Introductions for February Mission Trip - Michael

The team for this mission trip is a father and son team. Yes, Oscar is teaming up with his son to do mission work in Remedios. It is a special trip for Michael for many reasons, as you will read below.

- Rachel

Many people in the U.S. have aspirations of achieving the American Dream of riches and accumulated wealth. I, on the other hand, am of a different sort, one who realizes that riches and wealth do not translate to happiness…at least for me. I have always aspired to achieve what I call the Cuban Dream.

From the time I was a little boy and learned that my parents were Cuban, I learned to speak Spanish like a Cuban and eat Cuban food. I understood that God brought my parents to the United States for a reason. And that was the beginning of my Cuban Dream. My Cuban Dream is to trace a path, albeit backwards, to the reality that existed for people in my family when they lived in Cuba. Whether that means walking the same paths that my grandparents walked, or seeing ships docked in the port of Caibarien where my grandfather was a fisherman, or visiting the farm where my grandmother lived, worked and played. Those are profound images that I want to take in and cherish for life.

Yet the trip means more than that. People in Cuba have what in the U.S. is considered very limited means of getting by. In the past 4 years, I’ve worked in Mexico during Spring Break building houses in the most impoverished areas near our borders. I understand, and have been in solidarity with, people in poverty. And, through the men and women I met there, I learned to identify with their struggle of being poor or being denied entry to a country. I saw the power of God working in people in Mexico. That is one constant that is similarly working in Cuba.

God has a profound way of working in people and through people. I feel that working with and toward the betterment of situations in Cuba is a way to spread the message of God. Consequently, working in unison with people and demonstrating unconditional love toward others is what God wants from us and what I want to do.

Taking this opportunity to go with my father on this trip is special because not only do I have a chance to impact people, but also to see Cuba through his eyes while enjoying the sights and sounds of living my Cuban Dream.

Michael Serrania