of my God and King
The triumphs of His grace
My gracious Master and my God
Assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name

So come on and sing out
Let our anthem grow loud
There is one great love
Jesus
Jesus, the name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease
'Tis music in the sinner's ears
'Tis life and health and peace

He breaks the power of canceled sin
He sets the prisoners free
His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood availed for me

He speaks and listening to His voice
New life the dead receive
The mournful broken hearts rejoice
The humble poor believe

Glory to God and praise and love
Be ever, ever giv'n
By saints below and saints above
The church in earth and Heav'n

There are so few words
That never grow old
There are so few words
That never grow old
Jesus

In His Service

Bro.Chuck & Sis. Terry Fernandez