Cuba has been such an amazing experience! What a wonderful country to start off our journey to all the Distant Island nations of the world. As we look back on our time in Cuba, we are standing with so much thankfulness in awe of how perfectly in control God really is. We had so many highlights in the past three weeks and our low lights were so small, silly and insignificant, that you can almost say our whole Cuba experience was just one big highlight.
Some of these amazing highlights that we got to experience, through opportunities that the church where we built a relationship with gave us, were:
- Kids ministry, that encourages kids to share the gospel with people on the streets;
- Teenagers- and youth ministry, holding summer camps every July and August;
- Building the first old-age home since the Revolution in 1959. We were privileged to be invited to the opening evening – what a blessing!;
- Visit a church in El Cristo (The Christ), being rebuild after being damaged by an earthquake;
- Attending a praise and worship evening where half of the people attending gave their hearts to the Lord;
- Also attending an All Nations church service, being represented by students from 23 different nations;
- Sharing how the churches in South Africa function, at a pastor/missionary conference;
- Visit a beach town where they are busy building facilities for youth camps to be held;
- Spending time with the young people from the church, praying over the city of Santiago.
The main thing that blew all of our minds, was to see how God planned everything beforehand and how He led us to where He wanted us to be. It was great to see how He is in control of everything all the time and how He lets everything fall in to place and work out perfectly according to His will. We had no idea where we were supposed to go. God led us to Santiago, but we didn't know where in Santiago we were supposed to go or what we should do there. God just led us to the right place and let us meet the right person who led us to the next
person, who led us to the next person, etc. We didn't really go out to look for the people that we met. God just sent them across our paths, and they all came to us, we didn't really go to them.
After we met Pastor Joel, everything just started happening. We met person after person and had so many opportunities of great things happening in the church, which we could attend and be a part of. We didn't really do much more than just building relationships, observing God's work here in Cuba and also encouraging and building up God's church. We couldn't really do too much to help the church or to take part in the ministry, because in Cuba you need to apply for a religious visa if you want to do something like preach in front of people or any activity in the church.
We learned a lot about how to really trust and rely on God and what we should do to walk in His will. In a big sense, our journey in Cuba was like a Luke 10 journey, except for the fact that we had money. We learned what God expects of us.
Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, o man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
We all learned many things from God in the time that we spent in Cuba. Some of the things that we learned were:
How important is it to make time and spend time with God, so that He can recharge you continuously by filling your with His Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:8 We were reminded of the importance of faith in God and obedience to God. We all learned new things about love, because we experienced God's love on new and profound levels.
We learned to have peace and to keep persevering even when we do not see the fruit or experience the harvest. We learned that God is faithful in providing direction and food in meeting all our needs. We were reminded over and over again that the only way to the Father is through His Son, Jesus. We were amazed at the perfection of God. How does He know everything? How does He control everything? God is awesome in every sense!
We realised that many of the ways that we think about our lives, are wrong. It's not about me, it is all about God and His plan. We need to remember that and ask His will in every thought and idea that we have. We were reminded of the importance of making time for people and praying for them. We also realised that God is love and He does everything in love and through love and with love and all He really wants us to do is love other people.
We realised that God has high expectations for us and that serving God is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. We were reminded of the importance of bearing the cross.
God is changing all of our perspectives on who God is, what the Gospel really is and thy the centre piece and most important part of everything, is Jesus. We are learning to have a new perspective on what Christianity really is. God is slowly but surely breaking down all the lies that people and the world taught us about Him, and He is teaching us from scratch about what the truth really is through the working of His Holy Spirit in and through us.
In order to achieve success, we need three things:
1. Faith in God
2. Fear of God
3. Obedience to God
But most importantly, we need love. All that we are and all that we do is by grace. Grace means that it is not us doing something for God, but it is God doing something for us. If we do anything without faith, grace and love, then it is useless to God and He will not approve of our actions.
Wow! That was a mouthful, but to us, Cuba was a mouthful, literally, figuratively and spiritually speaking. We love sharing with you and we pray that some of the things that we share with you will encourage you on your journey with Jesus.
We need Your Support
We want to ask you to please pray with us for Cuba. Pray for their government and for their people. Pray that God's church will continue to move and to grow in Cuba. Pray that the people will find their hope and strength in the Lord. Pray that the relationships which we established will be blessed and that future teams will be able to get involved with the ministry in Santiago. Pray for the Baptist Church and Pastor Joel, that God will guide him and his church and use them.
We also need you to please pray for our finances, so that God will provide the money that we need for our journey ahead.
If you would like to contribute and help us by giving some financial support, we would really appreciate it. Here are the banking account details:
Account name: GCX-One Year 9206958383
ABSA
Branch: 31 Da Gamma road, Jeffreys Bay, 6330, South Africa
Branch code: 334515
Reference: DISTANT ISLANDS
Swift Code (for international payments): ABSAZAJJ
"Dios te bendiga" – God bless you!
"Adios Amigos" – Goodbye friends!
Distant Islands team*
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