EBM MASA Community, Hilfe für Lateinamerika, Pastor Carlos Waldow

Cuba

Through a Baptist Church, God is transforming a whole area – the crime rate is dropping! Havana – In the Zaldo Slum (Solar) in the Cuban capital of Havana, the crime rate and the number of murders have considerably dropped.

For the roughly 3,000 inhabitants, there is new hope: They are experiencing how God changes people. This has also been Franck’s experience –Francisco Felipe Rodriguez San Juan by full name .

He used to be a criminal, and people in his area were afraid of him. As a child, Franck had lived on the streets with his mother and siblings. The family could not even afford a simple tin shack. Early on, he gained power and sway through crime, he also became drug-addicted. However, he disliked living as an addict in poverty.  In his distress he remembered God, got to know the gospel and became a Christian. His life was turned upside down completely. Quite soon after his conversion he felt called into missionary service, studied at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Havana, and became a pastor and missionary. Today, Franck reaches out to people with a similar biography, bringing them the gospel with its power of deliverance.

Mentored by MASA Coordinator Daniel Gonzales, he launched a missionary and charitable ministry in the Zaldo Slum four years ago, founding a church. Today, Franck is pastor of the Baptist Church in “Solar Zaldo”. He is authentic and speaks the language of the people, and his heart is burning for them and for Jesus. The problems in this region are simply overwhelming, but never before has such positive change been brought about as now through the work he and the church are doing. It is simply amazing – praise the Lord!

The church, now numbering 150 members, cares for 500 people in the Zaldo Slum providing also very practical help: They hand out food packages and offer counselling. Life in this area has become completely different. Before, it was notorious for its poverty and violence. By official accounts, at least one person was killed, every week. Now, the slum has become peaceful. In more than 100 families, there is at least one Christian. People try to lay the foundations for a better life. Many inhabitants have overcome their alcoholism. In the meantime, Franck has now started working in another eleven slum areas of the Capital.

MASA adopted this mission work as a project in early 2009. In coming years, further mission churches are planned to be founded in such slum areas, so that many more people may be reached by God’s love in their needs.

Pastor Franck also showed ingenuity when they had to build a new community centre as there was not enough room for the growing number of people in the small assembly room of the church. You may know that it is forbidden to build new churches in Cuba. But the church found a  way out. A concrete floor of 250 sq. m was placed above six adjacent houses inhabited by church members. This gives these church members a roof over their head, and the church can use the surface over the houses to build a meeting place. MASA has provided financial aid for this construction; another 7,000 EURO are still needed for the remaining works.

We hope that in years ahead, this project will be followed by others, in other places. The experiences made in Zaldo are evidence of the transforming power of faith: The gospel has so powerfully changed the lives of many of these slum dwellers that the consequences can be felt all over the population. Praise be to the Lord!

 Pastor Carlos Waldow

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