Stories from the Mission Field

November 2024

Cuba: A glimmer of hope despite the crisis

More than 700,000 people have left the country in the last two years. Since the pandemic, the economy has not recovered, and inflation has temporarily exceeded 70%. The prices of food, fuel, and building materials have risen dramatically. Currently, there is often no electricity for days in large parts of the country. Due to the high rate of emigration, there is a lack of skilled workers in the education and health care system. The churches also feel the effects of this emigration: there is a lack of pastors, church leaders and young adults. Those who can, seek a better future, especially in the United States. The churches continue to serve the people, try to alleviate poverty and invite them to faith.

Serving as a church in the neighborhood

To address the needs of the weakest members of society, the church in Zaldo offers health counseling and medication for children and elderly people. A doctor supports them in this. Brothers and sisters regularly walk the streets, preach the gospel and pray with the people. Four women of the church have a heart to serve needy senior citizens. They offer manicures and do their hair.

In this way, many of the churches in Cuba are trying to provide concrete support to people in their neighborhood, even though they themselves do not have much.

Pastor Yosvany Padrón experiences in these difficult times that God is particularly at work in Cuba and that many people are finding faith and thereby new hope. He is pastor of the main church in Havana and coordinator of church planting projects in Cuba. “First of all, we can help others through Christ and the gospel. And then we put this message of love into practice by trying to serve our community with the few resources we have. This helps the needy and the weakest in the country,” he says.

God's Word is eye-opening

One of those who has experienced hope through the church in Zaldo is Aurelia (name changed). She grew up in a special home: both of her parents are blind. Because of this, she was often very sensitive and had little self-confidence. Aurelia had hardly any friends and carried a lot of anger inside her. She felt like a stranger everywhere and like she didn't belong.

When a classmate came to faith at the age of 16, he told others about it. For Aurelia, this was also strange because her family was atheistic and only occasionally practiced the Yoruba religion. Nevertheless, Aurelia gratefully accepted a Bible and began to encounter God in the texts. She felt initial changes, but after graduating from school, she lost contact with her Christian classmate. Her fears increased again.

Ten years later, she met her husband. Most of his family members were Christians. Aurelia began attending church services at her new relatives' home and eventually got to know the church in Zaldo. There she gained a foothold, understood more and more of the gospel and was baptized.

Aurelia felt her fears melt away, her self-confidence grew and her friendships became stronger. She no longer feels like a stranger, but has found a home in the church and in her faith. Her parents have also started attending church services.