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Cuba!
#1 · October 20, 2004, 4:19 pm
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
Dear Hope Chest friends
As I mentioned in my Hope Chest addendum on Saturday, our family went to the Celebration South conference. One of the big blessings was hearing a Cuban pastor speak through a translator. He has ministered there for 40 years. It is a miracle that he and his wife were given
permission to visit the United States for a few weeks! He will be speaking through a translator at Metro Life Church in Casselberry, Florida, at 10 AM this Sunday morning. This would be very appropriate to bring Spanish speaking neighbors, or for your teens who are learning Spanish.
permission to visit the United States for a few weeks! He will be speaking through a translator at Metro Life Church in Casselberry, Florida, at 10 AM this Sunday morning. This would be very appropriate to bring Spanish speaking neighbors, or for your teens who are learning Spanish.
I wrote an article about Cuba and Communism back in April, but never got around to sending it. Now is the time! Because of security issues, I am purposely not sharing my opinions here as freely as I would like. I appreciate the help of Danny Jones for editing it on short notice today with this in mind.
Before I get to that, I also wanted to let you know where to get a CD with the song "To You, King Jesus" that I mentioned in that addendum. It is New Frontiers Live 2002. We've had it for the past year, and I love to play it. It's pure praise and worship in a very contemporary style. You can find it here: http://www.goldusa.com/FCD/F146/f146.html#F146L2
I am planning to order The Passion of God's Son by the same folks. It has some of the newer
songs we've been singing at church or at Celebration, namely, "I Have Seen A Mystery" (It Is The Church), "My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness" and "See What A Morning" (Resurrection Hymn). The link for that one is: http://www.goldusa.com/FCD/F146/f146.html Our British readers can find these CDs at http://www.kingsway.co.uk/ which is where they were produced! Thank you to our worship pastor, Todd Twining, for telling me where to get these!
OK, on to the short article about Cuba and Communism!
~~~
April 28, 2004
Dear Hope Chest friends,
This morning when I went for my walk, I was listening to a
sermon tape by one of my pastors. As I write, he and his wife, along
with another pastor and his wife from Miami, are in Cuba teaching and
encouraging pastors. This is not their first trip there; they even took
a whole youth team last summer. And all this with government
permission!
As I headed home again, I saw an elderly Hispanic man bringing
his beer bottles out to the recycling bin. I had a Spanish Gospel of
John with me, so I introduced myself and gave it to him. Such a simple
yet profound freedom in this country to distribute the Scriptures -- in
any language -- without fear of being arrested!
By divine coincidence, as I ate breakfast, I read an excellent
article by Marvin Olasky in World Magazine about the efforts of Cuba's
churches in alleviating problems of poverty and illness within their
country. Mr. Olasky was pleading for tourists to bring in much needed
medical and relief supplies, as well as church denominations to work
with their sister congregations in Cuba.
What does this have to do with home schooling? My desire is to
teach my children the principles of justice and mercy. I want them to
know that the freedoms and riches we have in this country are
unfathomable to so much of the world. (As my pastor said, if you make
even $25,000 per year, your income is in the top 10% of the world.) I
want them to pray for people in other countries, that the light of
Christ would shine brightly into their bleak circumstances. And I want
them to prepare to do something about it, not just way off in the
future, but now.
One of my goals in learning world geography this past year was
to give my children a glimpse of how other people live. At the moment,
we are starting a study of Eastern Europe. Yesterday, Joanna, Rachel
and I read a chapter of a biography of Lech Walesa, the head of the
Polish Solidarity movement who became the first democratically elected
president there. Did you know that in 1980, he was arrested and hauled
off to jail while his wife was in labor with their fifth child? Can you
even imagine? Lydia, Andrew and I are reading Alexi's Secret Mission, a
children's novel about a Russian boy whose family is exiled to Siberia
because they are Christians, and his attempts to smuggle Bibles. It was
written in the 1970s, when the USSR still fiercely persecuted believers.
Has the fact that Communism fell in Eastern Europe been forgotten? I am
still in awe, more than a decade later! I am SO grateful! No, I don't
live there. I've never even been there. But my Christian brothers and
sisters do. My friend Monica fled Romania in the early 1980s after
being interrogated for her faith. She couldn't even tell her family
that she was leaving. I remember being shocked when the Berlin Wall
came down, and then Germany was reunified. I never thought it would
happen. I wept with joy when each of these countries threw off the
shackles of Communism. Not that things are all rosy. There are still
grave economic problems as the whole region shifts to a free market
economy. Much help is still needed. This is where the church comes in,
especially the church in the West, like us.
Is there hope that Communism will fall in the rest of the world?
After all, there are still China, North Korea, Vietnam, and much more of
Asia still in the grip. And Cuba, just 90 miles from the Florida coast!
Yes, Communism is strong, but our Sovereign God is even mightier. The
things we thought were impossible are now history. It CAN happen in
God's timing! In the meantime, let's serve the persecuted church.
Visit the Voice of the Martyrs web site for more details about
Christians living in Communist, Muslim and other restricted countries!
<http://www.persecution.com>
In His Sovereign Grace,
Virginia Knowles,
<http://www.TheHopeChest.net>
songs we've been singing at church or at Celebration, namely, "I Have Seen A Mystery" (It Is The Church), "My Heart Is Filled With Thankfulness" and "See What A Morning" (Resurrection Hymn). The link for that one is: http://www.goldusa.com/FCD/F146/f146.html Our British readers can find these CDs at http://www.kingsway.co.uk/ which is where they were produced! Thank you to our worship pastor, Todd Twining, for telling me where to get these!
OK, on to the short article about Cuba and Communism!
~~~
April 28, 2004
Dear Hope Chest friends,
This morning when I went for my walk, I was listening to a
sermon tape by one of my pastors. As I write, he and his wife, along
with another pastor and his wife from Miami, are in Cuba teaching and
encouraging pastors. This is not their first trip there; they even took
a whole youth team last summer. And all this with government
permission!
As I headed home again, I saw an elderly Hispanic man bringing
his beer bottles out to the recycling bin. I had a Spanish Gospel of
John with me, so I introduced myself and gave it to him. Such a simple
yet profound freedom in this country to distribute the Scriptures -- in
any language -- without fear of being arrested!
By divine coincidence, as I ate breakfast, I read an excellent
article by Marvin Olasky in World Magazine about the efforts of Cuba's
churches in alleviating problems of poverty and illness within their
country. Mr. Olasky was pleading for tourists to bring in much needed
medical and relief supplies, as well as church denominations to work
with their sister congregations in Cuba.
What does this have to do with home schooling? My desire is to
teach my children the principles of justice and mercy. I want them to
know that the freedoms and riches we have in this country are
unfathomable to so much of the world. (As my pastor said, if you make
even $25,000 per year, your income is in the top 10% of the world.) I
want them to pray for people in other countries, that the light of
Christ would shine brightly into their bleak circumstances. And I want
them to prepare to do something about it, not just way off in the
future, but now.
One of my goals in learning world geography this past year was
to give my children a glimpse of how other people live. At the moment,
we are starting a study of Eastern Europe. Yesterday, Joanna, Rachel
and I read a chapter of a biography of Lech Walesa, the head of the
Polish Solidarity movement who became the first democratically elected
president there. Did you know that in 1980, he was arrested and hauled
off to jail while his wife was in labor with their fifth child? Can you
even imagine? Lydia, Andrew and I are reading Alexi's Secret Mission, a
children's novel about a Russian boy whose family is exiled to Siberia
because they are Christians, and his attempts to smuggle Bibles. It was
written in the 1970s, when the USSR still fiercely persecuted believers.
Has the fact that Communism fell in Eastern Europe been forgotten? I am
still in awe, more than a decade later! I am SO grateful! No, I don't
live there. I've never even been there. But my Christian brothers and
sisters do. My friend Monica fled Romania in the early 1980s after
being interrogated for her faith. She couldn't even tell her family
that she was leaving. I remember being shocked when the Berlin Wall
came down, and then Germany was reunified. I never thought it would
happen. I wept with joy when each of these countries threw off the
shackles of Communism. Not that things are all rosy. There are still
grave economic problems as the whole region shifts to a free market
economy. Much help is still needed. This is where the church comes in,
especially the church in the West, like us.
Is there hope that Communism will fall in the rest of the world?
After all, there are still China, North Korea, Vietnam, and much more of
Asia still in the grip. And Cuba, just 90 miles from the Florida coast!
Yes, Communism is strong, but our Sovereign God is even mightier. The
things we thought were impossible are now history. It CAN happen in
God's timing! In the meantime, let's serve the persecuted church.
Visit the Voice of the Martyrs web site for more details about
Christians living in Communist, Muslim and other restricted countries!
<http://www.persecution.com>
In His Sovereign Grace,
Virginia Knowles,
<http://www.TheHopeChest.net>
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