CUBA

We're pleased to report the first baptisms by our community in Cuba- a family of three, the father `A', wife `M' and 17 year old son `G'. Communication is a major problem- internet is only allowed in the higher range tourist hotels and most Cubans aren't online. Cell phones are available only for certain people and most Cubans don't have one. So all communication with our brethren has to be by snail mail, which is very slow, about a month each way- if it ever gets through [sometimes it doesn't at all].

`A' is an energetic man with a real heart for God. Having committed himself to Christ, he began reading the Bible, and has a great familiarity with the text. They have six books in their humble home- three of which are Bibles and the others Bible Basics and Introducing Bible Basics. As he read the Bible, `A' realized he must be baptized, but the churches in Cuba seem to treat baptism as an entry rite into their denomination. They demanded he tithe to them if he were baptized, which `A' declined to do as he felt it wasn't required by the Bible. They demanded he accept all their doctrines, which `A' couldn't do- as he found the Trinity to be lacking in Biblical support. `A' heard of a man in another church who had baptized himself and then his family. `A' located him in the hope he would baptize him- but the man had been disfellowshipped from the church for doing this, and had now repented of baptizing people [!!] and returned to the church, promising never to baptize anyone again. `A' asked God to lead him to someone to baptize him and to explain the Gospel more fully.

`A' had a brief opportunity to get online and figure out how to use the internet- and he used it for 30 minutes. Bear in mind there's a five year jail term for illegal access to the internet. He valued every minute of it, and spent those valuable minutes surfing the net looking for information about the Trinity and Biblical alternatives to it. By grace he was led to Carelinks.net and then biblebasicsonline. com and filled out the form requesting the literature. We get hundreds of requests each day and send a standard email to all enquirers asking them to confirm their interest. Those who don't insert email addresses don't get anything sent to them. But having a request from Cuba caught our eye in the inbox. We decided to send this person a Bible Basics anyway. Our mission is to spread the Gospel to new areas where the Truth hasn't been widely distributed, and so we thought that in any case it would be good to send a book there.

`A' received the book and devoured it, covering it with notes, and returned the answers by snail mail, asking to be baptized. And so began a lengthy period of snail mail correspondence. Satisfied that this man appeared to have a good grasp of the Truth, we arranged to visit him. But then he went dead- no response to our letters. Was it worth such a huge journey when the man may be dead, have lost interest, moved away? Re-reading his answers and his previous letters, he seemed so sincere. God put on our heart to make this trip, and we sent letters asking him to meet us off our flight at the airport in Havana. A lot of prayers were offered by the Carelinks team about this trip. Duncan arrived in Havana- but nobody was waiting as requested. He got a taxi to take him to A's address, about 100 miles from Havana. It was only his postal address, he didn't live there, but a boy was dispatched by bicycle to find `A'. `A' had received no letters from us for a long time. He thought we'd given up with him, another church who didn't really care about the individual. It was an emotional and prayerful meeting on the veranda of a very old Spanish colonial period home in a small Cuban town. He couldn't believe that we valued one person enough to do this.

Ordinary Cubans aren't allowed to have foreigners staying in their homes even for one night, and there was no hotel in the small town, which meant more taxi journeys to another city to find a hotel. A took the next day off work and we spent the day in careful discussion of the Bible. This is really a Bible loving family, and they really were 101% in agreement with our understanding of the Gospel. They had no bath tub and so we chartered another taxi- a huge 1956 Ford [Cuba has the oldest preserved American cars in active use anywhere in the world]. The bemused driver took us to a river some distance away, and watched as this small family was baptized.

A has a group of about 15 young people who attend his home weekly for Bible study, sitting on the floor as he teaches them from Bible Basics. We really have the nucleus of an ecclesia here. Who is going to come forward to go and pastor this group and assist with baptizing them? We invite the CBMA and all who love the Truth to come forward in assisting with fellowshipping our new brothers and sister and in helping with the work in Cuba. It's a lovely and unusual place, not without its challenges, but with plenty of resort areas if that's interesting for anyone. A speaks excellent English but of course it's generally a Spanish speaking area. But knowing English only is fine.

So we really thank God for His faithfulness in answering prayer, and the demonstration once again of His eager willingness to work with any sincere effort to bring individuals towards His Kingdom.