I haven't spent much time in Consolacion del Sur in the last decades. Consolacion del Sur is a town in the Western province of Cuba. I remember going through the town twice in past trips and stopping to see two houses. This is something odd because Consolacion is a big part of my childhood. My family on my mother’s side is from Consolacion. My great-grandparents lived there, my grandfather and his wife became the first in their families to join the Baptist church there, and they raised their children in a christian home. Consolacion was where my parents met, married and had their first four children. They moved to Havana a year before I was born but my birth certificate was registered as born in Consolacion del Sur. So I can say that Consolacion is my town.

My memories of Consolacion largely come from the many stories I heard throughout my life about family life in Consolacion. But I also remember spending weeks when I was a child in Consolation at my great-grandparents' house and in the house that my parents kept there. I remember walking through the countryside, visiting the rice fields my father managed and the new bicycles that he bought for my brother Milton and me one summer when we were visiting.

On this ministry trip the team visited there for three days and I spent that time getting reacquainted with  Consolación.  

The building  of the church in Consolacion is a commemorative memorial of what God has done for me. It is like the memorial stone that Jacob erected in the desert as a marker of God’s presence when he dreamed of the ladder going to heaven (Gen 28:22) or the memorial monument on the Jordan River when the Israelites entered the promised land. In a similar way the church building in Consolation is a commemorative monument of God's goodness to my family and me. And I am grateful that the church building still stands, but I am even more grateful that God has preserved His church in Consolacion as a testament of his love.

Rachel