|
|
 Peggy West |
Back to Cuba Again
May 2 2013 / ShareHim in Cuba, Apr. 12 - Apr. 27 '13 #591by Peggy West
Personal Testimony of Peggy West.
The Cuban people have totally won my heart. In April 2013, I made my 4th trip to Cuba. The last three of those trips have been with ShareHim. This trip was especially valuable to me personally.
When I left for Cuba this year, it was just three months after my dear 93 year old mother had passed away, and I needed that time where I could devote all my time and energy to God and the people I had gone to serve. By so doing, I knew I would be the one who received the blessings.
It was my pleasure to be in the Artemisa Seventh-day Adventist Church for the third time. From past experience, I knew that this is a church where they really love Jesus, and they are working hard to help finish the work so Jesus can come. Many of the members there are regularly giving Bible studies.
At our orientation, I learned that God had answered my prayer – my “son” from Cuba was to be my interpreter. This is the young man who was with me on my very first trip to Cuba. Since my first trip in 2008, it had been the pleasure of my home church and myself to provide tuition money for him to attend the Seminary there in Cuba. He is now pastor for a two church district. Our second student will be graduating in May to serve in the ministry.
The night before the campaign began, we each went to our sites and met with the Pastor and church members to establish the schedule and get acquainted. That night, I was told that there were 10 already planning on baptism with more in Bible study. This church had already primed the pump with their own devotion to Him.
This district has a membership of over 160. They already had the buses ready to pick up from their area to come to the meetings each night. Every night, as they raised the rafters with music, the church was full. Many nights the benches in the hallway outside the children’s classroom were also full, and some nights there were people on the outside listening, and God’s presence filled His sanctuary.
Most of time during the day was taken up with studying and preparing my sermons. This year, I was to use the brand new sermons complete with new graphics. I wasn’t able to do much preparation in advance because of Mother’s final illness, so I had a lot of work to do.
The new sermons are great! The thing that I really loved was finding Jesus at the center of every single sermon in a very prominent way.
The thing that I had looked forward to the most was having that time for study, without the phone or e-mail, just me, the computer, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
As is often the case, the devil and his angels were hard at work. The first Sabbath, between the heat, the mosquito bites, and probable ingestion of some Cuba water, I had to relinquish the microphone to my pastor interpreter to finish the sermon (rather than totally disrupt the service by hitting the floor.) That night, I still dared not get that far from the bathroom, so he went without me. The next night, many of the members told me how well my “son” had done in my behalf the night before. Satan had lost his battle.
Each night, when the appeal was made, the altar was just a little bit fuller. Each night, new decisions were being made and old decisions were being reaffirmed. Each night, I asked for extra angels to attend to us and to ward off the evil angels. God’s presence was there.
All too soon, the campaign was about over. The final Sabbath was there and so was the time for our baptism. I was delighted when not only the ten were being baptized but three more. Just think, thirteen more souls for Jesus, and even better there were 29 more who had made decisions for baptism, but still needed some more study. But the good thing is, this is a church of workers and they will do all their Bible studies and we will hear about more baptisms.
From those thirteen baptisms, there were two couples who were baptized together. There were two expectant mothers. There was even a young man who had a motorcycle accident during the campaign and broke his leg. He covered his cast with plastic and sealed it to his leg and was baptized anyway!
God is good – all the time! Cuba was fed at seventeen sites. Seventeen teams were fed by their study and joy of sharing Him. If you feel in need of being fed, my suggestion is that you sign up for a ShareHim trip. This is a challenge that will give you time to spend with Jesus. Time to really study and learn the important topics as you may never have studied them before. Time to learn to depend totally on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as you have never done before. And best of all, the opportunity to be a small part of bringing others to Jesus, which is the biggest blessing of all.
God bless each one of you who are considering doing a ShareHim campaign. You will never be the same. It is an addiction of the best kind. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to do your part in finishing the work so that Jesus can come back soon.
When I left for Cuba this year, it was just three months after my dear 93 year old mother had passed away, and I needed that time where I could devote all my time and energy to God and the people I had gone to serve. By so doing, I knew I would be the one who received the blessings.
It was my pleasure to be in the Artemisa Seventh-day Adventist Church for the third time. From past experience, I knew that this is a church where they really love Jesus, and they are working hard to help finish the work so Jesus can come. Many of the members there are regularly giving Bible studies.
At our orientation, I learned that God had answered my prayer – my “son” from Cuba was to be my interpreter. This is the young man who was with me on my very first trip to Cuba. Since my first trip in 2008, it had been the pleasure of my home church and myself to provide tuition money for him to attend the Seminary there in Cuba. He is now pastor for a two church district. Our second student will be graduating in May to serve in the ministry.
The night before the campaign began, we each went to our sites and met with the Pastor and church members to establish the schedule and get acquainted. That night, I was told that there were 10 already planning on baptism with more in Bible study. This church had already primed the pump with their own devotion to Him.
This district has a membership of over 160. They already had the buses ready to pick up from their area to come to the meetings each night. Every night, as they raised the rafters with music, the church was full. Many nights the benches in the hallway outside the children’s classroom were also full, and some nights there were people on the outside listening, and God’s presence filled His sanctuary.
Most of time during the day was taken up with studying and preparing my sermons. This year, I was to use the brand new sermons complete with new graphics. I wasn’t able to do much preparation in advance because of Mother’s final illness, so I had a lot of work to do.
The new sermons are great! The thing that I really loved was finding Jesus at the center of every single sermon in a very prominent way.
The thing that I had looked forward to the most was having that time for study, without the phone or e-mail, just me, the computer, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
As is often the case, the devil and his angels were hard at work. The first Sabbath, between the heat, the mosquito bites, and probable ingestion of some Cuba water, I had to relinquish the microphone to my pastor interpreter to finish the sermon (rather than totally disrupt the service by hitting the floor.) That night, I still dared not get that far from the bathroom, so he went without me. The next night, many of the members told me how well my “son” had done in my behalf the night before. Satan had lost his battle.
Each night, when the appeal was made, the altar was just a little bit fuller. Each night, new decisions were being made and old decisions were being reaffirmed. Each night, I asked for extra angels to attend to us and to ward off the evil angels. God’s presence was there.
All too soon, the campaign was about over. The final Sabbath was there and so was the time for our baptism. I was delighted when not only the ten were being baptized but three more. Just think, thirteen more souls for Jesus, and even better there were 29 more who had made decisions for baptism, but still needed some more study. But the good thing is, this is a church of workers and they will do all their Bible studies and we will hear about more baptisms.
From those thirteen baptisms, there were two couples who were baptized together. There were two expectant mothers. There was even a young man who had a motorcycle accident during the campaign and broke his leg. He covered his cast with plastic and sealed it to his leg and was baptized anyway!
God is good – all the time! Cuba was fed at seventeen sites. Seventeen teams were fed by their study and joy of sharing Him. If you feel in need of being fed, my suggestion is that you sign up for a ShareHim trip. This is a challenge that will give you time to spend with Jesus. Time to really study and learn the important topics as you may never have studied them before. Time to learn to depend totally on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as you have never done before. And best of all, the opportunity to be a small part of bringing others to Jesus, which is the biggest blessing of all.
God bless each one of you who are considering doing a ShareHim campaign. You will never be the same. It is an addiction of the best kind. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to do your part in finishing the work so that Jesus can come back soon.