Santa Clara City

The last church we visited during our trip to Eastern Cuba was Santa Clara. To get there we traveled about 70 kilometers (42 miles) on bumpy, poorly marked, and heavily traveled road. Arriving at outskirts of Santa Clara (population 220,000) our driver had no idea where the church was located! Telephones are scarce and directories non-existent so the only way to find the church was to stumble across someone who might know where it was, an unlikely eventuality in a city of this size. Then, something amazing happened. Our driver saw a well dressed couple (►) walking down the road and said, "look, maybe they are going to the meeting." He stopped, and to our joy, Andres Mesa and his daughter Rebeca were indeed walking to the meetings--3 kilometers away. With their help we arrived in plenty of time. It turned out Andres led the nightly prayer group. God's presence was again evident.
	On arriving Pastor Moral (◄ right) met with Raciel Garcia (◄ left-Halstead's driver) and Sue Halstead and gave them an overview of the meetings. This church was located in a row of concrete structured houses and as you entered it, it gave the appearance of being an Opera House with 2 side balconies and rows of theatre seats. Pastor Moral was a calm, relaxed gentleman. He and his team were very well organized. He told us that there were about 50 persons preparing for baptism. Later that night another 15 came forward.
The speaker for this campaign is Dr. Mark Herscher (► on right), a physician from Roseburg, Oregon. His translator, Edier Quintane Perez (► on left), is a Baptist who attends a nearby University who has been attending an SDA "Home Church" regularly. He has been so impressed with Dr. Herscher's messages it looks like he may be among those baptized at the close of the meetings. He declared, "I believe every word I have spoken."
The other two Team Members are Jim Dobbins and Tray Williams (below, left and right respectively). They have been taking turns presenting the Health and Life Style Message.

	In addition Jim has become known to all the attending children as the "candy-man." Each night he arrives with his pockets full of candy and "Chicklets" (chewing gum) (◄) and distributes them to the children.
Mayelin Rodriguez Bravo (►), 24 years old, has suffered great deal in her young life. She say, "I've been married many times and I have three children . One day, when she took a sick child to the hospital, she met a male nurse who talked to her about Jesus Christ. That was just 2 months ago. She started attending the SDA Church and was impressed by the loving way in which she was treated. The love of the church family was a major factor in her decision to be baptized. Mayelin had been deceived by many people and her son is suffering with a serious illness but she has put her faith and trust in God. To those who are in a similar situation she says, "Seek for Jesus; He is the only solution for any problem people have."
We were so impressed with the beautiful voices, the vibrant energy, and the quality of music of the singing group (below, left) that we couldn't resist showing their picture. And the picture of a loving grandpa (below, right) holding his infant grandson during the meeting begged to be shared.