Many changes have taken place in Cuba since we returned from our last visit on March 9, 2020. We were the last group to travel there on a religious visa. Despite the many changes, the important components of our partnership have remained the same.
PRBC is blessed with many new members who do not know the rich history of our Cuban partnership with Resurrection Baptist Church in Carlos Rojas, and our many members who have traveled there over the course of our seventeen-year partnership are most likely unaware of the many challenges our partner congregation is facing in these difficult times.
A brief history: in 2003, a group from PRBC visited Cuba with the goal of finding a church with which we could form a long-term partnership. They met the leadership of Resurrection Baptist Church in Carlos Rojas, Cuba and felt that this church was a good fit to be our partner church. Carlos Rojas is a small rural town in the Matanzas province of Cuba, 80 miles east of Havana, with approximately 6,000 residents. Most of the residents work in agriculture and teaching, or in larger cities that they have to commute to.
As of March 25, 2021, RBC has been in existence for 75 years, but at that time in 2003, they had just called a young pastor from the seminary and his wife, who was also a seminary student, to be their leaders. Our partnership was formalized in 2004, and we began what would become annual visits in 2006. Since the inception of our partnership, we have supported the work of RBC with funds from our annual budget.
From the beginning, our partnership has been based on the relationships and the connections that developed from our annual visits. Asdrubal Forte and his wife, Yarelis Montes de Oca, led the church from 2004 until they moved to the US in 2014. In July 2016, the church called a pastor from the Holguin province of Cuba, Mileidys Garcia Arias. She has worked tirelessly to grow the church and to continue the community outreach that has always been at the forefront of the mission of this church. She and her husband have made many improvements in the buildings of the church and have worked to make it a true community gathering place.
This year has seen unprecedented changes take place in Cuba. It is impossible to detail all of them here. The government raised the prices of everyday items tremendously, but at the same time raised the salaries of state employees to match these increases. Most jobs in Cuba are state jobs, but not pastors. In addition to this complication, there is a tremendous shortage of everyday items. Even with funds in hand, many necessities are impossible to obtain.
With the restrictions put in place by our government, it has become virtually impossible for us to send money to help our partner congregation. Covid is still a very real threat in Cuba and in Carlos Rojas. According to Mileidys, just yesterday, the three nearby hospitals in surrounding towns, “collapsed” under the weight of cases of the virus. In preparing to write this article, I asked her what she would like for me to say. She said that she would write about the love between our two churches; she also added that the way we support each other at all times, in spite of the distance and the challenges is comforting.
Most of all, she would ask for our prayers for the situation that they are now facing. They are accustomed to shortages, long lines, lack of money, which they can overcome but not the threat of Covid that is so strong in their community at this time. Please pray for them in these most difficult times. We hope that we will soon be able to gather together with the people of Carlos Rojas who have become like family to those of us who have been blessed to travel there and experience their love and hospitality.
- Linda Hefner