Santiago, a bustling city filled with motorbikes, trucks, horse carriages, musicians, street dancers, stray dogs, food trollies, markets and anything in between. There's no room for a misplaced foot . You can delight in a local delicacy about every 50m and the cheap ice-cream brought out that ice-cream-loving-kid in all of us.
Our host church was right in the centre of Santiago. The youth members of the church, who received us, are living examples of God's love in them for other people. Cuba was the first country on our year journey and everyone struggled with missing loved ones back in home. Not having any means of communication also made it difficult. I really found comfort in our hosts. They treated us like family even though we only knew them for a few days. That's how God's love draws people together.
In John 13:34 Jesus gives us a new commandment, to love others as He loved us. It seems simple enough to be a testimony of the love of God by the way you interact with people and speak to them, but I was really challenged by it. By 'others' He means anyone and everyone else and it was difficult. We were confronted with a lot of different people in Cuba, especially on the streets. Naturally everyone wanted to talk to us because we are foreign and we look different. The irritating beggars, the rude people, the inappropriate people, even the tourist hating people, all of them deserve God's love. I can't choose who I will share God's love in me with and who not. My job is to be a testimony to everyone I meet. And then I realized how privileged I am to have a relationship with Jesus. Even the love I share can't come out of myself. It can only come out of Jesus in me. It is humanly impossible to love a very stinky, inappropriate person that you met on the street 10 seconds ago with the same love that Jesus loved us with. Our sinful nature just doesn't allow it, but Jesus in me can.
One sunday in church I was just looking around, not paying much attention to the preach. I was trying to take in where I was and what I'm doing. The church had a few South Korean visitors. As I sat there I realized something; I am sitting in a Spanish church service with Cubans, South Koreans from Canada and South Korea, a lovely lady from Botswana and my fellow South Africans. We all love and worship the same God and He loves us all. The same Jesus that died and rose for me, did that for them as well. Even though we speak different languages, sing different songs, look different and live on different sides of the earth , God is constant. God is everywhere. That's beautiful. It's such a simple idea that I never stopped to really think about how incredibly awesome it actually is. How incredibly awesome our God is.
Cuba, being a Spanish country, presented some challenges. Our very limited vocabulary of hola, gracias, por favor and de nada forced us to find alternative ways to communicate, most of the times having hilarious end results. In fact, my favorite conversation was with a 10 year old boy about photography. We ended up taking photo's of goats, because I coincidentally knew the word chibo, which is goat. Not understanding the people around you doesn't necessarily have to prevent you from connecting with them. My whole conversation with that boy was lost in translation, but we really became something like friends. Again it comes down to love. A simple gesture can say more than a 1000 words. The language barrier is also proof of God's sovereignty. To know that praying in Spanish or English or Afrikaans doesn't matter to Him. Not understanding a song doesn't influence the praise He receives from it. God tests your heart and if your heart is right you could even have used sign language. He is much much greater than any human barrier.
The first few days of confusion between CUC or Cuban Peso; ice-cream or churros and Che and the C-word that no one speaks of, passed in a flash. The time just went downhill after that. Now I find myself looking back at a time that I will never forget. Now however I am eagerly looking forward to Jamaica and the rest of our journey. God has great plans for the nations and I am very privileged and thankful that I can be part of it.