Matt Fisher’s first international mission trip did not end when the mission team to Cuba started the journey home.

Matt, a sophomore at Clear Creek, had not been sure about going to Cuba when the trip announcement first came.

“I was interested, but it wasn’t something I felt at that time I was called to do,” said Fisher. “The more I thought about it, the more I prayed about it, the more that I started to see that it was a possibility. The more I realized that God was calling me to go.”

Although his initial response was reluctance, Fisher quickly embraced the call to go on the trip, despite his own fears about sharing the gospel in a communist country.

The team was able to lead 302 people to Christ and connect them with local churches, but on their way home, Fisher explains he had another chance to spread the gospel on Cuban soil.

“As we were leaving I was walking around in the shops, looking for last-minute souvenirs for my wife and my kids,” said Fisher.

 “I ended up in a cigar shop. I’d always wanted to smell a Cuban cigar, not that I had any intention of smoking it, so I asked the lady if I could smell one of the cigars and she had samples there for that purpose specifically,” he said. “It didn’t really interest me, I gave it back and said, ‘I don’t want to buy one. I used to smoke cigarette,s and I don’t smoke anymore.’ And she asked, ‘Was it hard for you to quit?'”

“I saw this opportunity to turn this into a gospel conversation because the Lord healed me of the addiction to cigarettes a long time ago, and I told her it was the easiest thing I’d ever done in my life,” Fisher continued. “That by the power of the Holy Spirit that is in me, it was something that God just removed from my life. It was because I trusted Jesus I was able to do this.

“I asked her if she knew about Jesus and she knew about Jesus, but she didn’t know that a personal relationship with God through Jesus was possible for her. I shared the gospel message with her and she turned to Christ,” he recalled.

“We prayed right then and there, and she received Christ. It was right there in the airport.”