Guest column by Leah Simpkins
Imagine walking into a community to share the Gospel and witnessing as hundreds of people come to know Christ as their Savior.
That is exactly what happened with a group of four students and two staff members from Clear Creek Baptist Bible College. This group spent their spring break proclaiming the gospel in communist Cuba. The team worked with the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba, which covers eight provinces of Cuba and hosts about four million people, nearly one-third of Cuba’s population recorded in 2016.
The team connected with the associational missionary who coordinated their evangelism throughout the city. The locals they worked with were integral in reaching the lost.
“They gave us six translators. When we got there, each person matched our personalities,” said Carmela Bartels, the academic affairs secretary at Clear Creek. “We met with whoever was going to lead us through the neighborhood and we prayed together.”
Those trips through the neighborhoods brought 302 salvations in four days.
Michael Woodrum, a sophomore, was awed by how receptive the Cubans were to the Gospel.
“It’s like they (were) waiting for us,” said Woodrum.
Those four days were spent with one focus: sharing Jesus with the Cubans.
“I had a guy flag me down to tell him about the Gospel, I’ll never forget that,” said Ryan Chapman, a junior on his first international mission trip. “We evangelized all day until church at night.”
Those days started at 7 a.m. and went to 11:30 p.m.
The team brought Evangecubes to assist them in sharing the Gospel across their language barrier. For Bartels, who spent 26 years in full-time missions with her husband, it was a way to share the love of God visually.
“I would say, ‘we’ve come to tell you about a gift God has for you,'” said Bartels. “I made sure each time I opened the cube that I had a Scripture verse.”
Greg Young, admissions director and the team coordinator, asks that people continue to pray for those who are ministering to those in hard to reach places like Cuba.
“We would love to see what happened in Cuba happen in America,” said Young.
The students were able to earn class credit from this trip, applying their classroom knowledge practically on the mission field. These opportunities allow students to marry theoretical and practical training as well as fulfilling the call in 1 Chronicles 16:24, “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”
Donnie Fox