Club de Cazadores

Consolación is our last stop in this ministry trip and once more we head out to meet people in the rural areas around there. Club de Cazadores (Hunter’s Club) is about 8 kilometers from Consolacion. Farmers in that area grow rice, corn, green beans, and black and red beans.

We visit with the family and the extended family who live where the mission meets. They grow corn, green beans, red and black beans in land handed down from their great grandparents. They rotate the crops and are eager to show us the red beans growing in the field.

Liban is the young seminary student who leads the mission. Liban’s face lights up when he talks about the people at the Club de Cazadores and it is clear he cares about the people there. He shares in their achievements and their struggles as if they were his own. And he wants them to bring to them the joy and peace only God can give.

Not everyone who comes to this mission is able to join us on this Monday morning because they are working.

There are 3 other villages where the church in Consolacion has missions and 4 small churches in the area that do not have a pastor and Rolando, the pastor in Consolacion, supports. The needs of this community are not unlike what we have witness throughout Cuba. Spiritual darkness experienced through Santeria and Voodoo are strong. Shortages of food, medicine, gasoline and transportation make daily life difficult. But through it all we see the positive spirit of the people in Cuba who face their struggles with courage, humor and hope.

CONSOLACION

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 mother with her grandfather, father and her first born on the patio of her grandfather’s house in Consolacion circa 1940

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

SAGUA LA GRANDE

Sadiel and Zady pastor the Church on the Avenue in Sagua. They keep an eye in their community and seem to have inexhaustible energy.  We arrive at their door early in the morning and they are already at work serving their community. Sadiel is on his way to repair the flat tires on their bikes so they can visit people and Zady is on her way out to run errands on foot.  She is going to visit people who she knows could use some of the donated medicines we brought.  In the afternoon she sends us a message that their test strips work on the glucose meters we brought and a little girl can now test her glucose level using one of the meters.  One problem of many solved.  Be it food for the elderly at a nursing home, helping a mother with a disabled child, ministering to families of fisherman in a near-by town, sharing their dinner with someone who knocked at their door or sharing the Gospel – they are always on the go. 

THE NORTH CIRCUIT

Jumagua (Twins)  is the indigenous name of this village that is also a wild life reserve for endangered species in Cuba.  They tells us it is the only place in the world where the blind fish can be found.

 What makes Jumagua special for us is that it is the training site for 25 lay people who go to several villages in the North circuit bringing the good news of God’s love.  We interrupt the class to meet them and hear what moves them to do this work.

Lazaro is a good example. He recently committed is life to God and finds great joy in sharing his new-found faith with others.  You can hear the certainty of his calling in his voice. “I think my gift is to be a missionary pastor”, he tells us.  He’s been attending classes for only one semester where he learns how to share who God really is with others, how to address their concerns and help them live the abundant life that Christ promises.  His message is one of faith, hope and light.

Our team came to encourage (give aliento) the believers in their ministry. And they encouraged us by the passion people in Cuba have for spreading the Gospel. We want to take their model back home into our daily lives and the life of our community.