Invitation: Come Visit Us in Cuba

Dear Friends:

Sometimes we are so busy with daily life, that we don’t see the spectacular things taking place around us.

Pastor Alexis and his wife Yudith

This has been my experience in the last few days. We have with us a team from the U.S. that gaveup their comforts of home to share their Christian experience with us.

This past week Rachel, Oscar, Seth, Christina, Paul and Esther came to participate in our youth camp. That they would endure all these inconveniences for a larger gain can only be possible because of theirwillingness to be used by an immense God who loves us so much that uses limited and imperfect people for his glory. There’s no doubt that their presence here is the plan of our great God.

Why here?

Cuba has lived under communist doctrine for over 50 years. In school, our children are taught how to be communists andthat religion is merely a drug. They teach that God does not exist, that we merely evolved as humanbeings, dependant not on the divine, but by the “grace“ of chance.

But, our children are starving for spiritual food that they do not receive atschool. I see today-- this moment--as the opportune time to teach our children about Jesus. They need to know the gospel, what it means for an immense God to, not only love us through our imperfection, but to want to be glorified through us. What’s more, they need desperately to know how to live out the values ofthe Kingdom of God. This is what our church is doing with the youth in the urban city of Remedios.

I welcome you to come see what Jesus is doing in Cuba. Come visit us in Cuba! I promise that what you witness here with us will far outweigh the conveniences you leave behind.

What are the requirements to come?

To understand that what is eternal is greater than the temporal, that the celestial transcends the earthly, that any sacrifice or lack we experience will be outweighed by the future benefits. And most of all, to keep in mind that when we leave this world we cannot take anything with us. That is why we should send it ahead, before we leave for eternity. Amen

-Pastor Alexis

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Spanish Version:

Dia 8, Julio. Alexis

En ocasiones estamos tan ocupados en lascosas cotidianas, que no percibimos las cosas expectaculares que estanocurriendo a nuestro alrededor. Creo que esta ha sido mi experiencia, enestos dias.

Tener entre nosotros a personas de EEUU.que estan dispuestas a compartir sus experiencias cristianas, a olvidar suscomodidades. Que esten dispuestas a sufrir ciertas privaciones para lograrvienes mayores. Es algo que proviene de la mente de un Dios inmenso, que nosama sobremanera, y que ha querido glorificarse en personas limitadas, e imperfectas.NO tengo la menor duda que todo lo que hemos vivido en estos dias es el plan denuestro buen Dios.

Por que?

Mi pais ha vivido bajo la doctrina comunista por mas de 50 anos. Los ninos aprenden en la escuela que quieren sercomunistas, en el trabajo son premiados los que dicen con mayor fuerza que soncomunistas. Tambien se nos ha ensenado que los EEUU. son enemigos, y que nadabueno vendra del Norte. Lareligion es una droga, y Dios no existe pues surgimos por obra y gracia de la“casualidad”

Que les parece?

Indudablemente Dios esta en control, yeste tiempo es especial y oportuno para lograr ensenar a los jovenes acerca deJesus. Y los valores del reino eterno. Hay cosas que nosotros podemos hacer, y de hecho lo estamos haciendo. Pero hay cosas que no podemos lograr solos. Por lo que necesitamos personas como Rachel,Oscar, Set, Pablo, Cristina, y Esther, para formar un equipo que nos permitalograr cosas mayores aun que este campamento.

Dios ha abierto una brecha, y estoyconvencido que muchos mas se sumaran en este empeno de dimensiones eternas.

Que requisitos son necesarios parasumarse al equipo?

Entender que lo eterno es superior a latemporal, que lo celestial trasciende a lo terrenal. Que cualquier sacrificio oprivacion que sufrimos aqui no es comparada con los beneficios futuros.

Tener presente que cuando partamos deeste mundo no podemos llevarnos NADA, por lo que debemos enviarlo antes departir hacia la eternidad. Amen

Picture Albums: Cuba Team 2011

Photo Album #1:  Images of Cuba

What does Cuba look like?   Are their beaches nice?  What is Havana like?  Did you meet Fidel?!  Was it obvious it was a communist country?   Fear not, just click the beach picture below to get your questions answered or you can just click here.

Photo Album #2:  Youth Camp

Did you find Jesus in Cuba?    Of course, we did!  And, where He dwells so also is lots of joy and laughter.  Here are some glimpses of the youth camp that we attended and helped out at.  Click the picture of the kids with the blue crab they caught or just click here.

No Language Barrier Here

During the trip I spoke with a woman who said that Cubans have a great sense of humor. It's been this sense of humor that has carried them through difficult times, including the Special Period when the economy crashed after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Those were difficult times.

If they can joke about the Special Period, they can laugh about anything. Laughter is their escape valve. Instead of the "road rage" we see in the U.S., they have "laughter rage."

At camp there were four teams in competition. The competition, it ends up, wasn't about the prize. (The winning team got candy) Competing was its own reward. One day the competition was to portray laughter, panic and anxiety when buying a loaf of bread. Oscar and I had to select the winner. The winner was pretty clear, so Oscar decided to portray his emotions when he announced the winner.

Hope it brings, at least, a smile to your face.

 

"So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.” Psalm 126:8 (TM)

-Rachel

Enough:

If I had a magical power, I’d take away suffering from the world for just a day.  Deeply empathetic, there are days when I get overwhelmed by all the pain in the world.  This is partly why I left teaching in the South Bronx.  I saw so much poverty, violence and hopelessness there that my heart didn’t know how to process it all.  Eventually, it broke my faith. 

While God has put my faith back together, questions still remain unanswered.  If Jesus really loved this world, wouldn’t He fix it - the institutions and the structures that prevent people from being equal and free?   Being unable to reconcile the concept of a loving God with suffering has been difficult.  I find that I can’t trust God fully, even though on most days I not only need to, but want to…

So, today, I sat on a hard wooden bench in the back row of the Inglesia Bautista Church, listening to the worship of people who live on less than $2/day.  Hungry for the gospel, they walk miles just to come to church not once, but twice on Sunday.  They sing like their hearts are going to burst, so loud that the wooden walls of their old church quiver each time the chorus is sung.   I’ve never heard worship so pure and beautiful.

Then Jesus begins to whisper: 

I have not abandoned the poor.  In fact, I never left.  Can’t you see that I dwell here among them?  They are my people and I am their God.  I wept with them in their suffering and pain.  I know their struggles intimately.  I rejoiced in their joys.  I have loved them always.

That’s when I begin to cry. 

Tears stream down my face and I just can’t stop, because these people who have so little, believe that Jesus is enough.  He is for them, not against them.  There is much struggle in their lives, but knowing Jesus, the suffering God who redeems and makes all things anew, makes all the difference.  He is what gives them hope and joy.

It reminded me of that song,

He is the one we have waited for…

He is the one we have waited for…

He is the one we have waited for….

-Esther

Back to Remedios (Youth Camp Ends)

It’s Friday morning and time to go back to Remedios.  We got to ride in a truck that has been retrofitted with seats.  This is a common way of transportation in Cuba and I’ve always been curious how it is to ride in it.

It’s relatively early in the morning, there’s a nice breeze and it’s not too hot yet, so we are in luck. 

We’ve survived the mosquitoes, the bathroom shortage, and the girls who stayed up giggling until almost midnight.

We’d been well fed by Yudith, el Chino, Carmen, Raul, and the small rotating crew of kids from camp.  Everyday delicious food miraculously appeared before us.  Breakfast, snack, lunch, Cuban coffee, dinner and bedtime snack. 

No wonder the kids had so much energy!

We had fun.  Rain poured down, lighting struck nearby, power went out, and yes, mosquitos feasted on us.  But, we feasted on God’s love.  We got to meet 50+ kids and their leaders who are intelligent, creative, passionate and loving.  Everyday we saw God’s love and compassion reflected in all the people there.

Couldn’t ask for anything more.

-  Rachel - 

Team Cuba at Youth Camp in Cuba

Our team is here scattered in the picture.  Esther is missing because she's the photographer taking the picture.

Holy

Today, I was sitting with my ziplock of toiletries, towel and clean underwear, waiting in line for what else but the bathroom.  The rest of the kids had gone to the beach for the afternoon and it was actually quiet and peaceful in the church.  

the 2nd shower

I sat there reading a book while Carmen, the pastor’s wife, cut cucumbers and one of the girls filed her nails.  (There are some aspects of being a teenage girl that cross cultures.)  Raul, the pastor, came in and started singing.  Then Carmen joined in and their voices melted together in a simple, beautiful harmony singing “Santo, santo, santo.  Santo eres tu.” 

Holy, holy, holy.  You are holy.

60+ people have invaded their home for the past week.  They crammed their bed into the kitchen so we could sleep in their bedroom.  We’ve shoved their entire belongings into a corner, scattered all our stuff over their shelves, and then piled all our luggage on top of everything else.  


And yet every time Carmen comes by to get something from a drawer, she apologizes at least 3 times, excusing herself for bothering us so much.  She was cracking up today with the most ridiculous and joyous laugh.  Raul keeps taking pictures of us so he can remember everyone who came.  And in the midst of all the piles of clutter and craze of teenagers invading their home, they sing praises together, lifting their voices in worship to our Lord.

-Christina

Thoughts Leading Youth Camp by Rachel

Moses and God have a chat.

I was overwhelmed when Pastor Alexis asked Oscar and me to give the Bible and Missions studies at the Youth Retreat.  Alexis told us his objective: deepen the faith of the young people and challenge them to live out the gospel in their daily life.  But, we had to come up with all the material. 

I felt like Moses.  He had so many excuses why he could not do what God wanted him to do.  Like him I said: " I have never been a good speaker. I wasn't one before you spoke to me, and I'm not one now. I am slow at speaking, and I can never think of what to say."  

But the LORD answered, " Who makes people able to speak or makes them deaf or unable to speak? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Don't you know that I am the one who does these things?  Exodus 4: 10-11.

So, being quite aware of our shortcomings and trusting God we forged ahead.

Now, here we were, at the Youth Camp on Tuesday morning after breakfast, after worship, in an interactive Bible study with 50+ people ready to learn whatever God had in store for them. 

 

Not far into the Bible study I realized:  These kids are smart.  They are interested.

Many participate and ask questions. They actually know the Bible content as well as the sequence of the books. 

God was at work in our Bible study.

Youth camp kids having morning devotions.

The objective of the Mission study was to widen their view of world missions.  We had three sessions.  Two of them I almost changed because I thought they weren’t appropriate.  I’m glad I listened to God’s whisper and kept those sessions in the study.

It was those two sessions that most impacted the group.  The kids were inspired by two teenagers in a small Texas town who collected donations to take to a tribe in Africa and by a 90-year-old deaf woman who went to the Czech Republic for missions. 

“Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, 
your faithfulness to the skies.”  Psalm 36:5

Competition

Competition makes me uncomfortable.  I feel uncomfortable for people who lose, because I don’t want anyone to feel like a loser.  Yes, I know, this wimpy, but it’s one of my idiosyncrasies I never got around to working out during therapy.

Team competition using newspapers

I observed how they interacted with each other as they were divided into groups for competition.  Competitive?  Yes.   Did each group want to win?  Yes.  Did they let the other teams know they were in for a tough contest?  Yes.  But all this was done so lovingly, and in the midst of laughter and cheers that it was difficult to tell who was in which team.

Babel?

The current train of thought today is that spreading the good news of Jesus should be left to people who are native to the country.  They know how best to reach their compatriots.  There’s a lot of truth in this.

But I say, there is also a great blessing in the interaction of people from different countries and realizing that we are one community in God.

I was listening to several adults who came from another village to join us for an evening.  They were sharing their faith and how God works in their lives.  And for the first time I was able to experience the reality of the global community in God.

Although their “problems” were different, the way God worked in their lives was the same, their response to God in the face of difficulties was the same, their faith in God was expressed in the same way…just in a different language.

Sweetest Name I Know

One day the challenge for the competition was to sing the Camp’s Theme song in English.  Quite a challenge, because it was even difficult for me to sing it in English.

A lot was going on that afternoon and I heard some of the kids and a leader practicing a hymn.  Oscar went to see if he could help.  I went on to do other things.

That night 10 young people, directed by Oscar sang the hymn “Now I Belong to Jesus, Jesus Belongs to me” in English.  Since many of them did not know English they had phonetically written the words so they could sing it.

It was the highlight of the Camp for me.  I felt like bawling.  I was so touched by this gift, by their effort to learn this hymn, by their love and acceptance.  And by God’s love who transcends geography, ideology and language.

-Rachel

Thursday July 7, 3011: Comforts and Survival:

Since we’ve arrived in Cuba:  I’ve slept on a hard floor, shared a bathroom with 31 girls, and endured Florida humidity without an AC.   All in all, it hasn’t been that bad and I am truly enjoying my experience here.

Then it dawns on me. I don’t mind it because in 7 days, I’m leaving to for America where I will experience all the comforts that I don’t have here.

“So, could I live here … permanently?”  I ask myself. 

Suburban comforts aside, I don’t have the financial resilience to be able to make it in Cuba.  I have never wondered where my next meal is coming from or how to afford my next electric bill.  This is their struggle, of which I have no experience with, and for that reason, I admire Cubans.  I admire their endurance, patience, and strength to fight poverty and figure out how to survive.  In this way, the people here are definitely much stronger than me. 

- Paul’s perspective with Esther’s tweaks

Remedios, Cuba after it rains

Urgency

I’m still wondering, trying to figure out exactly why I’m here.  I can’t teach Bible study, I can’t give a sermon, the men won’t let me carry stuff, the cooks have all the meals covered.  Yesterday Alexis came over to talk to us, and as if he knew what I had been thinking about, he told us this:

You may not think you are doing much by being here or you aren’t sure what your purpose is here, but it means a lot.  It has greater ramifications than you’ll ever be aware of.  These kids experience so much at camp, they learn so much about God in this one week that they would otherwise never experience.

If we waited until we had better conditions with more bathrooms or less mosquitoes, this camp would never happen.  We don’t know the next time the parents will let the kids come, or the government will allow it, or we’ll have the resources to pull it off.  We have to grab the opportunity whenever it comes.

That struck me.  This sense of urgency.  Taking risks, being resourceful, doing what you have to, even if the conditions aren’t ideal.  For me, I don’t want to do something unless I know I can do it perfectly.  I need to have all the right resources and the perfect circumstances.  I’m so afraid of failure that sometimes I never manage to attempt anything to begin with.  I don’t realize that it’s not necessarily the outcome that matters; that somewhere along the way, in the attempt, God can teach and use me more than I ever imagined. 

I’m realizing all that I take for granted.  Not just a bounty of food, 24 hours a day of running water or a car that can take me wherever I want, but also opportunities that appear right in front of me - opportunities to share about God, to love and to serve.  Even if the conditions aren’t ideal, even if the end result isn’t what I imagined, God wants me to grab the opportunity, take a risk and see what amazing things He can do.

-Christina

Confessions of an Introvert

 I’m losing it.  It’s not so much the heat, or the humidity or the flies, mosquitoes and dirt.  There are just too many people crammed into one space.  I can’t go to the bathroom when I need to.  I can’t walk 10 feet without saying “permiso” 5 times.  I just want to be able to pee when I need to and not hold it for 12 hrs.  I want to be able to wake up, brush my teeth and wash my face without waiting in a line 9 people deep.  I want quiet.  Peace and quiet.  I have complete time-to-myself debt.  Majorly.  It’s wearing me down.  I don’t want to see or hear another person.

- Christina

Just to give you a sense of how crowded it was... this is Oscar trying to sleep in the midst of all our luggage.

Wednesday July 6, 2011Ñ Snapshots of Poverty:

On the outside, it’s not always so obvious that Cuba is a poor country.  People adorn themselves with Gucci and Chanel clothing, much like rich New Yorkers, except theirs are cheap knock-offs from China.  However, on closer glance, it’s obvious it’s clear that Cubans struggle to make ends meet. 

Today I had a conversation with Ivan, the video/tech person at the church about the cost of electricity relative to income.  Their bill last month was $30, but their income is about $20/ month.  So, the question is … how does he pay for his electricity?  And, more importantly, how does he afford to support his family on that income?

Paul’s perspective with Esther’s tweaks

Space

When Rachel mentioned that we’d be camping at the youth retreat, I thought, “Simple… I got this down.” 

So, after arriving at the “camp,” we found ourselves standing with 55 other youth kids in front of a one room church a mile from the ocean, with two showers – one of which was outside next to the chicken coup. The bathroom shower floor had a sprinkling of dead roaches and lots of mosquitoes all waiting to eat me alive.  There’s no land phone.

I had to laugh at myself.

After spraying myself with four layers of Offskintastic bug spray, I attempted to fall asleep to the giggles and squeals of high school girls all the while afraid to move for fear that I’d wake up Christina sleeping on the pad next to me.  At 6 a.m. multiple roosters crowed and I awoke with mosquito bites all over my body – one of which has become so swollen that it is almost the size of my palm (so much for 1^st world bug spray in a 3^rd world country).

I don’t know why it never occurred to me that in the Third World, people don’t go camping and rent cabins or tents.  In fact, you can’t rent cabins in a Third World country.  Very poor people live in them and they’re called shacks. 

In fact, their idea of “camping” pushes my 1^st world boundaries of comfort, cleanliness but more so of space.  I like space. I need    s    p    a   c    e.  As an introvert, I need the emotional space to process.  It also gives me silence, as I deal with culture shock.  And, this has been hard to come by at a youth camp and especially in a country where everything including space is shared.

So, my prayer for Team Cuba, at this moment is for rest.  Christina has somehow managed to crash and is currently asleep on the bunk in back of me.  But, the rest of us are struggling.  A chicken has just run over Rachel, waking her up as she tries to nap.  Seth is at the moment attempting to write a sermon in a very noisy room filled with kids playing board games.  May we find the silence and space to reflect on the past few days … during the next much needed hours.


-Esther

Married People Funnies

Oscar:  You think you could survive in Cuba?

Rachel: No.

Oscar: No, honey, you could… You would adapt.

Rachel: No Oscar, I couldn’t.  Do you know how many times I go to the grocery store in one week?  Do you know how much laundry detergent I use?

Oscar [pauses to think about it.]  Oh…you’re right.  You couldn’t.

Tuesday July 5, 2011 'Spiritual Spring

The church we are staying at for youth camp was closed for 19 years due to communism. An elderly couple tried to keep the church open. The old woman came by to water the sole plant that was left in the churchyard. The government almost threw her husband in jail for trying to open the church on Sunday. But, they prayed and prayed and prayed and hoped that one day, they would be able to worship again freely.

Lately, with the Cuban government starting to relax its control over the church, it is starting to grow again. The pastor explains that much like a spiritual spring, how there’s a consistent 20-person congregation now and they just baptized 6 members this past Sunday. Today, Seth preached to a full house of 65 people, so much that it became standing room only. One woman arrived, went home and came back with her own chair for service. Just like there is no longer a sole plant, but a garden blooming full of flowers, so also is the church in Cuba.

I can’t help but wonder if this tiny spiritual revival started because God heard the prayers of an old couple in rural Cuba and decided to answer by allowing all the kids sitting in this room to openly experience the gospel.

Oscar’s story as told by Esther

Monday July 4, 2011 Much love:

I am in a very poor country.  Here in Cuba, toilet paper is a gift and hot water is a privilege.  All the paint is peeling and people live in buildings that in America would be seen as unsafe, because well, figuring out how to make enough to eat to feed your children is first priority and sometimes the only priority of the day.  

Yet, somehow, in this country that seems lost in a time warp, fifty years behind their neighbors in the West, I find myself moved by love. 

There is so much love here. 

They welcome us with hugs and kisses, cheek smooches and hugs that melt my dislike of being embraced by strangers.  Our bedrooms at the church contain so many fans, that Christina suspects the church members gave us their own, so that we would be a little more comfortable during the night.  They offer us their beds and although we refuse, their gesture is a nonverbal act that speaks volumes to their kindness. 

They have so little materially, but they have so much love, which unlike a nation’s GDP or GNP cannot be measured and quantified. Why is it that they so easily love strangers and welcome us into their homes?  Is it because they are, as Seth says, a romantic people who find it easy to express and give love?  Is it because Latin America understands community in ways that are much deeper than our individualistic culture in America can express?  Or, could it be, that the church in Cuba has come to understand in a nation of scarcity that God’s love knows no boundaries? 

And, this, my dear friends and readers, is what I am so grateful to experience the church here in Cuba, an example of what the family of God seeks to emulate to the world – the goodness and kindness of Jesus to the world and to one another. 

'Esther

On Marriage:

“I met my wife and proposed the following week.  We were both 18 at the time,” Pastor Alexis explained to Seth, Christina, Paul and I.

Gasp.

“I’m Cuban.  What can I say?  We are a very romantic people.  We meet that person and it happens very fast… “

But, how did you know she was the one?

“I got engaged and fell in love later.”  He explains.  “We got to know each other and then we figured out we couldn’t live without one another.” 

“We do it the opposite in America, I explain, “We fall in love and then we get engaged.”

He shakes his head.

“Yes, but some of you just wait and wait and wait and never get married.  There is no perfect person, you know?  When you hit the hard stuff, you commit to working things out.  It is not good for man to be alone.  We are meant to experience God in community, and marriage is just one of those covenants God calls to live in.  What are you waiting for?  ” 

The four of us look at each other blankly.

Sunday July 3rd, 2011 Survival and Resilience:

Here’s a test of survival: If I gave you a tire, a screwdriver, and a dollar, and dropped you off in New York City, could you figure out how to get home?  I would fail this test, but Cubans would pass with flying colors.  

To own a Cuba in rare and those who own a car do so because their family owned one in the 1950s.  It is expensive in upkeep, especially since those replaceable parts are no longer manufactured.  So, if you want to transport people in a major city to and from church each week, how do you do so in a nation where people hitch hike on the side of the road for hours hoping desperately for someone to give them a ride? 

Jose Manual figured out how to solve this problem with his bare hands, literally.  He found the empty frame of a bus and with the Southern Baptist convention’s financial help, replaced the 1948 motor, and then scrounged around for seats.  It just so happened at the time that Cuba’s National Baseball team was retiring the seats on their bus, so he bought the seats for $10 bucks each and drilled them into the floor of his bus, and repainted it with his wife.

“The family of God,” as Oscar says, “is alive in Cuba and doing God’s work with whatever resources they can find.”  Jose built his bus together in 8 months using salvage parts and now drives followers of Jesus all over to Cuba to church, retreats and meetings.  His story is a refreshing reminder of what the body of Christ, each doing their own part to support the church, looks like in a different cultural context. 

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Jose is the Jesus buses’ sole mechanic and he told Oscar that he’s in desperate need of some new tools.  He makes a salary of $20/ month and being able to replace the screwdriver he uses which is half broken and the ball pin hammer that if he twists hard enough will fall apart is impossible on his salary.  Oscar said he’d figure out what we could do and see if we can bring it to him on our next trip to Cuba in November.  Would you like to help out?  Any financial donation would be greatly appreciated.

Glimpses:

As the wheels of our plane hit the runway in Cuba, our entire plane simultaneously erupts into a unanimous applause where everyone is hooting with joy. 

Being able to go home must be an incredible feeling, to return to the place where you grew up, where you felt both known and loved.  For many of the passengers on the plane, this is a homecoming since the travel restrictions placed on Cuban Americans have prevented many of them from visiting. 

After we finally find all 460+lbs of luggage, we go through doors open where a massive group of Cubans surround the metal fence marking the front of the airport.  As Christina and I make our way through the front gate, we are greeted with an anticipating crowd, who are all waving and searching for loved ones.

For the next thirty minutes as we load the luggage into the car, I watch strangers embrace their loved ones.  I see an uncle and an aunt jump up and down, waving excitedly at their niece and nephew who have come for a summer.  I witness grandparents cry as they meet their newly born grandchildren for the first time. 

The scene at the airport was beautiful, honestly.  It made me want to cry and laugh and hug a random stranger, but the side of me that believes in social acceptability in a foreign country refrained.  But, really, it felt like …

It felt like a glimpse of heaven. 

I imagine that when we get to heaven, all we will feel is an immense amount of joy and fullness, for we have finally reached the place we have longed for all our lives.  Not only that, there will be all these people that loved us through the hard parts, shared in our joys, and left to go home before we got to say goodbye waiting for us at the gate to welcome us home. 

And, what’s more, Jesus will be there and we will finally glimpse Him face to face, which will make all the suffering and hard stuff we had to go through seem worth it.

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Here’s to being reminded of the kingdom of heaven in the Havana, Cuba airport.

Flexibility Practice:

“We need to be at the Miami airport at 3:30pm,” Rachel explains.

“Oh, so, what time does our flight leave?”  I ask.

“At 7:30pm.”  She says.

Oh, okay … wait… a minute…we need to be at the airport 4 hours earlier in order to make our flight to Cuba?  

I assume this is partly because of the fact that maybe things move slower in communist countries, so getting into a country must be just as slow. 

When we finally arrive at the Miami airport, everything starts to make sense as I witness the line of passengers waiting to check in their luggage that is so long that standing at the back of it, I can’t see the front of it.  No, really, even if I was 7 feet tall, I still couldn’t see the front of it from standing here.  In fact, the line winds around the corner and spins and spins and spins until somehow you end up talking to a very important and powerful person that looks at your papers and decides whether you have the legal papers needed to enter into Cuba. 

Wonderful. 

“Sometimes they lose the papers and you have to start all over,” Rachel adds.

Three and half hours later.

We are still standing in line.  We managed to stand in three lines during the first three hours:  first in the pre-check in line, then in the check-in line where we handed off 450lbs of luggage, and then in the “now you need to pay money because you brought too much luggage line.”  We waited in line for a really long time today.

I look at my team and they all look wiped out.  I laugh.  We’re in Miami.  We haven’t even got to Cuba yet and we’re exhausted!

“Be like a rubber band.  Learn to be flexible,” Auntie Miriam’s voice echoes in my head. 

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Here’s to practicing being patient about simple things on our way to Cuba, a place where we Americans will adjust to being flexible about all things.

Meet Uncle Raphael

Earlier today, when we arrived in Florida, we were met by a quirky elderly man named Raphael who I later found out is Seth’s uncle.

“Isn’t he adorable?!”  Christina asks me.

A retired pastor, he can talk to literally anyone and he still does, on a daily basis at the age of 80+.

“I’m going to get some ice cream at Walmart,” he’ll inform his wife, Aunt Miriam in the morning before disappearing.

Did he get lost?  He’s been gone for three hours.

No, no.  He didn’t get lost.  He’s still at Walmart.

Still at Walmart?

Yes and he does this on a daily basis, so much so that we shouldn’t be alarmed … 

Alarmed at what?

Well, that he’s still at Walmart, where he is lovingly known as the Mentos man.  He knows each person that works there by name and every day, he goes around offering them a Mentos, asking them how they’re doing, how so-and so’s surgery went, and figuring out how to brighten their day with his jokes, a smile and the love of Jesus.

Honestly, I don’t quite know how this works, because I’m half his age and there are days when I wake up and I am crabby, grumpy, and lacking in all fruits of the Spirit including niceness (if that counts).  But, then today, I met Uncle Raphael whom I’m sure is frail, human, broken and has his stinky days because of the Fall, just like me, but he seems to carry around joy wherever he goes…

As I was reflecting on this, I felt God whisper, “This is what it looks like to know the heart of Jesus… You know, in the deep way, where my love heals and changes, makes you whole enough that it can’t help but overflow out of you into a broken world that is so desperately to see and experience glimpses of me…” This is what it looks like to embody the love of Christ to the world.

I pray more than anything that now, during my thirties, that I find Jesus or more importantly that Jesus continues to find me and I let Him love me until my life truly reflects a life transformed by the gospel.  So, that when I am old and gray and retired from teaching, I will know Him in such a way that God blesses me with a quirky place, like Uncle Raphael was given Walmart, where I can continue to love people with contagious joy…

we're in Florida!

We've arrived in Florida.  It is very humid and we are very sleep deprived.... 

468lbs of luggage are being transported with us to Cuba in just a short bit.

.... now ... we're on our way to the airport.... 

-esther