Cuba Trip Recap - February 2020

During the last week of February we were asked to travel to Cuba to the city of Playa Jibacoa, to be a part of an underground action sports conference. With the help of two local pastors, who are part of a network of over 1000+ home churches with 10,000+ members, we trained a dozen Cubans who are currently involved in action sports ministry. All those who attended the conference left with an excitement to return to the various parts of their country better equipped with simple, Biblical, and reproducible tools that will help them far more effectively share Jesus and disciple others. This gathering was a great blessing for me to be apart of and I was honored to be considered one of the leaders there.

Another highlight (and answer to our prayers before the trip) was finding a Cuban surfer who was spiritually open to hearing and receiving Gospel. On the second day of my trip, Yadiel was "just walking past" with a super old Channel Islands surfboard in an area where I was staying where there were no other surfers. We engaged with him and I was able to gift him with a few new Zap skimboards that I had brought as well as a new Rareform surf bag. He ended up hanging out with us over the following days, and praise God, he recommitted his life to follow Jesus. During my time there, Yadiel made the decision to be baptizrd along with two other conference delegates who, throughout the days of teaching, realized that they were not true Christians yet wanted to make the decision to fully surrender their lives to Christ!

There are a few hundred surfers in Cuba and only about 4 believers amongst them. We want to encourage you to pray for these believers and that each of them will actively participate in the great commission and see fruit for their labors doing so.

At the far eastern tip of the country there are surfers and decent waves all year long but no known Christians living among them. It’s our desire to send a team there soon to help share Jesus and hopefully pray there are other believers amongst the surf community there that can be found, encouraged, and better equipped.

In addition to those prayers, please continue to pray for Cuba as a whole. Like in my birth country of Venezuela, life is very difficult economically. For example, toothpaste or a bar of soap literally costs an entire week's wages! No joke! The needs financially in Cuba are immense and incredibly, the Cubans who came to this conference and gathering all paid their own way to get there. Some traveling 14+ hours to participate! On behalf of these Cubans and others, thank you for your prayers!

We will be back in Cuba March 4-9th. This trip will be with a small missionary team and focused back in the capital of Havana and Guanabacoa. Our hope is to help establish a regular church gathering with defined leaders within the action sports community. I am looking forward to coming back and spending more time with Yadiel as he is taking the time off of work while we are there to be encouraged and spend some more time with us.

The harvest is plentiful in Cuba and we’re looking forward to hopefully continuing to be a part of bringing in the harvest of new believers in this country! Thank you for standing beside us through your prayers and support!

To the ENDS,