Cuba for Christ

Greetings from Cuba! We are so thrilled to have spent over two weeks here, and are excited about all that God has done already! We have visited several churches, met with several pastors, and had some important meetings where we have seen a lot of progress. We are excited to be in the planning stages to start the first and only Apostolic Bible institute in Cuba. You will hear more about that as the time approaches. We have already baptized 6 people, praise God!

Over the next couple of weeks we will be visiting more of the churches. This is a great opportunity to preach and teach the things God has laid on our hearts for Cuba. We are able to encourage the local churches and the church leaders. We are happy to have the opportunity this Saturday to meet with all of the local pastors for a time of training and teaching.

We are also thrilled to be planning the first annual women’s conference! It will take place the 27th and 28th of March. We are so happy to have two women from our home church, Sara Adcock and Linda Burke, coming to visit for the conference. They will both be speaking, visiting some of the pastors’ homes, and taking an active part in ministry during the week they are here. It will be wonderful to see some familiar faces, too!

We are adjusting to life in Cuba quite well. Ava is much happier than the last trip we made here. We are still working through some issues with transportation, but expect everything to be resolved quickly. I have included some pictures from the past couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy. I will also answer some common questions we get, for those of you who are interested to learn about life in Cuba. God bless you all. Thank you for your continued prayer and support.
Rachael Rennard

Questions:
1. What types of food do you eat in Cuba? We rely heavily on fresh produce. We eat tomatoes, onions, green peppers, red peppers, potatoes, bananas, guava, apples (when we can find them at the store), and cabbage. All of these are common for us. We also occasionally have eggplant, beets, and other common potato-like roots found in Cuba. We eat sandwiches frequently, with ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly. Spaghetti is common, with a delicious sauce found only in Cuba. As far as meat, we usually eat either chicken on the bone, pork that we pound out so it’s not so tough, or occasionally hamburger in our spaghetti sauce. And we can’t forget the abundance of rice and beans!! For breakfast, Ava has cereal with milk (made from powdered milk). Jimmie found pancake mix and makes those from time to time. For dessert, Juan makes us flan or sweet coconut, and I was so happy to find a chocolate shop near a local market. We drink lots of water, coffee, hot tea, and occasionally a Cuban soda. While this sounds like a lot, we pretty much eat the same things over and over. When you are cooking three meals a day, almost every day, these options get tiresome.

2. What challenges do you face in Cuba? Life is so radically different here, it’s hard to narrow it down to a few challenges. For me, cleaning is a challenge. We don’t have access to a lot of the tools that make cleaning so much easier in the U.S. Our house has all tile floors, and they never seem to be clean, in spite of my efforts. We never seem to have a clean kitchen because there are almost always dirty dishes in the sink (in spite of our efforts to wash them). We also don’t have good cleaning products. Yet, if we don’t at least attempt to keep the floors and the counters clean, we have an onslaught of fire ants and/or flies.

Transportation is a challenge. Very few people have cars. We have limited access to the van that belongs to the organization, so to run errands we have to find someone willing to take us somewhere. The owner of the house where we stay only charges us for gas, usually around $5. This is what we do most of the time, but when he is not available we pay as much as $25 a day for transportation.

Finally, raising a child in Cuba is difficult. While Ava is extremely outgoing and can make friends with anyone, she sometimes feels lonely. The boy who lives next door is at school every day, so during the day it is difficult to keep her occupied. On hot days, she likes to swim in the pool, but the weather has been fairly cool lately. Most of the time she’s happy, but other times she misses her family or is bored.

3. What changes are you seeing spiritually in the churches? We are so happy that the leadership of the organization has instituted a program for every church, systematically teaching them doctrine. This has been a problem in the past. When we visit churches, we are noticing that people are more receptive to the moving of the Holy Spirit. Churches are growing, and leaders seem to be enthusiastic, with a more hopeful outlook on the future. We know that God has only begun to do His work in Cuba, and are extremely humbled to take even a small part in his plan for this nation.