In 2012 the founder of El Faro, Phil Ephraim, presented a challenge to the staff of El Faro. A missionary had recently traveled to his church in Chicago and shared about the issues the local church faces in Cuba. Because of the oppressive government, the churches’ are regulated by the government and are very limited on what they can speak about. However, if a church service takes place in a “home” that is owned by a pastor, they are free to do what they want and speak about. This missionary presenting the project explained he was helping pastors purchase “church homes” with the support of churches around the world.

Each ‘casa pastoral’ cost around $3,000 and so we made it a goal at El Faro to take up offerings during our Monday night services and also raise money through “Pacas”,  garage sales, to go specifically toward the church in Cuba. This year we finally met our goal and actually surpassed it and we had the opportunity to send one of our own all the way to Cuba to give the money to the pastors. Jonathan Lopez has been an employee at El Faro for four years and works in the office alongside his wife Brenda. Since being at El Faro his life has been transformed and God is doing amazing things through him especially with young men in the villages. We chose him as our ambassador and he traveled with a pastor from Guatemala City to meet with various Cuban pastors to hear their stories and provide financial assistance to help with their churches. Over the course of five days he met with six pastors in different areas within Cuba. Before going Jonathan really didn’t know what to expect. “I thought Cuba would be similar to Guatemala with a lot of churches and also a lot of Christians”. Jonathan was shocked when only after a couple of hours of being in country he saw the oppression. “Many of the pastors are in a constant struggle and it is hard to be a Christian there.” One pastor, Armando Lezcano, has a very small and shabby ‘casa pastoral’ and has 50 members in his church. The day that Jonathan arrived he was able to listen to the needs of the pastor and also learn about the Church in general of Cuba. The pastor had no idea that Jonathan was going to give an offering from El Faro and when Jonathan was presenting the donation he was in shock. He shared with Jonathan that God’s timing is perfect because it took him two years and a lot of money to receive the legal papers to construct a new pastoral house and he had only five days left to begin construction. He had no money to start and with the donation he was able to break ground.

It took some time and a lot of garage sales, but we are so thankful that our goal was met and we were able to bless the church in Cuba. Thank you to those who also gave clothing for us to sell and also gave in our offering box during a service at El Faro. We see this as just the beginning and we look forward to coming together as a community at El Faro and help our peers around the world.