RICHMOND, Va. (Baptist Press and local reports) — International Mission Board (IMB) teams are eager to receive Cuban Baptist missionary candidates as Global Missionary Partners, but it’s sometimes difficult for them to get visas and at times when they do, they’re finding it hard to renew the necessary permissions.
Prayer is desperately needed as these potential Cuban Global Missionary Partners (CGMP) face obstacles in procuring visas and finding sufficient funding.
Currently, more than 50 potential missionaries in Cuba are preparing to go. These missionaries, backed by the mission boards of the Cuban Baptist conventions on the eastern and western sides of the island, are largely sent by funds provided through the Cubans to the Nations project.
CGMPs ready to serve include Saul and Dora (names changed for security reasons), a husband and wife team who previously served in a South American country. Both are musicians, and they were able to adapt their musical gifts to compose songs and share the Gospel in the musical styles of the people groups among whom they lived.
However, they’re now back in Cuba awaiting reassignment because of visa issues.
Another Cuban missionary family also worked with unreached groups in the same country. The husband is a physician, and he was able to provide medical and Gospel access to several communities. The wife is a musician. She was able to work with other musicians to share the Gospel through music.
Like Saul and Dora, they are back in Cuba waiting to be reassigned because their visas were denied.
Roy Cooper, an IMB team leader who along his wife Dirce (names changed for security reasons) have served in Latin America for 20 years, have worked with the Cuban church. He explained that the Cuban missionaries can bring Gospel access to places many Americans have trouble reaching with their U.S. passports, largely due to friendly governmental relationships between Cuba and the various hard-to-access countries.
Ronald (name changed for security reasons) and his family are examples of CGMPs who still have valid visas and are impacting lostness in the “Circle of Silence” in Mexico just a few hours south of the American border.
The area is believed to be less than two percent evangelical Christian and is filled with unreached people groups. In just over one year, CGMPs have seen three baptisms and a church planted.
Hector (name changed for security reasons) is a CGMP serving in Uganda. He works with IMB teams in the area. He evangelizes, disciples, and trains young leaders using sports to connect with refugees in camps there.
Oscar and Yolanda (names changed for security reasons) are CGMPs who are also using sports along with music and other tools to take the Gospel to unreached communities in a South American country.
Cuban passports sometimes provide the only access to a mission field, and shared traumatic experiences uniquely equip Cubans to go to hard places.
“God has just so specially prepared Cubans because of the kind of pressures they’ve had to face in their churches as believers preaching the Gospel,” Cooper explained.
Instability and unrest dominate the political landscape in Cuba. Association with an evangelical church was frowned upon. Even something as simple as getting permission to leave the country to be a missionary seemed out of reach for most Cubans for years.
In the early 1990s, Cuba began to open its borders and religious efforts began to be more tolerated by the communist government. The fear of openly practicing evangelical Christianity abated somewhat. Home missions flourished in Cuba.
Around 2014, the Cuban Baptist conventions on both sides of the island reached out to IMB to help facilitate the training and sending of their candidates to the nations.
Cooper pointed out that God can use the Cuban’s experiences for His glory. They “have been prepared to go into hard places and can identify with folks who are hurting and who have gone through challenges,” he said.
The situation for Christians in Cuba still isn’t ideal, but “I think that God, in a very special way, has been preparing a missions force to be able to go to these places,” he said.
Pray for Cubans who are eager to go to the nations and partner with IMB teams that:
— God will continue to call Cubans to reach the lost of their island nation and around the world.
— God will give leadership, guidance, and clarity to IMB personnel as they assess and train potential missionary candidates.
— the right places will open for the Cubans to serve and they will be granted the necessary visas to serve in difficult places.
— God will call many partners to share the vision and help send the Cuban missionaries.
— all roadblocks to service will be removed.
— the missionaries will be spiritually sustained under demanding circumstances.
For more information on the work of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, click here.
