Calvin Synod Herald, 2017 (118. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2017-07-01 / 7-8. szám
12 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Mission: Cuba Believe it or not our trip actually started in Mainland China - a missionary who had planted a 30 to 50 member church per year for every year of his ministry was assigned to an industrial city of 20 million with no known Christians. The old way of doing business wouldn't work there. So he cried out to God in helplessness, prayed and searched the Bible. He landed on Matthew 28:18-20 that well known scripture: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. He saw something he'd never seen before (present with hand signs) • Go not come • All not some • Disciples who make disciples not just sitting Christians His acting on that breakthrough was used by God to see over 2 million new baptisms and 180,000 house churches in a 10 year period. Though the fall of the Soviet Union paved the way for a great revival in Cuba from 1990 to 2010, the mission organization e3 Partners had discovered a hunger for something more. The Cuban church wanted to see more evangelism and deeper discipleship. They wanted what they heard had happened in China. So as a team of 16 from various parts of the US we went to Santa Clara, Cuba and travelled by bus into the interior, to work by translator in five outlying small towns 30 to 50 minutes from our lodgings in the city of Cienfuegos. We spoke about the Brutal Facts of reaching their city... for people living on $25-50 per month the cost of reaching their town for Christ was always overwhelming. • 30,000 Population...28,500 Far from God • To win 10% (2,850) would require 57 traditional churches • Cost per church $8,000 of $456,000 just to win 10% in ONE TOWN. • Average income for a young couple $25 - $50 month Where would they get the money? Did the Book of Acts show churches growing that way? So we told them the 5 things they could do for free to reach their town: 1. Pray for those far from God 2. Share the Good News 3. Help people grow as disciples 4. Help people gather as the church 5. Help them develop leaders who would repeat the process. We taught people from God’s Word WHY GO? He has all authority, etc. Mt 28:18-20 WHO TO TELL? John 17:20 WHAT TO SAY? Testimony and Romans 6:23 & WHEN (Start now! Make plans)... Matthew 7:24-27 It was in teaching this last material we realized how we had started telling them things they could not reproduce. In America, there is a slick packaged presentation of the “Why, Who, What, and When” called the “411” that begins “Take out a blank sheet of paper...” In Cuba the people were taking notes on last year’s (or other outdated) week at a glance planner pads that had binding like our "composition books"... there wasn't a blank sheet of paper to be had! We had to adapt and recognize just how much we take for granted... even blank sheets of paper. And so that's what we modeled for our national workers and the process we helped them own and take over for themselves. Sharing our testimony as a way to explain Romans 6:23 - do you know it? In Spanish it’s Porque la paga del pecado es muerte, pero la dádiva de Dios es vida etema en Cristo Jesús Senor nuestro. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We would go to people identified by local people as interested in our visits ... we would pray for the people and share God's Word. In the course of one week we worked with the local Christians to do the following work: Total Cuba Stats 250 Trained - 5 churches 568 Shares (Gospel Presentations) 259 Professions of Faith 155 Follow Up Appointments for discipleship 61 Houses of Peace (potential house churches) Gloria a Dios! (Glory to God!) Because we were working through translators, I could not tell if some of the people were new converts or people rededicating their lives. Also I noticed that I counted some other things differently than the local people I worked with Only heaven knows the real numbers, but I know that none of this would have happened unless God’s people made an effort to work together. I can say the benefit of this trip was mutual. I was able to train local people and model certain skills for them, but
