“It’s going to be the closest I’ll ever get to time travel.”
Over and over the past few months, that’s what I said about going to Cuba.
Even while knowing other countries had access to Cuba all this time, I half expected to step into a parallel world, where every form of technology was from the 1950s. And of course, the cars.
Instead, I found a country with cell phones and televisions, a rich history, a struggling economy, and a thriving Cuban church.
It’s true; the cars are awesome. They are everywhere. And on our off day, 9 of us went on an hour tour in three of these beauties. It was something I’ll never forget: laughing, wind in my hair, arms raised, as our cars wound around each other in the hot Caribbean sun.
*first and bottom photos on left by Connie Rock
We stayed in Old Havana, the heart of the historical section. The buildings reminded me of places I’d been in other areas of the world, yet they were new all the same, with narrow doors and steep stairs, all laid out in a perfectly square grid.
The restaurant where Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea, the Floridita, still stands, as do forts and castles around Havana (below). We went to one that had a few chests of treasure in their museum, and I’m convinced, a dragon in the basement (because everyone knows they guard treasure!).
The country’s only public statue of Jesus stands looking out over Havana (above right), and outside the US embassy, in a circle of empty flagpoles, the American flag and the Cuban flag wave in the breeze, looking out over the famous seawall (above).
Such a gift to be here in this time in history.
Buildings once beautiful lie abandoned, or stand crumbling while its inhabitants carve out a life inside. The signs of the Revolution are everywhere, from propaganda on posters to the absence of billboards, and random graffiti and paintings of famous revolutionaries. Our translator showed us an old ration card, and described to us what it was like to grow up under socialism.
I expected to be in a time warp, but the truth is, there is modern technology from imports with other countries. And even 2 public parks where you can get internet for a few dollars.
There were other Westerners there, but few Americans. And that is where I did experience a big cultural gap, because the Cuban culture is literally untouched by the American ideals of consumerism and independence.
As is the Church.
I’d heard a little about the ministry we were partnering with before we left, but our leader gave us more information once we landed. I can’t say its name or the names of our hosts, but it’s a ministry that raises up local pastors and missionaries, then sends them out throughout Cuba and into the rest of the world.
Most recently, they sent a couple to the jungles of Ecuador and the huts of Uganda.
Cuban churches cannot build church buildings. Instead, the churches meet in homes, because they are free to do whatever they want there. A new church can be created under the umbrella of an existing church.
It’s a mentoring ministry, and the church itself is its people.
The Cuban church has a purity that is so beautiful. It’s grown for the past 60+ years for the very reason that their faith, based on Scripture, is alive.
Quite simply, the Cuban church is thriving!!!
Like I said, I expected to “time travel” in the form of technology. But instead, I experienced it in a different way: by experiencing a community of believers who worship, teach, learn, share, eat, and celebrate much the same way as the Early Church of Acts.
We attended 4 church services/meetings, in 4 different homes. We ate in multiple homes, traveling by bus. During the day, we went out into the local communities and shared the Gospel with whoever we met. And throughout it all, we had conversations about what the Bible says it means to be a Christian.
They kept asking us questions, telling us they were learning from us. But I felt like I was learning from them.
Especially when one of the pastors asked, “How much time do you think Christians in America pray every day? And how much time do they read their Bibles every day?”
We’d just finished talking about American cultural Christianity, about how for many, it’s cultural or tradition (especially in the South), instead of a relationship or way of life. How some people would say they are Christians because they are Americans or go to church, not because they know Christ. How many people say they are Christians and do things that reflect badly on Christ, like write hateful things on signs or doing things in the name of Jesus that He wouldn’t do.
How the secular ideals of consumerism and self-reliance can override complete dependence on Christ if we let it, moving the focus off of Him and onto ourselves.
When he asked those questions, it went silent. Then my friend, Connie, answered with a low estimate (based on the generalization above, realizing that it is not truly describing those seeking a relationship with God, but rather, those who are Christians in name only).
The pastor didn’t say anything; instead his entire demeanor changed to one of sadness so deep I could physically feel it.
I think in that moment, after discussing the problems of Cuban and American economies, and the spiritual challenges facing both countries, we uncovered the gap between economic poverty and spiritual poverty.
Needless to say, it was a lunch I’ll never forget.
What I felt in that moment was conviction: conviction to never let that estimate describe me, and conviction to dive even more deeply into the Word of God.
And then, I felt joy, because the Cuban church is alive and growing, even after being under persecution and oppression for the last 50 years.
I’m ending this blog with a video from one of our worship meetings. They’d asked Colby, Mariah, and I to lead it, and it was one of my favorite moments from the trip. This is a chorus sung in both Spanish and English that says, “I’m no longer a slave to fear; I am a child of God.”
*video by Jennifer Lucy Tyler
Thank you for praying for the team and I while we were in Cuba! More stories to come!
