Cuba, Page 2

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"After suffering a little while, He will restore you and make you strong..." 1 Peter 5:10

	A Christian leader proudly displays teaching materials delivered by ICC.

Cuba (continued)

A team from ICC recently traveled to Cuba and again witnessed the wonderful way in which God is moving in the lives of the beautiful Christian believers living on this island isolated from the modern world. Continuing to endure under the repressive Communist regime, Christians are forbidden to construct new churches and to freely evangelize. Nevertheless, the Protestant churches in Cuba continue to expand at an unprecedented rate.

The house church movement continues to grow and many Cubans are coming to Christ, leaving behind their old lives of witchcraft, fornication, and alcoholism. The Cuban missionaries are mostly responsible for the surge in the number of new believers in recent years. Most of them are in their early twenties. Many more believers are eager to join the ranks of the missionaries being sent out all over Cuba. The only thing preventing them from going is financial support. A Cuban who quits his or her job (everyone is essentially an employee of the government) will be put in prison. Needless to say, there is no unemployment in Cuba. ICC is working with four different church denominations to legally employ "workers." Because of the unity among the different church denominations, the Holy Spirit is free to work and revival is able to spread. Oh, how much we Americans can learn from Cuba!

ICC delivered humanitarian supplies to the Cuban church, including medicines and eyeglasses, both of which are difficult to obtain in Cuba. The eyeglasses were received with great joy. One pastor said, "Because of these glasses, many people who are unable to see well enough to read will now be able to read their Bibles." The churches who have a medical doctor among their congregations make good use of the antibiotics, asthma inhalers, pain killers, insulin, and other badly needed medicines delivered by ICC. Since the local pharmacies have little medicine on hand, they will often refer the sick to the church to receive medicines. This provides an opportunity for the churches to share the Gospel and pray for the sick. Our host told us, "Many people are healed after we pray for them and then they leave without taking any medicines. This is a great service ICC is providing."

Every time an ICC team travels to Cuba, it is with great joy and anticipation. The teams from ICC always receive a warm greeting from the Cuban believers. One prominent Cuban pastor told us: "We appreciate the vision of ICC to help our country in different ways: supplying study Bibles for pastors, missionary support to different Christian denominations in Cuba, Christian materials (books, etc.), bicycles for transportation, houses for missionaries and other financial assistance. The churches are growing all over Cuba, and part of our victory is because of the help received from ICC. Glory to God."

The ICC team managed to pass through customs in Cuba with the customs agents only briefly scanning our belongings. Apparently, one of the senior customs agents instructed the inspectors to allow us to pass through without searching our bags. The customs agent is the same man who asked to keep a copy of a book on the Holy Spirit during ICC's previous trip. This time, only two bags of the entire team were opened before the agent gave his instruction and it was the one containing medicines. It was obvious by the number of bags we were carrying that we had more in our possession than a change of clothes for one week. Therefore, we agreed to pay a small fee for "gifts" that we were bringing into the country. Normally books and Bibles in quantity are not even allowed and non-personal items are taxed at a rate equal to their value. All the study Bibles for pastors and biblical study books managed to make it into the country.

Our host, a Cuban pastor, has been warned that he can no longer greet foreigners at the airport, so we had to hire two taxi cabs. Our host was recently called to the immigration office and was met by a ranking officer from the security branch, the equivalent of the FBI. Our host was told that he is being watched and they showed him a file that detailed the pastor's activities for the past two years. He was warned that if he breaks any of Cuba's laws that he will go to prison. This officer said, "You are causing us more problems than any pastor in Cuba because of your activities." Our pastor friend is not worried, however, because he believes that God will continue to take care of him. But at the same time, he must be more wise and careful about not giving the government an excuse to arrest him.

As our team traveled to the western portion of the island, we watched God arrange meetings that were nothing less than divine appointments. Because of security concerns (and communication limitations), we arrived at every meeting unannounced. On one unscheduled visit with a pastor, we were very surprised to discover that all the pastors from the western district had come that particular day from their respective towns for a special meeting. Many had traveled at length and often with much difficulty. We could not have planned this better ourselves! There we were, now able to meet with every pastor at one location! It was incredible. God is good. We encouraged the pastors, prayed for them, and provided for some of their physical needs.

(Click here for more information on Cuba.)

Continued on Page 3...  

POSTED:  February 10, 2001

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