Six of us had a wonderful trip 3/6-3/12 as we visited the areas affected by the tornado and saw the strength and joy of those impacted most. What an inspiration the Cuban people are to me every time I visit. Our team was shown a great lesson in joy through suffering only available through the Holy Spirit. We delivered food, toiletries, clothing to those in need. The local house church pastor will distribute more each day to the many that need basic items. We also left an offering to help with buying glass to replace windows, roofing materials, paint, etc. Thanks to so many friends that had donated to our mission and they thank you for your gracious gift. Many of the areas had pushed much of the debris out to the street so a lot of initial cleanup had taken place. One house church in particular was the one of Matilda, a 91 year old lady that was in her apartment by herself when it hit. Glass was blown everywhere but she was not hurt. Just as always had a huge smile on her face when we went to visit her and her church group.
The areas of El Roble and Regla were hit pretty hard by the storm but others not so much thank God.
We also visited a few sick folks in the Alamar neighborhood and was amazed at the number of friends that dropped in to check on them personally. We were only at each residence around 20 minutes but they had several drop by to see if they needed anything and if they could help in some way. Heartwarming people in those communities and I wish we had more of that here in the U.S.
We visited an area where we are starting a new house church near Miramar. Playa is the name (not the beach) and we have a couple who have volunteered to move there from their apartment in Alamar which is about a 35 minute drive away. They already have a vibrant children’s ministry of almost 20 beautiful kids. The place they currently meet is small and cramped with that many kids so we are looking to help get a place about 12 blocks away with a terrace and lots of room. Some of you have made very strong contributions toward this and we are about halfway there. I truly feel the Lord will provide the way for us to have it to use for this wonderful ministry. We had a kids service followed by an adult service on Thursday evening. It was just awesome.
Sweet people that want to gather together a couple of times a week and have Bible study and sing. God is doing awesome things there and it’s such a joy to spend time with all of those we have built great relationships with over the years.