Matanzas City, Matanzas
Conducted by
Pastor Dale Wolcott
with the support of
Mrs. Nancy Wolcott, J. K. & Esther Martinez,
Dr. & Mrs. Gary Walker and Nathan,
and
Ramon M. Quevedo Monzón, the local church pastor.
|
Leaving Havana we headed east to reach our next destination which was the coastal town of Matanzas. We were in for a pleasant surprise in this peaceful town known as the "Cuban Venice." It is a beautiful sea side community with the 4th largest port in Cuba. The Mantanzas Church (►) is located in a nice residential area with clean, paved streets.The night we attended, the church was packed and there were 290 visitors in attendance!
|
 |
|
Mantanzas was the first place we had the opportunity to stay with a Cuban family. Rueben and Elsa Garcia Ojeda (▼, left) with their daughters Evelyn and Elianni, were our gracious hosts during our visit. Reuben, the son of a retired Adventist Pastor, is an outstanding auto mechanic. One of the things we learned during this visit was that while the bodies of the cars in Cuba may be old, many times under the hood is a new diesel power plant. We arrived at the church (below, right) to find a large group already gathering. |
|
 |
|
| Once all the bicycles were safely inside (▼) the service started. | The "New Life Singers" (▼) began the program with a mix of songs and readings. |
 |
 |
|
The first item of business was the health nugget delivered by Dr. Gary Walker (left, below) on the subject of water. And later in the evening, Dr. Walker answered a lot of questions. The entire Walker family including his wife, Mary Anne and son Nathan (▼, right) also assisted in the children's program. One evening Nathan did a humorous demonstration to an audience of 125 children on how brush teeth. Dr. Walker's Wife, Mary Anne and son Nathan help out with the children's program on the roof top. |
|
 |
 |
|
Continuing with the team, Pastor Wolcott who is currently a pastor in Michigan (▼, left) , and his wife, Nancy Joy and daughter, Esther Martinez and son-in-law J K Martinez Lopez (left, above and below) who made up the team as Youth Program leaders and translator. With one hundred and thirty children in attendance and meeting up on the roof of the church he needed all the help he could get. Local pastor, Ramon Quevedo Monzón, was a vital member of the team and great company when we spent the next day with him on the beach. |
|
 |
 |
|
A radiantly-happy young man named Nerlan Mojena (▼, left) relates a story that was reported in the Sabbath School Mission Quarterly, but for those who didn’t hear it here is the story with an update. Nerlan used to drink a lot. It was not uncommon for him to drink with his friends till 2 o’clock in the morning. He had many women friends and problems with his wife. He was always getting in to fights and was imprisoned 3 times for various fights. The first time he was imprisoned for 6 months. The second time for 8 months and had to pay a lot of money. The third time was imprisoned for 1 ½ years. Each time his family suffered greatly. On his third imprisonment he was working on a prison garden and there met an Adventist lady named, Marilyn Delgado, who came to buy produce. Every time she came there, she offered to give him money for his own use, but each time he refused. Then one day she offered him money and told him about Jesus. Nerlan had heard about Jesus Christ as a child, but he wasn’t interested at the time. She now gave him a New Testament. Nerlan promised her he would attend the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But Nerlan continued his old ways of fighting. He got into a bad fight at the prison and was sent to another prison. Marilyn now unable to reach Nerlan, went to the trouble to find out where his family lived and went to visit his wife. Eight months later Nerlan got out of prison; he moved to another Province and forgot his promise. Nerlan broke his leg and returned to his home area. He continued to have a bad life, fighting, many women friends, drinking until he was a broken man. He finally prayed to God for help. He had no money, no food, no job. He told God if there is a God, you will bring me help. Right then someone came by and offered him 50 pesos and a few pounds of rice. Still he had not learned his lesson. For one day after that he hit his wife and daughter until they fell down. Her family came and took them away so he couldn’t get to them. He wanted to die and contemplated suicide. It was soon after that that, that he decided that he wanted to change. “Today I’m going to take my New Testament and go to church." That was September of 2001. When he got to church, he asked for Marilyn Delgado who had signed his Bible. When she saw him, she didn’t know him. There was great rejoicing! He started attending every Sabbath. Habits started changing. He tried to get his wife back, but she would not believe he had changed. So Marilyn went to his wife and convinced her that he had changed. She invited his wife to attend church. God has been hard at work in both their lives and are planning to be baptized in Feb. 2002. |
|
 |
The Power of Prayer: One day, at the height of the meetings, the government announced that there would be a nightly, 2-hour, power outages. But night after night the lights flickered but did not go out. Then as soon as the meeting was over for the night, the lights went off. |
|
How God Worked in Matanzas, by
Pastor Dale Wolcott:
Known as "the Athens of Cuba," Matanzas is a beautiful seaport city of around 100,000 people, located some 100 km east of Havana. Although the people of Matanzas (like almost everyone in Cuba) are poor by U.S. standards, the local economy benefits from its proximity to the beaches of Varadero, one of Cuba's premier tourist destinations. As a provincial capital, the city is also an important government and military center. We were informed at the outset, by both Conference and local leaders, that Matanzas is one of Cuba's most difficult soulwinning locations. Nevertheless, from the second night onward, the church sanctuary, which seats slightly over 250, was full every evening, and sometimes overflowing (not to mention the 150 or so children meeting in the open air on the rooftop). Dozens responded to every altar call. The Matanzas church leadership expects 2002 to yield the largest soulwinning results in their memory. (Last year was their best year so far, with 66 baptisms.) All of us were awed and overjoyed to see how God worked during our 17 days in Matanzas. Factors that paved the way for God's blessing: - Excellent advance support from Elder Robert Folkenberg, Carolina Conference Global Evangelism, and The Quiet Hour. This event would never have happened without their vision and expertise. The Power Point sermons and reliable electronic equipment were a great boon. -Thorough local preparation on the part of the Cuban Union, the Western Conference, and especially by the pastor and members of the Matanzas and Cidra churches. Six thousand announcements had been distributed door-to-door by the members. Decision cards had been printed and were on hand when needed. Local musicians, deacons, elders and others provided a well-organized, excellently-executed nightly program to support the evangelistic preaching. Pastor & Mrs. Ramon Quevedo and Bible worker Adelaide Sardina deserve special mention. - Trucks. Thanks to financial support from our team's home churches, friends, and relatives, and from The Quiet Hour, we were able to fund nightly transportation from the outlying communities of Cidra, Limonar, San Francisco and El Marey. About half of our attendance came from these rural communities. The people traveled up to 20 miles or more each way, in the cargo compartments of trucks hired for the purpose. Most of these came every single night. The truck from El Marey, where there is only one baptized member, brought up to 40 people each evening. - Children's ministry. Four of our seven team members devoted their efforts to nightly child evangelism meetings. Attendance at the rooftop children's programs was roughly equal to the non-member attendance at the main meeting. Although local leaders expected overall attendance to drop off after the first week, we actually saw a slight increase the second week. We think the excellent children's program had much to do with this. - Health evangelism. Dr. Walker provided an interesting, lay-friendly health talk each evening. Near the end of the series he held a 30-minute smoking cessation clinic prior to the evening meeting, which was well attended by a number of persons who had already requested baptism. Later, several gave him happy reports of their success. Midway through the series, Dr. Walker also gave an illustrated health lecture at a public meeting in a government hall. · Literature. Thanks to our homebase donors, we were able to take with us over 1,000 pieces of Spanish-language literature, which we used as attendance incentives. Each evening's allotment always disappeared well before the meeting began. [NOTE: We had been told that literature could be confiscated at the airport by Cuban authorities. Our customs officer quizzed me about the large quantity of tracts, but when I assured him they would not be sold or re-sold, but given individually as gifts to those attending our religious meetings, he approved them. An answer to prayer!] The child evangelism team also took a big supply of Spanish-language activity papers, memory verse devices, and other Scripture-based handouts. - Excellent translation. Mexican-born J. K. Martinez, a competent lay preacher in his own right, translated with energy, enthusiasm and passion. His love for people and for the Advent message was transparent. The Holy Spirit used J. K. to touch the people's hearts! The same can be said for his wife Esther (our daughter), who was our solo Spanish voice in the children's meetings. - Youth emphasis. Thirteen-year-old
Nathan Walker gave a kids' health talk each evening and was an expert at
friendship evangelism. He was a hit with the local children! In the adult
meetings, local youth were also much in evidence, providing music and
other support services each evening. The literature we brought included
four "youth issues" tracts (50 copies of each) which we offered as
attendance incentives on four different nights to attendees under age 35. * The Matanzas and Cidra churches were praying. One evening, after a large response to the altar call, a faithful church member thanked me tearfully for the wonderful meeting. I said, "It's because you were praying." Surprised, she asked, "Could you feel me praying for you?" * One morning at 5:00, I found the pastor and his wife on their knees in their darkened living room, praying. * Our home churches were praying. At the suggestion of the Mt. Pleasant, MI, prayer ministry leader, members received a schedule of our team's daily worship scriptures, and were encouraged to pray with us at our daily team worship time. * J. K. and I were given a prayer room at the church, which we used for unhurried prayer before each meeting. * On at least six different occasions, our drivers were stopped by authorities. The driver would step out of the car, and immediately we would start praying! Each time, he came back to tell us that the paperwork was in order; no problem. Personal Reflections: - Theresa sat on the front row, with
a notebook and pencil, night after night. An Adventist workplace
acquaintance had invited her. She was first on her feet when I made each
altar call. The final Sabbath morning, she was in the Inquirer's Class and
told us she had quit smoking. |
|
