Having just returned from a 12 day trip to Cuba visiting all of our church’s across the island, We wanted to share with you the progress our Cuban brothers and sisters have made growing the Moravian church and using your gracious donations to improve the lives of those in their church and villages.
Our first stop was Holguin. Holguin is a province roughly 600 kilometers east of Havana. When the foundation started in 2014, Holguin had 2 worship centers. The lead church was in the home of Jose Manuel Turro. The worship center was in their living room / dining room. They had 50 youth and about 30 adults worshiping there. The home had no working indoor bathroom and Jose’s family and the church had to use a makeshift outhouse with no running water. In Feb 2017, ARMF gave Jose, $1,200 to fix and redo his indoor bathroom and build a new bathroom outside with running water and shower that the people of the church could use. What we found last week was a working bathroom and shower both inside the church and in the backyard. What a wonderful sight.
Without asking the foundation for funds Jose and the church have tiled the room that also serves as their sanctuary. They have begun work on building an extension to Jose’s house, that when completed would give Jose full use of his house and the church would have a separate building to worship in.
A clean water filter system that the foundation is supplying our churches has been delivered and the installation is schedule soon. This will allow the church and community access to clean water for some 2,000 plus people.
We will be funding construction of a shelter that will securely house the water system so that the people in the village will be able to bring their buckets and pails at designated times and get clean water from the system and the church.
Holguin now has 5 worship centers across the province and ministering to over 250 people. These 5 areas are as spread out across the province and have worshipers traveling as much as 15 Kilometers to church.
As we sat with the pastors and leaders of all the church’s several needs were discussed that ARMF will be considering. All their needs would be used to benefit the church and community.
- The ladies fellowship makes clothes for church members and for sale to the community, but they lack working sewing machines to support this ministry. They requested 4 sewing machines, needles, and thread to support their effort.
- 4-6 bicycles for the pastors to use so they can travel to their worshipers. Currently they walk to their visits and activities.
- Fund the building of a secure building to house the water system.
- Eventually they want to build a woodworking shop so the men of the church could build housing necessities that they could sell to the community and plow the proceeds back into the church.
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