Archive: First New World Missioner front Cuba

by Cheryl A. Capshaw

For the first time since a New World Mission program was initiated by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in 1975, a Cuban pastor is participating.

The Rev. Rinaldo Hernandez, Havana, is among 23 missioners from 18 countries who are visiting churches and communities across the United States during March and April.

At an orientation session held in Nashville, Hernandez said recent events in Cuba have brought a recognition of 30 years of discrimination experienced by Christians there. He said that in October “the Communist Party abolished the law by which (Cuba) had been declared an atheist state” and now “many party members have been visiting the churches.”

Others are visiting, too, he said. “We have received hundreds of people. We have been praying for something like this for 30 years.”

He explained that during the 1960s, when Cuba became an atheistic state, all 50 U.S. missionaries fled the country, along with 85 percent of the Cuban Methodist pastors.

“That left 12 pastors for 120 congregations. There was a call to youth to fill empty pulpits. They had to learn while they were in ministry. In the 1970s, things remained much the same, but in the 1980s, things started to change. There was a great hunger for the word of God,” Hernandez said.

Proudly noting that his church, which is located on a college campus, has 200 people attending, he pointed out that about half of that number are 30 or younger. “The generation that was taught that there is no God is the generation that is the church. It’s a challenging time and an exciting time to be a pastor in Cuba,” he said.

According to Hernandez, “It is difficult to be the church in a socialist society. It is not enough for people to have a house, clothing and food. Humans need something else. They need God.”

Evidence of the search for God, he said, is also apparent in a new interest in the ministry. “In 1978, when I was in seminary, I was the only student in my first-year class. I am now teaching a first-year class of 26 students. You have 56 students in seminary; 13 are Methodists.”

The New World Mission evangelistic outreach program brings Christians from around the world each year to the United States where they preach in churches and speak to community groups.

Other countries represented in this year’s program include the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Germany, Tonga, Nigeria, Fiji, Brazil, Liberia, Switzerland, Estonia, Sweden, Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland.

U.S. congregation that participate in New World Mission undertake three phases of programming: preparation, proclamation and penetration. It is during the second phase that each New World Missioner spends five days in each of three churches, preaching and meeting with church and community members.

Shirley F. Clement directs the program which has been sponsored by the Board of Discipleship’s section on evangelism since 1975. The next mission will be in 1994.

Cheryl A. Capshaw is communications director of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tenn.

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