My trip to Cuba had two main purposes, besides the ongoing need to visit our Herald of Truth field office there. Training Cuban Christians in the production of professional videos was one of the purposes; for that purpose, Tim Frakes traveled with me and worked all week with a team of Christians. The other purpose of the trip was the national preachers conference that took place in two places simultaneously: Matanzas and Santiago.

I was the keynote speaker for the western conference, in Matanzas. Including the opening worship on Sunday night, I was scheduled to speak eight times, though I ended up combining two of the talks into one. The theme of the conference was “The Fruit of the Spirit.” We started on Sunday and finished Wednesday at noon. The scheduled was packed, with one speaker after another. I’m not sure that many Christians here would sit and listen to that many talks in a row, but these men did a great job of paying attention. It’s always fun to speak to a group that’s hungry to learn.

This was the first time that the conference had been split between two locations. Not all of the Cubans were happy about the change, especially because this is the only time in the year that they all get to see one another. However, the different format allowed for the participation of almost twice as many preachers, up to 450 from 250 the year before. Personally, I’d like to see a rotating format, with a centralized conference one year and a split conference the other. But I’m just a flunky in this one, so I’ve got no say.

The Cubans have had three major conferences each year: the mens conference, a womens conference and a youth conference. At present, the youth conference is having a hard time due to the lack of outside funding. If you know of a congregation that would be interested in being a part of the work in Cuba, this would be a great opportunity.