Cuba has his own particular beauty: We discovered it the minute when we went out of the airport... The country being still ruled by a communist government, importation into Cuba is very expensive and difficult. Therefore, Cuban cars for example are still the same cars that the american citizen left in Cuba after Fidel Castro's revolution ! Cuban people are just being fixing again and again the broken parts. Not only the cars, but also the building are very old, and the locals way of living is also very different. It gives a filling to be back in the sixties, its an unique experience !
We arrived in the country from the international airport in Havana, Cuba's capital. From there, we had to take a truck for a 15 hour drive to Santiago the Cuba, another city in the South of Cuba. Once there, we met our new host. There are the member of a local organization called Gladios. There way of serving the kingdom of God is by organizing outreaches into different community in Cuba, organizing youth-camp, all of this with the help of local churches. Most of them are from one particular church, but they don't claim Gladios to be from this particular church, so that they can be free to create partnership with different churches.
We slept in sunday school rooms of a baptist church, but we had every meal into Besaida's house, the mother of 2 member of Gladios. Each one of this meals was another occasion to understand a bit more of the culture and the way of living of people in Cuba. Very instructive !
During my time in Cuba, I had (AGAIN !) an infection. It was this time on my left elbow. But luckily Emilio, the director of Gladios is a doctor. He manage easily to identify what it was, gave me the right treatment and in 4 days it was gone ! Traveling in tropical countries for such long period can be quiet a challenge physically but as I said it previously, we have a God who is the ultimate doctor, and best assurance we can have so what shall I fear ?
I received a cool revelation during our Cuban experience: Or should I say a better understanding of God's kingdom ! I was reading Under-cover, a book from John Bevere and God used it powerfully to reveal more of his truth to me. The all book is about authority, submission and obedience. I loved that the author used a lot of example of the bible to explain this fundamental principle. I learn for example that you should always submit and show respect to authority, even if the authority might be wrong. God bless this kind of attitude ! Its also important when we obey authority to obey all heartedly, and not being hypocrite by being obedient but still rebellious in your heart. (Colossians 3: 22-23) Another truth can be resume in this sentence : " We can make great sacrifices in our lives, serve long hours, labor without pay, give up sleep, seek ways to reach more people, and do all sorts of things because in ministry the list can be endless. Caught up in all this sacrifice, we could easily imagine ourselves and our efforts as pleasing to God. However, in all this activity our core motive could still be deceptively fueled by self-will.
Hear these words: God is pleased with submission that leads to true obedience. "
The Lord is teaching me a lot this year, about himself but also about relationship with people around me; and to be honest, this journey is not at all how I imagined it to be, but I'm learning a lot from God and that's all that matter !
Next step, Panama ! We'll see what God has in plain for us there... Thank you for your constant prayer, please continue because the prayer of righteous people has a great power !!