The best two lane bowling alley ever.....
Dear Friends,
Thanks for your prayers for my recent trips to Cuba and Nicaragua. Nicaragua was an amazing time of reflection and training with over 40 key staff from Central America. It was great time and these are amazing leaders I’m proud to work alongside--I may share some of their stories at a later time but I’m going to focus here on our newest ministry in Latin America—Cuba.
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| Gisela Maria (L), Evry, and Wilder (R) |
Wilder and Gisela Maria are our first Cuban staff and have spent several months now recruiting and training our first team of leaders and it was exciting to get to visit them. Cuba is a very interesting and a very challenging place— highly educated and yet its economy has developed very little in the last 50 years, almost everyone is employed by the government but paid less than a livable wage, and most people feel there are big changes coming politically, but no one is quite sure when or what that will look like or who to trust. In many ways it’s a place stuck in the past—and yet everyone is worried about the future.
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The Cuban taxi system was interesting--
bikes, horses and old cars. For a country low
on resources, you use what you've got. |
It’s a place that really needs more Jesus. The church in
Cuba has done a marvelous job staying faithful despite enduring a lot of opposition,
but as one church member told me as we chatted about Young Life: “This is good. We really have no idea how to
work with teenagers.” So we’re
really excited about our first group of leaders who are stepping WAY outside
their comfort zone to hang out with kids on the street. One of the leaders, Herlan,
had a girl at his church try to encourage him by saying “we still love you, despite your involvement in that weird ministry.” Even though there are a lot of people who
don’t quite understand what they’re doing or why, they’re really becoming
passionate about reaching out to teens.
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| Training with the Cuban Team |
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| Dinner with leaders |
One of my favorite moments while we were
there occurred on Saturday night. Our
team had been together during the day discussing how to connect on a deeper
level with the teens they’re getting to know and we decided to go with some of
the teens to the ‘Carnaval’
celebration happening that night down by the park. This wasn’t an easy choice
for the team—carnaval is an excuse to party and there’s a lot of drinking, so the
normal expectation within the church is that Christians won’t go to it. Going to Carnaval was new for almost every
leader-- but the leaders decided the kids would be going anyway and probably
drink a whole lot more if we weren’t with them, so they made the choice to go
be with the teens downtown.
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| UNO in the bowling alley |
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| Learning how to bowl |
So, at 10:00 on Saturday night we headed
downtown with a group of teens. There wasn’t much going on around the park, so
we walked into the newest attraction in Holguin —the first ever bowling alley--
which has a grand total of two lanes! There
were lots of tables of older teens and 20 somethings hanging out in the bowling
alley. A couple people were trying bowling, but most were just sitting around and
drinking. Everyone looked cool, but no one really looked like they were having
fun. We went in, pulled together some tables (Wilder even went home and grabbed
two small tables to get enough space!) and played some UNO together with a lot
of passion and then took turns learning how to bowl, which resulted in a LOT of
laughter. At one point I looked around
and the difference was striking—the faces of those around us had no joy,
despite the fact they were ‘partying’—while
the laughter and joking and smiles occurring within the Vida Joven group was
just infectious.
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Leaders and kids in the bowling alley
see both lanes? |
We hung out for a time and then headed home
sometime well after midnight. Most of the teens left with the leaders—they’d
had a great time and felt very little need to stay any longer. The leaders the next day couldn’t stop talking
about this experience— how the kids had responded, how much fun everyone had,
and how even the teens recognized that this was way more fun than their other
options. These teens have started to
open up more, in big part because this group of leaders left where they were
comfortable and went into the world these teenagers inhabit. It was John 1:14
lived out—“The Word
became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood”.
I left Cuba still
processing so much, but was really encouraged by our team of leaders and the
growth we saw even in our few days with them. There is a huge need in Cuba and
a lot of roadblocks that could still derail this whole endeavor, so please be praying
for this ministry and our team in Cuba—Wilder and Gisela Maria, Oseam, Evry, Herlan,
Lourdes and Ana and potentially a few others--- as they keep growing and
learning how to bring Jesus’ light to teens.
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Some VJ teens and Wilder and Gisela's sons, all
excited to get more games to play
(it's a key part of contact work right now) |
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The street outside Wilder and Gisela Maria's house
where contact work happens most nights from 10p.m. on |
A couple other prayer requests
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The Cuban Flag
Please be praying for this country and our team there |
-Our
team in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico has had a very rough few days. Our committee
chair was seriously hurt in a boating accident, and the wife and daughter of
our club leader there were hurt in a car accident. Their ministry has really
been growing the last year, please pray for them and their protection.
-I’ll
be traveling to a different part of Mexico this week for our yearly regional
team meeting. Please pray for wisdom for our regional team as we pray and plan
together, and for Jenn and the kids while I’m gone.
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