I want to finish telling you about the last trip I took for Herald of Truth, a dream trip to Cuba. Though I’ve been to Cuba 33 times, this last trip was special.

The first four installments of this account are here:
Book distribution in Cuba, Part 1
Book distribution in Cuba, Part 2
Book distribution in Cuba, Part 3
Book distribution in Cuba, Part 4

After leaving Jiguaní, we headed for Palma Soriano, in the province of Santiago. We hit our first major rainstorm of the trip just as we pulled into town. We picked up one of the local Christians, Bryan Gonzalez, who helped us find the church building. We thought the storm would affect the crowd, but if it did, you couldn’t tell. The place was packed, with people standing outside. Everyone participated attentively during the presentation.

Bryan and his family accompanied us to Santiago. The rainstorm continued, and we discovered that there was a large fair going on in the main square downtown; because of this, we had to walk the last few blocks to our hotel.

The church in Santiago had requested permission to use a large concert hall (Sala Dolores) for Sunday’s event. The government approved the request. It was the first time the church in Santiago had been able to use a major public facility like this.

It was an amazing time. Christians from churches throughout the province gathered to fill the hall. The facility was constructed with choral music in mind, so the singing sounded fantastic. All in all, it was a wonderful capstone event for my trip to Cuba.

SPECIAL REQUEST: I’m not in the habit of asking for money on this blog, but I’m going to break that policy. We’d like to print and distribute more books in Cuba. The churches were very encouraged by what we did, and other congregations are clamoring for us to visit them and hold similar events. If you could give to Herald of Truth and mark your gift “Cuba Literature Distribution,” it would mean a lot to me and the Christians in Cuba. Thanks!

Last month, I got to make a special trip to Cuba. It was my 33rd time there, but the first time that I got to visit churches in many of the central and eastern provinces. Working with our Herald of Truth representative in Cuba, Tony Fernández, I was able to print and distribute 2000 copies of the Lea La Biblia (Read The Bible) book I published last year. It was an exciting trip for me, one that Tony and I have dreamed of for years.

I told you last time of our visits to the provinces of Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, and Las Tunas. From Las Tunas, we traveled to Holguín. Several congregations had gathered in the home of Alexander, one of the preachers. I had flown into the airport in Holguín several years ago, but had never visited the city nor the churches that meet there.

From there we continued on to the province of Granma. That had special significance for me. After 13 years, I’ve finally visited all of the provinces of Cuba. I dearly love the people of that island and have been blessed by so many of them.

We went to Bayamo, the capital city of the province. The church of Christ there is very small, so the preacher asked a local Pentecostal church to loan them their building. That church also invited its members to come to the event, and other churches of Christ from the province traveled in for the event, so we had a combined crowd of about 300. They had people in the balcony and standing on the sidewalk outside.

We had some singing before I spoke; let’s just say it was livelier than what you’d experience at most churches of Christ! The teaching time went very well, and everyone seemed to appreciate receiving the books.

The next morning we traveled to the small town of Jiguaní. This church at one time received support from the United States, but has been on its own for a while. They would love to have visits again, whether or not people can bring funds. It’s a small church in a rural area, faithfully serving God.

There was a large group of kids, so Tony took them aside for a class so that the adults could study.

There were several baptisms afterwards. It was the first time I’d seen a constructed vertical baptistery. I’ve seen people use barrels, but this one was made from cement.

It was a really encouraging morning.

I’ve got two more stops to tell you about, but I’ll leave off here for now. Thanks for reading!

SPECIAL REQUEST: I’m not in the habit of asking for money on this blog, but I’m going to break that policy. We’d like to print and distribute more books in Cuba. The churches were very encouraged by what we did, and other congregations are clamoring for us to visit them and hold similar events. If you could give to Herald of Truth and mark your gift “Cuba Literature Distribution,” it would mean a lot to me and the Christians in Cuba. Thanks!

I want to continue to tell you about my last Herald of Truth trip to Cuba, where I traveled with Tony Fernández across the interior of the island, encouraging churches and distributing copies of the Lea La Biblia book I published earlier this year.

I last told you about being with the church in Sancti Spiritus. From there we traveled to Guayacanes (Ciego de Ávila province), where we met with a small church in a rural setting. Kadir Munguía has worked with this little congregation for a number of years. Again, it’s not easy to get much of a group out on a weekday morning, but we had a pretty good gathering nonetheless.

We then traveled on into the city of Ciego de Ávila, where Kadir and his brother Guillermo work with the main congregation in that town. Like in most places, Christians from several places came in for the event. There were several baptisms afterwards.

The next morning we traveled to Camagüey, where Laudino Cruz preaches. The place was already full with members from several congregations, when Laudino commented that there were two more buses coming! We didn’t realize they also had an upstairs area where they put people. Afterwards, there were a couple of baptisms.

That evening we were with the church in Las Tunas. This congregation has had a hard time, with the leading preacher leaving the faith a few years ago, later being killed in a traffic accident. This man’s family has continued to work with the church, building the congregation back up after the tragedy. It was good to be with them.

There’s more to tell, it was quite a trip. But that’s enough for today.
SPECIAL REQUEST: I’m not in the habit of asking for money on this blog, but I’m going to break that policy. We’d like to print and distribute more books in Cuba. The churches were very encouraged by what we did, and other congregations are clamoring for us to visit them and hold similar events. If you could give to Herald of Truth and mark your gift “Cuba Literature Distribution,” it would mean a lot to me and the Christians in Cuba. Thanks!

Last post, I began telling about a trip I recently made for Herald of Truth, distributing literature in Cuba. Since 2006, I’ve done a radio program called Lea La Biblia (Read the Bible). It’s heard in Cuba through Transworld Radio (out of Bonaire). We’ve had phenomenal response to the program, typically receiving 200-300 responses per month.

This year I wrote a book with the same name as the radio program, Lea La Biblia. We printed 2000 copies in Nicaragua, then printed another 2000 in Cuba. That’s what we were giving out to the churches.

After meeting with the Versalles church, as I described last time, Tony and I traveled to Cumanayagua. We were traveling in the same Peugeot that Herald of Truth purchased for him back in the year 2000, the one that was totaled several years ago. “The Fighter,” as Tony calls it, continues plugging along the Cuban highways. We had no problems except with the tires. (Tony anticipated such and had four spares along for the ride)

The church in Cumanayagua meets in the home of the preacher, Luis. We had a really nice service, and everyone appreciated the books. Several other congregations joined us for the event, as happened nearly every place that we went.

The next day we traveled to Santa Clara and met with the church there. There were so many people that a number of them had to stand outside on the sidewalk. The church has space to expand; they just don’t have the funds.

On Tuesday, we traveled to Taguasco, in the province of Sancti Spiritus. The church there has had a hard time. An unfaithful preacher sold the church’s building out from under them, funding his emigration to Brazil. But the church has remained steady, growing in numbers and spirit despite the setback. We met on the front porch of a small home. It was a weekday morning, which hurt the turnout, but we still had a really nice time.

That afternoon we met with several of the congregations in the city of Sancti Spiritus. The main congregation was celebrating its 26th anniversary, so the meeting place was decorated festively. Because of our travel schedule, we held some of these events at less than convenient times; workdays can be complicated, but we were doing 14 events in 8 days, so we had no choice.

Still, there was an overflow crowd, and everyone was quite engaged. After meeting with the church, Tony and I stayed in Sancti Spiritus. We didn’t want to chance having a breakdown on the highway after dark, so we did no traveling after sundown.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you more about the trip.

SPECIAL REQUEST: I’m not in the habit of asking for money on this blog, but I’m going to break that policy. We’d like to print and distribute more books in Cuba. The churches were very encouraged by what we did, and other congregations are clamoring for us to visit them and hold similar events. If you could give to Herald of Truth and mark your gift “Cuba Literature Distribution,” it would mean a lot to me and the Christians in Cuba. Thanks!

Earlier this month I got to make a trip to Cuba on behalf of Herald of Truth. While that’s hardly unusual (it was my 33rd trip), what was done on this trip made it stand out.

For years, Tony Fernández (our representative in Cuba) has been wanting me to travel with him across the island. The plan was to meet with radio listeners. However, in most towns we couldn’t get the space we needed to host such a gathering.

When we published the Lea La Biblia (Read The Bible) in Nicaragua earlier this year, Tony got excited and said that he wanted to publish at least 2000 copies in Cuba. (He actually wanted 10,000, but the budget allowed for 2000) To my surprise, he found a print shop that would print the books. Then Tony’s plans grew, and he told me that he wanted us to go across the island, distributing the books.

So we did. Not the whole island, but from Matanzas to Santiago. That’s about 500 miles… if you take the straightest route. However, we did 14 book presentations in 8 days, winding our way through the interior of the country. I’ll spend a few posts describing the trip.

We started at the Versalles church in Matanzas. This is the church Tony started with his parents. This congregation has grown to several hundred members and has planted more than 50 other congregations throughout the province of Matanzas.

It rained hard the afternoon before our evening meeting, which cut down on the crowd a bit. Still, about 200 people gathered for the event, including church members and guests. Everyone got a book, and Tony announced that I would sign all of the books. I made the mistake of personalizing the books. Cuban names tend to be unique, and I had a terrible time making out what people were saying. One lady tried to be helpful and shouted into my ear, leaving me deaf in that ear for the rest of the night. It was a wild experience, but I finally got them all signed.

The next morning I met with the Versalles church. We had a lovely worship time, followed by several baptisms, then Tony and I had to head out. Tomorrow I’ll tell you how the trip proceeded from there.

SPECIAL REQUEST: I’m not in the habit of asking for money on this blog, but I’m going to break that policy. We’d like to print and distribute more books in Cuba. The churches were very encouraged by what we did, and other congregations are clamoring for us to visit them and hold similar events. If you could give to Herald of Truth and mark your gift “Cuba Literature Distribution,” it would mean a lot to me and the Christians in Cuba. Thanks!