Page 4 - News Autumn_winter 2025 fv

“AM I ALLOWED

TO DO THIS?”

National President Graham Beckett (pictured lower right Cuba is the largest of the Caribbean Islands with a culture
on page 6) found a whole new experience ahead when quite different from my South American experiences.
he went to Cuba for the first time on a different type of Many decades of Communist government and the effect
mission trip with ShareWord Global (SWG). Not knowing of US sanctions have had a profound effect on the
exactly who he would be working with, gave rise to quite mindset and known experience of the Cuban people. The
a sense of trepidation as he flew into the unknown. population of Cuba numbers a little short of 11 million
“We work with SWG (our sister organisation in Canada) and it is largely viewed as a Christian country with Roman
to provide God’s Word and share the Gospel in what are Catholicism being the largest denominational influence.
predominantly African and South American Countries. RATIONS AND SCARCITY
As we sometimes send funds to SWG, it is important I had been told that the scarcity of goods was the single
that we take part and see for ourselves what is being largest limiting factor on life in Cuba. If you have only
done in the Lord’s name and with His money! Having
been on five "GO Trips" to Chile over the last few years, local currency (Cuban pesos) then, for example, you
queue for a chicken which may or may not be available
I am used to the culture, the incredible openness to the to you, and the queues for fuel were extraordinarily long,
Gospel and the people I have worked with in Chile. Even often filling an entire block with cars waiting in a very
though some people may imagine that those of us who long line. When you finally make it to a pump, you may
have done this sort of thing a few times would take a new
challenge and a new country in their stride with no real be rationed down to just 10 or 15 litres of fuel.
fears or reservations, this is not true for me! I was quite The beautiful old American cars from the 40’s and 50’s
nervous about the unknown! (pictured above) which are primarily used as taxis for
foreign tourists, do not run on their original gas guzzling
This was a different kind of GO Trip where the sole V8 engines. Scarcity has made the Cuban people very
focus of the work was to visit churches and help lead innovative, and the engines have been replaced by cheap,
workshops designed to help with both relational and
street evangelism. After every day of training in a relatively economical Russian diesel engines. Just don’t
expect to get anywhere in a hurry!
different church each day, the plan was to go out into the
local community alongside our church member “trainees” The Christians we met were all kind, generous, loving and
to share the Gospel with those we met on the street and, extremely welcoming and have been legally free to share
in some cases, in people’s homes. their faith for around nine years now. However, the feeling

4