After a 3:00 AM start, long lines at Jet Blue Cuba in Ft Lauderdale, Florida and some very different immigration questioning entering the nation, a friend and I finally had feet on the ground in Cuba at 8:00 AM May 1st, 2019. About forty minutes later, our Cuban pastor contact came to pick us up in our rental car for the week.
Having just been in Haiti days earlier, I found Cuba to be very green, covered with trees and flowers all along the highways and very well maintained. There is a noticeable absence of traffic as the Cubans do not own cars. The highways have mostly trucks, taxi’s, touring buses, a few cars and a large number of motorcycles, the most interesting had added side cars. My personal favorite to capture on the roads and the small towns along the way were the 1940’s – 1950’s cars and trucks.
Santiago de Cuba is a city of half a million people. It is the second largest in the country, where the Castro revolution started, where the capital was at one time and where Fidel Castro is now buried. It is perceived to be the “warmest” city in Cuba because it’s in a valley. Luis, our Cuban pastor friend, is not from this city, but felt called to plant a church here after he had one convert from a personal visit many years earlier. The Lord had him move to the city which was not possible at the time because Castro would not allow the sale of your personal home in order to move to another location. But, as Luis repeated a lot, God provides.
It is very different being in a nation in which the government owns most everything: the water, most buildings which include the stores and hotels, the hospitals, the trucks on the highway, the electrical power generating plants, the farms and fields, etc. Almost every job is directed by or run by the government and the average worker makes $20.00 – $25.00 per month. A doctor could make as much as $60.00 per month. Luis shared with us that the Cuban government provides five pounds of rice, five pounds of sugar and oil to each family, nothing more in the way of food. He said for the average Cuban family this amount lasts for about two weeks.
Friday evening, we had a worship service at Luis’ building. (Luis’ home and church building are physically connected as are all of the “underground” churches.) The building would hold 125-150 somewhat comfortably, but we must have had well over 175 persons. The buildings in the city do not allow for air to flow through them and with the humidity and the number of bodies present, I’m guessing it was in the high 90’s. Our pants and our shirts were soaked through with sweat. But the worship was awesome and Luis allowed me to share the word that night.
Luis asked me to give an alter call and I am guessing around dozen plus people came forward to give their lives to Jesus. And then it was like someone threw a match on a pile of gasoline-soaked rags. The place exploded with dancing, prayer, deliverance and fiery worship. We came back to our room around midnight exhausted, but a bit dumbfounded at the revival and presence of God in this place.
The same thing happened the next night and the next. Cuba is experiencing revival like nothing I have ever experienced in my 48 years of being a Christian. Young and the old are coming to Jesus and it was thrilling to experience. Every church we visited has a building plan or a church planting plan because of the exponential growth taking place. I felt privileged to not only see it, but experience it first-hand.
Have you been on a mission trip lately? It will totally and radically change your life!
The Rwandan government is speaking and teaching there is only one people group in the nation of Rwanda. There are no longer tribes and factions. On paper and in speech this sounds fine, but there’s a deep wound in Rwanda that is still not healed.
The blood of the innocent cries out in Rwanda for sure, but the blood of the innocent child cries out in America too. Are we listening? Are we speaking up for them? Are we a voice for those who have no voice?
The 100%, all natural, purely organic alarm sounds off at 4:14 AM, sometimes earlier. Many other “alarms” follow the lead of this rooster from house to house and Haiti begins to stir. Soon the smell of charcoal smoke wafts into the room where I would still much rather be sleeping. I can hear the old yellow school buses, reconstituted from the USA as an oversized, overloaded taxi, carrying far too many passengers. They are traveling through the main street at a very high rate of speed, constantly blowing their horns while NOT slowing down. A quick prayer asking God that no one is run over, hit or killed. Dogs are barking as they begin their daily routine of scavenging food. Goats bleating and children are stirring. I crawl off my deflating air mattress and out from under my mosquito net. It was a better night of sleep due to the rain vs. the night before when it was 89 degrees in my room with no breeze and no fan. There is no electric here in Montrouis and after many years of traveling to this town, it makes life just a bit more challenging when it comes to…well, everything really.
We are here to conduct a DOVE International Regional Gathering with 27 Haitian churches. There will be many hungry leaders in attendance and we can’t wait to share God’s word with them through teaching, through a skit, through our love and acceptance of them, through handshakes and hugs and through one of their favorite things: a plate full of chicken, rice, fried green plantain, beans and pic kle’ (a local spicy, fermented cold cabbage slaw). It will be a good day and we pray that our Father speaks exactly what they are in need of as primary leaders of the many churches found within three different cities here in Haiti. And, my very favorite Haitian drink will be served almost cold – Coke in a bottle.
The training begins with an accordion and exuberant worship. They pray for our day like it’s the last day on earth. How do we follow such faith and such expectation? It’s a joy to love these men and women who live in dire need, but who love Jesus. I take time to share that Jesus knows our needs and how the DOVE family prays for their church family in Haiti. Their face speaks a nonverbal, “Really, us?” They smile and are warmed that someone(s) is praying for them.
Yesterday a little boy told me he was hungry and I gave him a pack of crackers. He smiled and ate them in front of me waiting for something else. He could not speak English and I could not speak Creole, but a hand to the belly means one thing and it was good to be able to share. A similar thing happened last night and we shared bread and banana with two men. I can’t imagine being hungry without any capacity to relieve that hunger. However, a far greater need exist here in Haiti and it’s what causes that poverty and loss: government corruption, crime, the lack of police reinforcement of any laws, generations of poverty thinking, the lack of an infrastructure for travel and utilities, blaming life needs and issues on others and not taking responsibility, a poor and fractured school system and so much more.
Speaking of an orphanage, we were able to visit with Dada, a friend of ours who is a nurse by profession, but who chooses to take in orphans. She has ten 18 year-old girls because those girls must leave orphanages at 18 and often find themselves on the street. She takes them in. She also has taken in 10 babies with various issues of illness and need. Some she has birth certificates for and others she does not, but one thing is for sure, they are receiving Dada’s love and care. Please pray for her as she attempts to feed and care for 21 orphans.
. I once actually found myself thinking about how far behind I will be with email once I return home. Really, Steve?
Steve Prokopchak 