Page 5 - News Autumn_winter 2025 fv
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better equipped to share the Gospel in their community.
Substantial supplies of the Esperanza (HOPE) magazines
and Chispa (Spark) magazines for children were left with
each church.
How did the people we met in Cuba respond to the
Gospel? Well, the short answer would be to say that, on
average many Cubans seemed open to talk but were
quite reserved in their responses.
All were extremely happy to receive Gospel magazines.
We would walk into the community and meet people
in the street, in shops or stalls and sometimes in their
homes. Almost all were welcoming, friendly and happy
to chat. For example (names have been changed):
of “am I allowed to do this?” lingers on in the minds of
many sincere and committed followers of Jesus. Our work
in running the workshops was to provide useful tools to
help navigate spiritual conversations, such as helping us
to remember our testimony in just three words and a way
of progressing the conversation from small talk through
to a true Gospel conversation.
However, the objective is more around boosting
confidence and familiarity to share the Gospel rather
than providing the “right way” to do so, as there is no
“right way”!
THE VALUE OF TRAINING
Garnet (my opposite number from Canada) and I worked
together sharing the four main modules of the workshop
between us. Our interpreter Gabby did a great job in
translating our English as we spoke. It’s quite a blessing
to work with a translator in this way, one short sentence
after another. It gives the luxury of a little time to reflect
on what one says next.
As we went out into the community in the afternoons,
we experienced the growing confidence in sharing the
Gospel, with many of those participating coming back
with stories of good conversations and some who had
committed their lives to Christ. Praise God!
Wherever we are in the world, it’s important that not only
do we understand that this work of sharing the Gospel
using the Word of God is a truly spiritual work, but that
we act in that knowledge, with the confidence to know
that where the Holy Spirit is working, people will be
convicted of their sins and come to faith. As we consider
sharing the Gospel with others, then in a wonderful way
this knowledge can free us from the worries over “success
or failure”, making all such fears entirely redundant. After
all, the real work is done by the Holy Spirit. SCARCITY HAS MADE
We were investing in 20-40 people daily who would THE CUBAN PEOPLE
finish the day encouraged, equipped and better able to VERY INNOVATIVE
share the wonderful news of Jesus. In each church we
would leave knowing that with God’s help, an average of
around 30 people would be properly trained and much
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