Reflections on Cuba
by Gary Snowden, Churchnet Missional
Collaboration Team Leader
I was privileged to travel to the island
nation of Cuba this past month with
friends and colleagues representing
three different ministries: Churchnet,
Future Leadership Foundation, and The
Baptist Home. Our three organizations
each went with the goal of being good
listeners and learners as we met with
the leaders of the Eastern Baptist
Convention of Cuba as well as with
several pastors in the region of
Santiago where the convention is
headquartered. Each of us went with
the prayerful expectation that the Holy
Spirit would guide our conversations
and help us discern how and where we
might best come alongside our Cuban
Baptist brothers and sisters in
collaborative ministry efforts. While we are all still processing and reflecting upon the information we gathered, I'm convinced that our prayers for discernment and detection of open doors of opportunities were answered.
There are so many things that are impressive about the work being done by the Baptists of the Eastern Baptist Convention. Their strong commitment to evangelism and church planting is evident and revealed by their statistical growth in recent years despite huge financial obstacles. They shared with us that when the Russians pulled out in the early 1990s, it was a time of great hardship and in many respects it still is. The average monthly salary for a worker is about $20. The government at that time did allow meetings of believers in homes, but limited the size of the groups to 15 people. That restriction was a blessing in disguise as it led to many groups being spun off to form new cells or home Bible studies. The year 2015 concluded with 4,258 cell groups in existence. In addition to the 582 existing churches at year's end, there are 823 missions that are in the process of moving toward eventually constituting as churches. The most amazing statistic for me personally was the number of baptisms last year (4,185), which represents about 1 for every 9 members affiliated with the convention.
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Gary Snowden preaching at
Iglesia Bautista (Baptist Church)
of Palma Soriano.