We want to briefly update you on the highlights of Chihuahua and Cuba in this post with a more complete report later (After writing this, I recommend scratching the word “briefly” from the preceding sentence. Sorry!).

Chihuahua!

(You’ll notice the report on Cuba is much more detailed. This has nothing to do with the comparative importance of the mission. It has everything to do with me getting carried away with reliving our time in Cuba)

July 1-8.

A team of 12 Arbol de Vida youth directed by Lane Elliott ministered in a young (6 years old) Evangelical Free church, (Dios De Pactos) in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua a 10 hour drive east from Hermosillo. I, Greg, spent 3 days with the team,
driving, getting to know the pastor and the congregation and preaching for
their anniversary celebration on the Sunday. I had to be back in Hermosillo
early to help finish the preparations for the Cuba trip. It was a blessing to
see our youth training the church people for the Kids Club / VBS that would
take place from Monday to Friday. Approximately 62 children attended this first
children´s outreach that the church had ever had. Only 8 of the children that
attended were actually from the church! Pastor Jose Luis Cruz and his
congregation were greatly encouraged and very thankful to the Lord for the
blessing of having our team serve the Lord alongside them. Thank you for your
prayers!

Cuba

Before getting into the Cuba trip I just want to give God the glory for helping us through the 3 intense months of preparations, choosing the team (still amazed at how God helped us through some faith-testing moments), fundraising (the whole church worked very hard) and all the arrangements in Cuba.

July 13 to August 2.

6 young adults (Victor, Miguel, Melissa, Cristina, Cynthia and Daniela), Shelli
and I set out in the morning needing God to intervene right from the first step
of getting our “mountain” of luggage (supplies for ministries with a 1000
children and youth and personal luggage) checked in at the airport. Right away
we saw God at work responding to the hundreds of you that were praying for us!
The trip to Cuba went well with the airlines giving us grace to take all that
we had along. A huge blessing was that all the supplies arrived in Cuba (one
suitcase a couple days late but just in time for ministry) with no extra costs
or problems!

The day after arriving on the extremely green island (remember we are desert dwellers) we traveled 800 kilometers east from Havana to a small town close to Puerto Padre where we were received warmly (literally and figuratively) by the pastor and his family and the congregation who would be hosting us over the next weeks. Our first impressions of this beautiful country as we traveled were: all the green, antique cars everywhere, horse-drawn carriages everywhere, all the green and
how clean the country-side was. Right away our team got involved in learning:
the Cuban Spanish accent, new words (the Cuban slang is different that the
Mexican slang and so there were new words to learn to prevent offending or
misunderstandings as we made new friends, taught and preached), new food and a
new eating schedule (In Mexico we´re used to eating an early breakfast, lunch
anywhere between 2-4pm and supper after 8pm. In Cuba it was an early breakfast,
12 noon lunch and 6pm supper), new ways of greeting and new customs. It was an
overwhelming joy to be able to dive into this new culture with the
indescribable gift of knowing Spanish already and being able to share life and
build relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime without the
barrier of language.

On the first day (Saturday) after arriving in the East some of our team trained leaders from the 4 churches that would be hosting the Kid´s clubs outreaches while I and 4 others from our team rode 30 minutes in a horse-drawn cart to a village where the church that was hosting us is planting a church with a handful of people.
The man that is planting the church taught from the Bible, I lead the singing
and our team shared with the children in the shade of a big tree. What a
blessing to sing praises to Jesus openly in that place!

That same day we were invited to share in the youth service in the evening (“youth” in Cuban churches are from 12 to 30 years of age including married couples). We taught some new praise songs and Shelli shared a challenge with the congregation. Though it was a “youth” service all ages attended.

Sunday, our team participated in the morning service in which we celebrated the baptisms of 8 people (at least 4 seniors). What a precious time! I was privileged to preach a message on boldness in living out our faith to my Cuban family in the Lord. A message that I may have needed more than them.

From Monday to Thursday of the first week we as a team split into 2 teams and each lead Kid´s Clubs in two churches every day. In the mornings from 9am to 11:30am we were in two small churches where we had 70 to 100 kids in each club. In the evenings from 8:30pm to 11pm we were in our host church and another church a half hour away where we shared with up to 300 kids in each setting. It was simply incredible how God was with us as every day we shared the Gospel creatively through dramas, Bible stories and age appropriate teaching, memorized key Scriptures, sang energetic praise songs, made fun crafts and built relationships. As my team (I had 3 team members with me as Shelli lead the club in our host church
with the other half of our team) and I, rode home in the dark in the back of a
transport truck each night we thanked the Lord for the amazing ways in which He
made things turn out. The adults that helped in each church were simply
incredible in how they worked at serving us and keeping order while moving the
hundreds of children through the different activities. It was so encouraging to
work as a team with the volunteers from each church.  The church in the photo below said goodbye with a beautiful prayer of blessing, flowers, letters and crafts from the children and a special gift – a juice box for all 4 of us – a huge sacrifice for the church.  There were lots of hugs and tears after the clubs in each church.

There are many stories of how God had everything under control during the Kid´s clubs. The last night in the church my team worked with was a lesson for me personally. There had been a rainstorm that afternoon and when we arrived at dusk we found the electricity has been out for 3 hours. The pastor said this was common during storms and that it usually took many hours to restore. Without electricity we
simply wouldn´t be able to have 300 kids in the dark. I, personally, was tired
and secretly thought, “looks like a night off.” I was quickly slapped in the
face (understatement) with conviction as my team began to set up their areas of
ministry in the dark hoping that the electricity would return before 8:30pm. I
repented of my shameful, disgusting, selfishness and proceeded to pray with
sincere faith that we would be able to share Christ´s love with these kids one
last time. We prayed as a group with the kids that had already shown up early
as it grew dark. We waited… Then as I stood talking in the dark with the
pastor’s wife in the street in front of the church the light started lighting
up down the street and in a flash there was light in the church! I looked at my
watch. 8:28pm! I smiled inside with a joy knowing that God wanted to steal the
show! It was a wonderful night with the kids and a teary goodbye with lots of
sharing of addresses for writing letters, group photos and hugs. At about 11pm
we got in a group for a final picture before getting on the truck to head home.
As the final photo was being snapped the electricity went out in the whole town
and didn´t return for 3 hours. I smiled and in my heart said to Jesus, “Could
You be a little more obvious next time Lord?” I confessed my sin of selfishness
to my team on the way home and thanked them for showing their passion for the
souls of the kids and their example of faith in setting up even when it looked
like it would be in vain. A lesson I’ll never forget.

On Friday afternoon the whole church was invited to an afternoon of fellowship at a local river. We spent the afternoon with the church playing volleyball over a vine stretched across the murky river. Tons of fun! Then we walked back through the banana groves to the transport truck that took us back to the church. When we got back some of the young men invited me to play volleyball with them. I have cheered
for the Cuban volleyball team since I can remember and I love volleyball so it
was a dream come true to play with these guys who took their volleyball
seriously. I was a little rusty but had a ton of fun!

Saturday we prepared and repacked our things to be able to leave Sunday for the two youth camps that we would minister at the coming week. We also learned to make sugar cane juice,”guarapo!” Then in the afternoon some of the youth from one of the churches that we had worked with showed us around Puerto Padre. It was about an hour in a 8 seater horse-drawn carriage (think Little House on the Prairie) to this coastal city, a fun ride! In the evening we sang, shared a drama and
preached in the youth service.

Sunday we left for Gibara in a packed transport truck with food supplies and some of the leaders and youth that were also going to be in the youth camps. 2 or 3 hours later we arrived in the church where we would be holding the 2 camps over the next week.  The whole ride Shelli sat on the piled luggage, hanging on tightly to the screw in the trucks roof.  There were bunk beds for the 100 youth and leaders
attending each of the camps. The theme of the camps was “Reach for the Gold”,
an Olympics theme based on Hebrew 12:1,2.  Over the 3 days with each group of
campers we taught on key areas in our Christian walk. “Being part of the team”
(salvation/identity in Christ), “Obstacles in the race” (sin/holiness)and “Eyes
on the goal” (Fixing our eyes on Jesus/perseverance). In each camp we had a
purity talk with the guys and girls separately. Shelli and I have done these
now for years with our Mexican youth and the Canadian youth that come on teams
and they have always been life-changing moments. After talking very directly
and openly to this sensitive and taboo subject we received an emotional
response from many who had never been confronted so directly with their purity
in a culture that promotes illicit physical relationships starting in
elementary school. Girls having an abortion or two in junior high and high
school is heartbreakingly common. Please pray for the purity of the Cuban
youth. We are still receiving notes from people talking about the impact of
that one session.

Saturday we returned to Havana to spend Sunday and Monday there before returning to Mexico. We participated in the service in the Havana Vieja (Old Havana) church on Sunday morning and were able to spend time as a team walking the streets of Havana taking in the amazing architecture and history. On Monday morning we woke up early and walked to the Malecon (oceanfront) to watch the sunrise and to pray for the people of Cuba.

As a team we were able to take time throughout the trip to study the Bible, share testimonies, pray for and encourage one another. Shelli and I enjoyed just being with these wonderful young men and women that we have had the blessing of discipling over the last 10 years. By God’s grace they will do great things for Him in the future too!

We flew to Mexico City early Tuesday morning feeling the heartache of saying goodbye to the brothers and sisters that we’d had for years (in Christ) but had just got to meet and start to get to know.

Thank you for praying!  Many times we thanked the Lord for the hundreds of people that held us before the throne of God in prayer interceding for our every need. There are no words to express the gratefulness and joy!

To Jesus Christ be the glory, honor, power and praise forever!