Dan Owen's Reflections - November 2007
When I was first approached in 2003 to help interpret for a group that was headed to Cuba all I could think about was how cool it would be to go some place my government said I couldn’t. Little did I know that first trip would be the beginning of a relationship that has changed who I am and who I will be. I can only hope that my brothers and sisters in Las Margaritas would say the same.
On the second trip to Cuba in 2006 we were allowed to stay in the homes of the church members and spent time visiting with families in other towns where the reach of the Ebenezer Baptist church is busy, to this day, spreading love through the messages our Lord has given. My ability to speak Spanish allows me to really get to know the people and hear their stories. Those stories are tales of miracles and proof that a solution will always be reached if we just hand our problems over to God.
The 2006 trip was bittersweet because Ebenezer’s pastor, someone I like to think of as an angel walking amongst us, was battling cancer. Even in her weakened condition, she witnessed to us, looked deep into our eyes and shared the history of a church she started with her husband. In the early nineteen-eighties Zeniada and Octavio dedicated their lives to the creation of a ministry. They endured poverty and hunger, sleeping on wooden benches, saving money for a gallon of milk and surviving on the plants and animals around them. In those times the Cuban government only allowed the Catholic Church and those churches founded before the 1958 revolution to worship. This meant Ebenezer’s "illegal" services were often interrupted by stone throwing delinquents and the military. Zeniada will tell you about bringing the military detectives to tears as she asked them, with her hands shackled, "Where in the Constitution does it forbid love for Jesus?"
Thankfully, our last trip in 2007, found Zenaida fully recovered and back in her church. She and Octavio live inside the church in a small space behind the sanctuary. Her presence has brought much happiness to the town. We played and made crafts with the children all day. Zeniada and I took our pastor, Randy to visit some missions in a nearby village near a large military installation . We met women and children who would love to worship at the church on Wednesdays and Sundays, but have no way of getting to the church but to walk, three miles each way. One of these women navigates her own home and garden with the aid of a walker. All agreed that the church’s greatest need is that of a van. Hopefully we can help them to raise enough money to have such a vehicle, to help bring the nearly one hundred or so church members living five to ten miles away to worship. It would also help anyone having a medical emergency reach the nearest hospital, some thirty miles away.
I went to Cuba thinking we were going to show them, but I was wrong. Our brothers and sisters in Cuba have figured out that the key to happiness is faith in God, and a belief in love, happiness and harmony. I carry their message and the memories we have made together with me everyday because it guides and inspires me. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be apart of such a wonderful mission.