Abel Santamáre

There are 198 organized churches and companies in Cuba in addition to another 200 House Churches. Evangelistic campaigns will be conducted during the course of 2002 in all of these House Churches. Though no were currently under way, we decided to visit Abel Santamáre and report on it as one that is typical for this Island nation. The congregation in Abel Santamáre has 45 baptized members but on any Sabbath its attendance is usually seventy or more.
To visit this church we drove through a series of high-rise apartments and had difficulty finding the exact location until we heard beautiful voices singing a well known hymn. It was coming from one of the apartment buildings. We followed the music to the top floor to a small, one-bedroom apartment. The Sabbath School program was under way and smiling, neatly-dressed people of all ages, welcomed us to their fellowship.
	We met their pastor, personal ministries leader, and head elder (see picture below). Bismark Castillo (left, pastor, trained at the Cuban Seminary), Victor Paumier (2nd from left, Personal Ministries leader for the company), and Manuel Ocaña (3rd from left, Head Elder) visiting with Sue Halstead.
A woman about 35 years of age, Sonia Triana, told us of many problems in her family. Another member visited with her and she began attending and was later baptized.
	As we were leaving the church we noticed a large vehicle parked beside our car. It looked like a truck that once was used by a trash collecting company. The back had been cleaned off and framed (left). We realized that this was the pastor's personal vehicle that carried him to several other congregations.
Sitting behind the wheel was a man holding a new baby. We soon realized that this was the pastor's and his wife's. The pastor took us to the back of the truck and out stepped his young, lovely wife and two beautiful daughters.