(Note: I apologize for not having updated the blog in several weeks - I've caught up by publishing sermons from June through July 15. Pastor Dave was part of a delegation from the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, United Church of Christ, to Cuba, departing July 21, 2012 and returning July 28, 2012. Below is a report Pastor Dave made to the congregation.)
Dear Members and Friends of Emanuel- Hope you've been well - I've been catching up on emails. I got back from Cuba on Saturday, arriving back in Conshohocken around 11:30 pm last night. The trip was wonderful. Thanks for your prayers for my health. I'm writing with a brief initial report.
There were eight of us in the group. I had no health problems at all - and while this was my third trip to Cuba, this is the first time I've gotten through the trip without getting sick. Two of the group had mild illness due to the extreme heat, but that was the extent of health problems.
The churches we visited belonged to the Fraternity of Baptists in Cuba (FIBAC), a progressive Baptist denomination whose theology shares much in common with the UCC. One of FIBAC's distinctives is that they have many, many female pastors, which is still fairly unusual (even controversial) in Cuba. We saw ten or so churches, with a lot of amazing ministries - in addition to very lively preaching, worship, and music, there were many gardens (including some gardens with medicinal herbs) and agricultural projects to benefit the church and surrounding neighborhoods, a Christian center which ministered through art and music, a seminary which serves around 500 students in all (very few of whom live on campus full time, but the seminary offers "intensive" courses that last for 2-3 weeks)...on and on. Many of the churches are quite small - several were house churches roughly the same size as Emanuel, and even the larger churches were less than 100 people, but they did amazing ministry with small numbers and limited resources. The churches are also very adept at leadership development and at planting new congregations; many of FIBAC's congregations have emerged within the past 10 years or so. We saw one church that had extensive fields that produced a great deal of food for the church, for the Cuban government, and for the neighborhood. This church, in the far west of the island, has also planted a number of new church starts in its area, which is quite rural and doesn't have as many churches as other parts of Cuba. We also learned that even for the Cubans, finding uncontaminated water can be difficult; some of the churches have water filtration systems and have outdoor water taps with filtered water that is offered free of charge to the neighborhood. We saw neighbors line up with their bottles, following a diagram near the tap to first sterilize their bottles with chlorine (also offered by the churches) and then fill up their bottles.
There were three pastors in our group - the Rev. Dr. Geneva Butz from the Conference, who preached for Emanuel's 150th, the Rev. Darryl Cruz, pastor of St. John's UCC in Reading, PA, and me, and each of us preached at one church each. We also had several translators - a member of one of the Cuban churches who teaches English as a second language, a missionary from the American Baptist church who accompanied us, and Rev. Cruz......and a few times, when none of these were nearby, I was able to help with some limited translation assistance from the little bit of Spanish I know. On Wednesday we took a needed break, spending the morning and early afternoon at Varadaro Beach, said to be the most beautiful beach in the world.....and it really was just like stepping into a picture postcard, it was so, so beautiful. And periodically through the trip we stopped at various cultural venues, including Havana's art museum, which is quite impressive.
For our UCC churches, it was mostly a time to observe and reconnect. There had been trips from the Pennsylvania Southeast conference (UCC) in 2007, 2008, and 2009, but it had been a few years since the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference (UCC) had sent a group, and had we not gone this year, the connection could easily have gone by the wayside, given the personnel changes at the Conference. Our group brought supplies (donated from our UCC churches, including some donations I made - so Emanuel was represented!) to give to the churches - especially medical supplies and drugs, which are very scarce in Cuba. Our group also brought various eyeglasses (some used prescription eyeglasses as well as some over-the-counter drugstore reading glasses), a few thermometers, two big boxes of non-latex medical gloves, several bottles of over-the-counter aspirin and tylenol and such, disposable razors (we were told the pastors routinely made "disposable" razors last for months due to the shortages), some coloring books and such for children.....except for the specialized medical donations, we broke our donations up into ten gift bags and left a bag with each church we visited. The specialized items, we left with the executive director of their denomination and asked him to direct them as most needed. Some of us (including me) also donated some of our clothing at the end of the trip......which were very sweaty, but the Cubans were most willing to wash them as the price of wearing them; that's how much need there is for basics like clothing.
Our grouphad some money left over at the end of the trip, almost $800 in American currency. One of the churches (the one on the far western side of the island with the extensive fields of vegetable gardens) was trying to get money for their music ministry to create a "master recording" for their music, to sell to finance their evangelism and vegetable raising ministries. We heard their music ministry at an evening church service where Geneva preached, and were very impressed with their music. We donated much of our remaining funds toward this ministry so they could make a master recording - with the provision that we get a copy of the master recording so we can also produce CD's to raise money to bring a group of youth to Cuba.
As I said, Emanuel Church was present, through donations and through my being there. At each church I introduced myself: "Me llamo Dave. Soy el pastor de la Iglesia Emanuel in Philadelphia. Estamos un poco iglesia con treinta miembres, y semana a semana esta quince presente, mas o menos." (There may be a grammatical glitch or two in that introduction, but it's the best I could do with my limited Spanish vocabulary.) I told several churches about our anniversary, and our role in founding Bethany Children's Home. Of the photos I took on July 15, I had copies made and gave them to the churches.
I'll be able to say more next Sunday, if desired. Mostly, at this point, I just wanted to let you know I got back from Cuba in one piece, and to share a little from my experiences there.
See you next Sunday -
Blessings - Pastor Dave
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment