Dear friend,
The ministry in the city of "El Guiteras" and Downtown Havana
continue to grow. Last Sunday 12 new Christians were baptized.
They are now new members of the house church of El Guiteras,
where Juan Carlos and Rosana are working as pastors.
We have done some house to house visitations in the same
city. It is amazing to see what a great ministry the Lord has
put on our way. It is a poor area of the city. Five families who
live there are attending the Sunday service. They have a fresh
faith despite of the needs. Their homes have no restrooms and
the roof of the houses are completely in bad conditions. They do
not have floor, I mean it is on the ground. Their faith has
become now the last resource to survive. Some inspectors from
the officials visited with them a few weeks ago. They were given
an opportunity to fix the houses to receive the official title
of ownership.
In one of those houses the church is holding the children's
ministry, and in another they have the Youth ministry. Two
members of theses families are leading the activities and in
another house they have organized a small group for Bible study
and prayer. Seeing the need I felt in my heart that we need to
do something for this poor neighborhood. Several ministries
could develop out of this families: leadership training for
leaders and teachers, children's and youth ministry, women's
ministry, construction ministry and sport ministry.
It is not very expensive to help out these families with the
repair of their homes. With $2500.00 USD we can put the new
roof, floor and build a restroom to one of the houses. We do not
need to work in the five houses at a time. Little by little we
can do the whole project. I believe in my heart that it will be
a great witness to the whole community and that it will make the
church grow fast. I did not promise anything, they have been
attending the services for about six months, so I did not
wanted them to trust in man's promises. But I did think I would
share this with our brother Ralph, just the Lord knows if we can
get supporters to start a project in that community. It is a
great opportunity to serve our Lord.
This church of El Guiteras has the main service on Sunday,
three small groups for Bible study and prayer, two children's
ministries, one youth ministry and a baseball ministry. Right
now there is a missionary from West Palm Beach working with us.
His name is Embree Bolton. He has been doing some visitations in
that community, I will ask him to give you an overview of what
he has experienced. About fifty people participate in the
services.
In Downtown Havana we have the main service on Friday evening
and two small groups for Bible study and prayers. We are going
to organize another small group in Old Havana. Form 12 to 15
people assist in every of the services. Me and my wife are
leading the ministry in that area.
We need to do some electrical and pluming work in the house
we use for the service on Friday and in the ones use for the
small groups. Again, the city is in poor conditions. Every time
you go into the buildings you can see the opportunity to serve.
Our main work there is the street evangelism. As you know
many people are walking around every day, so the street are
always busy. It has given us the opportunity to organize small
groups in other areas of the city, such as "La Vībora", "Alberro",
"Vedado", and Old Havana.
Right now there are a total of 26 house churches, 46 small
groups for Bible study and prayer, ten branches of the
children's ministry, 32 baseball teams and ten youth ministries.
It belong to the whole ministry of the city of Havana.
I meet with the leaders of the house churches once a month
and my wife meet once a month with all the teachers and workers
of the children's and youth ministries.
Please, continue to pray for us and for the congregations.
You are very welcome any time you can come. We would like to
thank you personally for your great help. May the Lord bless you abundantly,
Your brother and friend,
Eduardo.
