Our trip was amazing. We took a team of 17. Six of the 17 were teenagers and they added so much joy to the team. We spent the week sharing Jesus in many ways: Bible teaching, witnessing, encouraging the pastors and church leaders, and just enjoying life with the Cuban people. They are the most loving, open, giving people I have ever met. They welcomed us into their homes and into their lives. They shared their stories of struggles and pain. I spent time praying with a mother whose adult son was near death, a young mother whose one-month-old son was born with a heart defect, and a woman in need of knee surgery.
I also had the privilege of teaching the leaders of a church in El Diezmero and leading the church at Alamar in communion on Easter Sunday night. Even though the rain forced us inside, we still had an amazing time of worship.
Every team member experienced God-moments throughout the week. One of my favorites was meeting a husband and wife in a town called Santiago de Las Vegas. We walked into their home and noticed right away that there was a jewelry workbench set up in the front room of the house. The husband was a jeweler who made his living creating and repairing jewelry. As we began to share with them, the husband indicated to us that he was a Christ-follower. The wife said she was “somewhat.” As we shared Christ with her, joy began to come over her face. She listened and nodded, indicating that she was familiar with the joy, peace and hope that a relationship with Jesus brings.
As I finished talking, the woman began to tell me that our visit was an answer to prayer. She said that she had been struggling with depression for the past couple of years. Just two days earlier, she said, she had asked God to give her some kind of sign that she was going to be okay and that things would get better. With tears in her eyes, she said that she knew our visit was God’s answer specifically for her. Her face radiated joy as she talked! I knew that God had sent us to their home just for her --- to be an answer to prayer! I am so thankful to have been a part of His work in her life that day.
As a sign of his gratefulness to us, the woman’s husband took off a beautiful ring that he was wearing and gave it to me. It is handmade of sterling silver with a beautiful pale yellow diamond cut stone. I tried to refuse his generosity but he insisted I take it --- from his heart to mine. I will think of him and the Cuban people every time I wear it.
I could write pages about this trip but I will tell you one more story and stop there. At the end of
this great week of ministry, our Cuban friends and our team experienced a tragedy that I still cannot comprehend. Leonel, one of our translators, a pastor, and a dear friend to me and many others, died suddenly Thursday night of an apparent asthma attack.Hits in the gut, doesn’t it? I’m still reeling from all of it. Leonel was with us every day. He stood beside me and interpreted my preaching and sharing with people one-on-one and had done so on all four of my trips. (He had even learned some of my gestures --- he was that good.) He laughed with (and at) us “loco” Americans. He was a 30-year-old father of two who had the biggest smile
I have ever seen. He loved his church that met in a borrowed garage. He was the first person I “fell in love with” on my first trip to Cuba. He and I had connected (as he did with everyone) and I always took things for him and his family each time I went back.Thursday afternoon, the team was in downtown Havana and I took him into a store where I bought him two pair of jeans. Thursday night our team was laughing with him on the bus. And Friday morning we were at a funeral home grieving the loss of a man who had deeply touched us all.
I cannot explain any of this. God has a plan --- yes, I know. His plans are best --- yes, I know. But knowing that and understanding that are two different things. I’m not supposed to understand --- yes, I know. And I am okay with that. But it still hurts as all real hurt does.
I thank you for praying for our team over the past week. It
really does mean a lot to me and to all of us. The Lord used us and protected us --- we saw dozens of people come to know Christ --- and for that I am incredibly grateful.But may I ask you to continue praying? Please pray for our Cuban friends who are grieving today. Pray for Leonel’s mother, his daughters and the rest of his family. Pray for Pastor Eduardo who lost one of his key leaders. Pray for Juan Carlos who lost his best friend. Pray that God will use this tragedy to draw the church closer together and that the testimony of Leonel’s life will bring many others to know Christ. That is what he would want out of all of this.
My heart is heavy but I know that my friend is in heaven with the Lord. He is experiencing exactly what he and I walked the streets of his country sharing with people. This life is not all there is. Heaven is a real place and God is preparing a home in heaven for everyone who places his or her trust in Jesus. Have you made the decision to place your trust in Jesus?
Gloria a Dios!
