It Ain't Over Til It's Over

9:30AM

Well we are on our last day, so I thought I would give a bit more insight on some of the special experiences of Cuba.  The water is of particular interest.  You get in the shower for the morning and before you realize it, you have taken a big refreshing gulp of water to help you wake up and cleanse your pallet.  What you don’t realize though is that you will also get a colonic thrown in at absolutely no extra cost.  The only down side to this colonic is that it occurs at a random time while traveling the bumpy highways and biways of Cuba (see previous post regarding road conditions).  Moral of the story - Don’t drink the water - EVER! (In case you are wondering why the water does this to you, I must be honest and tell you I don’t have a definitive answer, but my best understanding is that there are little animals in the water that do no like being inside of Americans).

I have obtained more statements from the guys.  They are brief, yet powerful -

George - “Are you sure those are scrambled eggs?”

Mike - “Manny how do you say ______ ?”

Steve - I have learned not to be so congealed in my conservatism

So far, I have not been able to get Jayson to speak into the microphone

As our van is being beat to death on the roads, rattling like a blender full of bolts, we wondered how you would advertise to sell it in the newspaper.  We decided to say “Gently used Mercedes van” and Mike added “only driven to church”.

2PM

This morning we met at a church with many of the local church leaders.  A little insight into one of these leaders - Jorge.  He was previously called before the director of housing for the province who intended to stop him from building a church.  The director had much power, including the ability to put Jorge in prison.  Jorge had been complying with all the codes but the director did not want him to build the church.  Jorge told this director that he did not have legal cause to stop the project and he further said to the director, “you can do whatever you want to me, but you need to know that the the only authority you have over me is given to you by the Lord Jesus Christ.  You can put me in prison if you want and you will intend it for bad but whatever happens to me God will use it for my good.”  Ultimately the director reversed his decision and allowed the building of the church.  The rest of the story, which must be told another day, resulted in the director (who had been trying to stop the building of the church) eventually doing a 180 and committing his life to Christ.  These are the kind of things that are happening regularly down here.  Just as God exploded his church in Europe and later in the United States, He is now, obviously moving in a big way in Cuba.  During our daily meetings with the various churches approximately 200 people have accepted Christ.

Jayson gave the message this morning.  He was last but he wasn’t least.  He followed Chris’ lead and decided to deviate from his original talk, but you wouldn’t know it from his delivery.  I gave my testimony and Manny enjoyed working me over a little after I told the congregation that the only reason they brought me on this trip was they wanted to have a handsome guy in the group (that little comment has continued to haunt me - the non-blogmasters tend to have less developed sense of humors).

8PM

We are on our way to our last church meeting.  We just finished a little tour of Havana.  Felix and Manny drove us through “old Havana” and we got out and saw some of the sites.  We also drove up to a lookout point over the city which is home to about two million people.  The city has some areas that are beautifully preserved, some areas that are reasonably modern and some areas that are badly run down.  Many years ago, the city was considered to be the Paris of the Caribbean, but that can no longer be said.  The explosion of Christianity is set in juxtaposition to the extortion, voodoo and secularism that is prevalent.  It will be interesting to see what God does in Cuba and how World Link will serve that end over the next decade.

10:40PM

We just left our final church visit.  This church physically looked much more traditional than any of the others and it was a bit larger.  The musicians leading the worship were incredible.  In particular the man who played the piano and later sang in a quartet was world-class in both.  We were told he is the professor of piano and voice for the national conservatory of Cuba.

Well it looks like it’s gonna be another late night and early morning.  My brain is almost fry’d but I think we aren’t gonna be in bed til 1AM and we will need to get up by 5AM.

Everyone will draw their own conclusions about this trip, but I’m pretty sure from my observations that every person in our group feels that this trip was time well spent.  It has been enlightening to see how God is moving in the people of Cuba and inspiring to see so many people who are so committed to the mission.  I think all of us on the trip have become much better friends and we have had the joy of meeting new friends in Cuba that we will see in heaven.

Blogmaster - over and out