Cuba - 7

  Several weeks have passed since my last Cuba blog. Life can get in the way of taking time to be quiet, to write, to think but I am grateful for my life.   Because I am blessed to travel and see the real world on so many levels, to complain of mine is to throw back into the face of God the blessings He has bestowed upon me.  I have hundreds of blessings!

I must complete my Cuba blog so as not to forget the details of this experience.  I plan to return to Cuba again,  but the next adventure will be different.  A different outlook, traveling with different people and hopefully seeing different places but it will be different.  One can never replicate a past experience,  so one must savor each one.  Ponder what you learn.  Think about who you saw, what you saw and did it shape or change your thinking or your life.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ.  That claim is not one that seems to be popular just now.  Perhaps it has never been.  I claim no religion but a relationship with God the creator.  However, He changed my life, my out look, my desire to serve Him and to love people.  These loving, caring 'things', I cannot do apart from Him helping me. Popular or not, He is not to be avoided or ignored. He makes radical changes in peoples lives, mine.

I share this viewpoint for my Cuba experience is filtered through that lens.  Those traveling on our ship had different excursions to choose from.  We had a few tourist events that were fabulous but the best excursions were to the churches.  Yes, churches.  Church and Communism seem to not go together.   Communism demands that there is no God.  Communism seeks to crush and destroy all evidence that He does not exist.  The irony of this is that no one can remove God.  He is God. I love this fact. 

When Castro came into power he allowed some of the church buildings to remain but punished those who worshiped in them.  Pastors and priests were killed or sent to hard labor camps.  When the USSR and Cuba had a 'friendship' and the church was still trying to exist, they required people to work and go to school 7 days a week, so they could not worship.   That did not work, people just worshiped at night, at great risk and after long hard days of work.  God cannot be squelched.

I could spend hours sharing stories that were recounted to us. These stories have caused me to reflect on my own life and my commitment to my Lord.

The experience I want to focus on in this blog post happened because in a country where people have nothing extra, this venue thrives.  This place was sparse but amazing. Few of us would be grateful for this particular building but it is a treasure and blessing!   This facility was not run by the government but by the church.  It was an assisted living home.  It was simple, it was clean and those who lived there were 'just' old. They needed care.  The care givers gave of their time because of their love for Jesus.  It was that plain and that simple.   When the government can't help or won't,  I loved that church stepped in to do what churches have done for years, care for the needy.  This very sparse, humble, old building was a sanctuary for a class of people that no one could help.   This was luxury and care in the name of Jesus.

I end this blog, humbled once again. 

Sleeping resident

 

Cuban Rehab Center

Common Area

I found my spot

Cuba 6

Havana 2nd day packed with so much emotion!  We went to church(s).  Now for many of you that would seem like the last thing you would do on a vacation.  Church, vacation the two just don't mesh for most folks.  We went to a home for seniors.  Oh my, another place not on your average vacation spot to see, list.  Can I tell you right now, these visits were the highlight of my trip!

A block or two off the main Old Havana, show place, by the port, by the beautiful old cars, by the stately square and the fort lies the heart of the city.  We come upon once beautiful old buildings that are now slums.  Clothes and bedding hang from balcony's after they have been hand washed. They are rags for the most part by our standards.   People standing around with nothing to do but watch the world go by.  There appears to be no purpose other than to get through another day.

So why come into this part of town?

Why church?  We could have taken different tours to see what cultural things are still available to the Cuban people, if you can afford to pay for them.   I could have repeated the previous day and peaked into alleys and doorways and slowly savored a little better quality of life.   So again, why church?  

 "Cuban's won't really worship that imaginary God rather, than the real god of Govt. ....". Castro   

For 50+ years he has stood by this mantra.  He has and does marginalize religion.  Persecution is focused on those who want to worship.    The degree of persecution varies but it is an ever present cloud over the people. It remains pervasive.

Guess what?  He was wrong.  Wrong in a big way!  The real God, the creator of life, our Savior Jesus Christ, is so alive among the Cuban's it is forceful and compelling. 

The church was hated and a threat, as it is in all Communist governments.  Persecution was horrible for those who defied the government.  However, he allowed the buildings to remain.   Within those buildings an incredible movement has taken over Cuba.  Not a religion but a true relationship with God through Jesus Christ.   No shame, no fear just a grateful awe in whom the only hope of man kind is to be found.   Church. Most are small house churches (next blog story) where, space is tight, no frills abound but where they long to be.    Church going has its price but it is not a deterrent, it a driving force for these people. 

We experienced church too.  I have never come to a worship time so quickly as I did here.  Immediately, I knew that God was here among us.  We came as guests and left as friends.  We sang together, prayed together and felt what the true family of Christ followers was going to be like in heaven. 

Cuba 5 - Reflections

How can so much be packed into one day?  Havana, day one was overwhelmingly magnificent.  The history, the sights, the food, the exposure to a world stopped in time  by tyrants,  still has my head swimming with thoughts.  Unlike many cruise ports or stops where you get a 'brief snapshot' of a place, we get a second full day!

Day one showcased as much as the guide could give of old Havana's beauty.  Sad beauty,  for decay cannot be something to celebrate but it was a glimpse into a beautiful past.  People live in buildings that were once majestic and regal. They are now slums.  We glimpsed into some buildings that had been restored and what hope that must be for those who walk by or enter.

Once a mansion.

Once a thriving neighborhood

A slum today, yesterday a magnificent building in the heart of Havana.

Poor mans Taxi

Day two was filled with more insight into the real Cuba.  Just a few blocks past the area where our tour the day before had been,  we are in what most of Havana looks like.  All cities want the tourists to see its finest, everything. Today we see real life as it is lived out day to day.

This day was the sobering reminder of where this country has landed without freedom. Oh, freedom may not guarantee that life is equal, it is not equal in socialism or communism, it is impossible for that to be so.  But freedom does allow those to choose and to hope and to work towards the best they can be. 

I am going to use this blog to give you pictures that only scratch the surface of what we saw.   Photography is not my gifting, others pictures will be much better but these are mine/ours and they are part of my story.  For me a story to be told.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength that can come from adversity.   Albert Schwitzer 

Awesome because of its age.  Sad because it reflects a time warp Cubans are trapped in.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Albert Schweitzer
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/adversity.html

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Albert Schweitzer
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/adversity.html

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Albert Schweitzer
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/adversity.html

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. Albert Schweitzer
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/adversity.html

Cuba 4

How many more of these posts on Cuba?  I have not a clue.  Since this is me, unpacking my trip, I am not dumping the journey in to one entry.  I did that with my clothes as I needed to do laundry sooner than later.  I am carefully thinking about each day, hour and emotion that pops into this A.D.D. brain.  I am savoring each event as I can.  This was a special time!

Our Havana night on port day one, was ours to to do with as we wished.  Don and I had the privilege of meeting up with Cuban Pastor and his wife in Havana.  He took an hour cab ride to meet us in the main square that I described and showed last blog. Plaza de San Fransico.  We had never met him before but had been introduced through our son who had chauffeured him around Chicago visiting churches that were helping him with his ministry.   We were sitting by a fountain just next to this beautiful old church in the plaza.  We were very tired from our tour day of walking, learning, listening in heat.  It had been good but it was about to get better.
 

                                        

Our first day in Havana was cultural and delightful tourism at Cuba's best.  Our desire was to explore Cuba  had started!  We never tired of the awesome old cars, the beautiful, old and often crumbling architecture. However, this evening was the beginning of what has become an incredible spiritual journey like few I have known. 

Meeting this young pastor was a 'divine appointment'. Prior to sailing, we did not if we could even reach him.  We took them to dinner and the only place we knew of that would not get us lost was the beautiful, American looking, 'McCormick and Schimick's' style restaurant on the plaza.   We walked in and felt like we had never left Chicago.  Magnificent table settings, a bar and wine selection, that was impressive to the eye, waiters in black tuxedo's were impressive even to this 'jaded' American. It was empty except for one couple sitting at the bar.  The average meal ala cart was $25 US or $25 CUC's. 

As our conversation ensued we find out many things. One, Cuban's cannot afford beef! $12.00 a pound.  The average Cuban earns 4 peso's to our dollar.  Average income is $20 a month.   If they have a cow it is for the government to purchase its meat, for their use and discretion. Beef is for the tourists.  The joke is that a Cuban eats beef once every 25 years, for that is the jail term for killing and eating your own cow.  Our guests ordered beef and delighted in it!  We delighted in their enjoyment! 

As I am pondering the prices on the menu, reflecting upon the average salary of the Cuban's realizing they earn so little, this is not a place they would spend a months salary.  Alexis shared that this is a government 'chain' and only for the wealthy leaders, tourists and business people.  It was a magnificent show place for certain.

Alexis and Lourdes met in medical school.  They are both Cuban doctors who left practicing medicine to pastor and plant churches.   Remember, Doctors make just over $20 a month along with all other jobs.  I may share this later but medical care is free in Cuba. However, there is next to no medicine available.  Like most poor, world countries that have hospitals or clinics you bring your bedding and your food and you hope that there is medicine to treat you.  There are hospitals, we passed beautiful old buildings that are still being used.  Each community has a 'local' doctor, government provided but they have few resources to help them.  Can you imagine not having hope when you visit your doctor?

They were both raised atheists, no God knowledge or conversation of a supreme creator in their growing up lives.  They were raised  under heavy Communist dogma.  At the age of 20 they met each other and God.  Their lives forever changed.  The choice to become Christ followers is a heavy price to pay.   They did not choose a religion, for Communism is a religion.  They choose a relationship with God that altered their lives forever.   As my blog unfolds you will know that I am a Christ follower and one who knows He transforms lives, I am one of them. 

Tomorrow, my next blog will share just how precious knowing God is to these people.  This choice to be a Christ follower is a heavy one. I have never met Christians who had to worship 'under ground', face prison or prison camps and delight in it.  They are willing to risk everything for this relationship.   The heavy hand is a bit lighter than a few years ago but they are not free.   I am forever changed by meeting these incredible people of God.