Cheerful, United, Beauty, Arise aka: CUBA!

 Before this year, the only thing I knew about Cuba was that Buena Vista Social Club is from there and something about a revolution, with a guy named Ché, who looks cool on handbags and t-shirts.  After being here for 3 weeks, I can tell you there is so much more to this long, narrow island in the Caribbean.

The people in Cuba look much like those in South Africa, in the sense of being a rainbow nation too, but they are fully integrated.  They truly don't see different races, neither in the church nor the streets.

Still, it remains a communist country.  The people are given rations that they need to live by, milk is only available to kids under 7 years, you face 15 years jail-time if you kill a cow, doctors get paid 25 CUC a month (which amounts to only R200 a month) and a meal consisting of a pizza, juice and ice-cream can be bought for less than R3!  The streets are filled with old, vintage cars and Spanish colonial architecture.

Even before coming to Cuba, we felt on our hearts to go east, even though we landed in and left from Havana (which is in die North-West).  So after a 17 hour train ride across the country, we arrived in Santiago de Cuba, on the bottom of the East coast, Sunday afternoon.  Immediately we were met by a friendly lady working on the station, organising a horse cart to take us to a Casa particular.  From there, God just sent one person after another across our path and we ended up in church that night, meeting the pastor, who is also the President of the Baptist Convention.  Pastor Joel inspired me so much, just his humble nature and obvious love both for the Lord and people.  And he was such a confirmation of one prophesy we received back in Jeffreys bay, about meeting a 35-45 year old black man; he'll be a well known, ambitious and confident person.  Thank you Father God!

Through the rest of our time in Santiago, he introduced us to all the different ministries they are involved in.  Since we were on tourist visas, we could only observe, but these are a few of the projects they are involved in:

-       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;

-       We spoke to a English class, so that they can hear and practice English.  Of course we shared from the Bible, since that's what we have on our hearts and they hung on every word, because they are so hungry to hear English;

-       Spending time with the young people from the church, praying over the city of Santiago.

As I mentioned before, Distant Islands is a Pioneering journey, with the purpose of building relationships and indentifying needs in the different island nations God is sending us to this year.  Cuba, I'm so glad that you have a culture where you value relationships building.  Because in Global Challenge, that's such a big part of our hearts.  So we will surely be back, in Jesus' name!  Thank you for all the invitations!

God's timing is just perfect.& nbsp; We can make plans all we want, but they will many times leave us feeling burdened down and confused when they don't work out the way we expected them to.  Cuba taught me to depend on God alone, commit your ways to the Lord and He'll make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).  And that God loves people, He doesn't want to pick a fight, He just wants to love them.  Lord, I want to walk in your ways!  So, after Cuba, I don't just listen to people and then walk away, but I take that extra time to stop and pray for them.  That is the biggest gift I can give to anyone.  I'm not where I have to be yet, but thank you Jesus, that I'm not where I used to be.

I would like to end off with the words of Simon Guillebaud, a radical missionary, who committed his life to the African country, Burundi, from his book "No holds barred discipleship":

"We can make a difference!  The needs are everywhere.  We may struggle to know where to start.  But if we have hands to extend and feet to go to those desperately needy for practical help, financial assistance or simply affirmation and affection, then God will use us to make a difference.  It could be a few starfish in our own backyard through our own efforts, alternatively it could be a few across the seas in a faraway land through someone else's efforts whom we have financially empowered to go in Jesus' name.  I'm so grateful for the fact that the Lord has used many people's generosity to enable me to be involved in the process of throwing back thousands of "starfish" in Burundi, giving them renewed hope, assurance of salvation, healed bodies and souls, or the capacity to make a living and provide for their loved ones – all through Christ's power and for His glory."

So I'd like to echo his words and thank you for your support as well.  The world is being transformed, little by little, and your prayers and support makes it possible for me to be here, leading our Distant Islands team by loving them, through loving Jesus more.

Account name:  GCX-One Year

ABSA Bank

Account number:  9206958383

Branch:  31 Da Gamma road, Jeffreys Bay, 6330, South Africa

Branch code:  334515

Reference:  Linel le Roux

Swift code (for international payments):  ABSAZAJJ

Goodbye Cuba!  Cayman Islands, here we come!

Blessings!

Linel*