Sharing Hope in Cuba: Pastors, Evangelism, Compassion

``For the whole week, 14 friend events, there were a 159 demonstrative responses, professions to faith in the gospel, new ones. Not not the I mean, there were some rededications and so forth as was mentioned, but and the Lord knows. The Lord knows how many too. Not that it's all about the numbers, but, you know, there is a spiritual hunger there. I mean, there there's not the distraction as that we have in the world here. Their dependence more so is on the Lord, and there's a hunger there. [01:17:49] (36 seconds)  #SpiritualHungerCuba

We we talked to one of our translators and and who has a relative in America and has talked about before going. It's like, you know what? If if being in America and and having the abundance, if I if I get to experience that, but I would be further away from the Lord and my dependence upon him, I would rather be in Cuba and have the scarcity that I have here and and have a true recognition of my great dependence upon the Lord. I would I would choose that. [01:22:56] (30 seconds)  #ChooseDependenceOnGod

So you too. Okay. These two men never preached before. And when we, you know, spent some time praying, working on things, and then these two men, as a result of going even their first time. The Lord used them. The Holy Spirit used his word. Them together translator, and people responded to the gospel. So a lot of and I listen. I'm a living testament to this. Here I am, Lord. Send me. And he does. And he does things like that. And you're just like, wow, God. [01:38:28] (38 seconds)  #SentAndUsedByGod

They know that the Lord hasn't forgot about them, but, you know, we get to be the hands and feet of the Lord. And so all those pillowcases that you made and those dresses you made, the sewing sisters and things that you gave and so forth, man, that to them, it's just like people are they care. They're they think about us. So thank you again for for giving and for praying. God willing, we'll have opportunities to go in the future, but who knows what that'll look like? [01:25:29] (30 seconds)  #HandsAndFeetOfChrist

One of the things we did, and I thought I had the picture of this, but I don't know. It must not have made the cut either. It must have blown up. Is we we gave a couple laptops away, one to one of our pastors that we sponsor directly as a church, and another, we cast lots again. We literally did. I I said, how many of you pastors are here would use a laptop or have in your ministry but currently do not have a working laptop? 12 of them stood up, had them come forward. And then, basically, I I I whispered into Bill's ear, this is my number between one and a 100. We had the the ones go through, and the one that was closest, that's the one that God chose to get it. And that man, with tears in his eyes, told me he had been praying for a very long time for that, and he had no way of getting one. And he he chose his birth age, which was closest to the number I picked. [00:34:50] (55 seconds)  #LaptopAnsweredPrayer

but they worked really hard on their friend day event, and they had a 190 people there for their friend event. 190, okay, more than they normally even have in their church. The pictures that Braden showed early on, where people were hanging out outside, and he said, oh, it's a neat view and it's beautiful there. That that was the aftermath of that. One of the pictures didn't come through. I wanted to show you it's packed of people. And in that that particular service, I always ask at the beginning, how many of you are part of the church? You see how many raise their hands. How many of you are guests? And see how many, and you're a ton. And at the end, there were thirty thirty responses of the gospel there that night. Praise the lord. [01:16:59] (46 seconds)  #FriendDay190Packed

And what we do regularly, we give regular support to the pastors and churches there. We support them at $50 a month, which goes a long way in Cuba. And then there's some money we give to help with conferences and crisis things that come up and so forth that are needed for the churches and pastors. And in addition to that, these trips, what we do is we partner with the churches and they host evangelistic meetings at their churches. They call them friend days, where they're inviting people in their community, friends, family, and so forth. One of the churches I spoke in this year was a big church. One of the big it's the First Baptist in Old Gein. It's where we host the pastor's conference. You'll see a few pictures of some of their building in a few minutes. They passed they told me they passed out 3,000 flyers for this meeting. And I forget how many people. I don't know if I got a head count. Is a big place. It wasn't it was one of the few places I've spoken in Cuba that wasn't completely full, like every seat full, because normally that's the case. [00:24:46] (68 seconds)  #SupportPastorsMonthly

And we're not the only ones that have experienced this. Other people that have gone into Cuba have have noted this as well during this season. There's this there's a spiritual hunger, and there's a response, and praise the lord. I mean, what a blessing. And so you all have been a part of that by praying, by giving. It's it's an Us thing. When we gave away all the things we gave away, we said this is our church family. This is well, it's ultimately from the Lord, and they know that. It is the Lord, and and it's our our church body, you know, giving and and wanting to show love to you, and they so appreciate it. So, by the way, again and again, I was asked to share appreciation back to our church family. So thank you truly for your giving, for your praying, made such a difference. The whole week was just so blessed. It truly was. [01:18:25] (52 seconds)  #ChurchFamilyGiving