No human plan, no route, no set destination, no accommodation, not knowing one person's name in the whole country - we stepped off the plane in Cuba as Global Challenge Distant Island pioneering group. We were uncertain of many things, but the one thing we were certain of was that our almighty God was in total control. Few people ever get the chance or create the opportunity for God to be in total control and be totally dependant on him for your next step. And how He did show us that He is in control...
Arriving in Cuba, we spent our first 3 days in Havanna and wait
ing on the Lord we felt that He is calling us to go to Sandiago witch will mean an 17 hour train trip to the other side of the country, this was not the easy option but with obedience we climbed on the train. From there on in God's perfect timing everything played off.
On the train Gerrie told me he feels God is telling him we are going to meet a lady that is fluent in English and God would use her to give us direction. We arrived at the station Sandiago and with our luggage against a wall in a heap we stood around trusting and fully relying on God. A man approached us and told us he could help us to get accommo
dation and will go and show us the place. So off we were on a horse cart one of the local ways of transportation together with all our baggage. We met the people we were sta
ying at and this is also were we met Diana, a Cuban girl currently in her community service year as a pediatric, who of course is fluent in english and a firm believer in Christ.
We told her our stories, were we c
ame from, our plans and she invited us to her church service that evening. At the church we spoke with the pastor who is also the president of the Baptist church organization. From him we gained information about religious visas which entitles us to preach, and be part of a service, unfortunately we didn't know this when we applied for our Visas, but we soon realized even if we knew about the visas we needed a letter to the Cuban government from an organization in Cuba. I was very disappointed at first, because this limit our ways of ministry, but now looking back I can still see how God used us in so many other different ways.
The pastor connected us with a lot of people especially the people who work with the
youth. With a lot of hours of meetings behind us, we established firm friendships and relationships with the organization. Through the organization we also received projects and activities for our time in Cuba. We spent a lot of time with the youth like attending and speaking at an international student's worship session, holding bible study groups, attending Sunday school at a church. We were also part of an international missionary meeting that involved the growth of Christianity and how the different churches function all over the world. We got down and dirty one day by helping to renovate an old church. This is only a few of the things God planned before hand for us.
The friendships we build with the people will always be with me, greeting everyone at the train station felt like we were greeting family, although we only knew them for two we
eks. They say that blood is thicker than water, but Spirit is thicker than blood. We realized the impacked of the spiritual family of God all over the world. Although we won't necessarily get the chance to see them again on earth that we will be reunited in heaven.
In the future the Baptist church in Sandiago de Cuba will help with the applying of religious visas, Global teams will be sent in June, July to help with camps that runs for 3 weeks with different age groups. These camps are life changing and many kids are led to Christ on these camps. I was at first very disappointed in the fact that we ourselves won't get the chance to work with the kids on the camps and only the groups after us, but God quickly showed me the bigger picture. We are the foundation although it is under the ground and not seen or thought about much it is the reason the building can get build and rise into the sky. I feel so privileged to be in this situation because I know because of our trust in God's plan so many kids and even other Global Challenge members will get blessed by the camps.
I realize again our job description for the year: 'TRUST AND OBEY'