There’s still one hour before the beginning of the Sabbath worship program at Marianao Seventh-day Adventist Church in Havana, Cuba, August 3. Yet dozens of children already fill the sanctuary’s pews as they eagerly wait for the service to start. Several of them have arrived early to practice a special item. Others are just there because their friends invited them.

Longtime deacon Miguel is also at work, setting up microphones to get the audio system going. He has been part of the congregation for decades and has witnessed its ebbs and flows.

“We used to have more than 500 church members here at Marianao,” Miguel says with a hint of sadness. “But many left and went to live abroad. There are a few hundreds left, now,” he added.

At the same time, Miguel concedes, the Marianao congregation is in a perpetual state of influx. “As many members emigrated, new children, adults, and seniors are coming to church. All of them are searching for hope,” he says.

“There’s an increasing influx of children from the community,” Miguel adds. “Currently, they are meeting in a back open hall where Vacation Bible School and other activities regularly take place. More and more children are attending.”

A Long Presence in Cuba

The Marianao congregation received a much-needed boost in the mid-90s, when Maranatha Volunteers International, an independent supporting ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, first arrived in Cuba to support church building efforts across the island. Between 1994 and 1997, a total of 64 volunteers helped build the sanctuary where the Marianao congregation currently meets. After three decades, however, the church is in need of a new coat of paint and some repairs.

In late July and early August, a group of employees and friends from the General Conference (GC) Secretariat of the Seventh-day Adventist Church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, painted and repaired several Adventist churches in Havana, Cuba. The team, led by Erton Köhler, GC secretary, and Elbert Kuhn, associate secretary, carried out basic church building improvements with logistical help from Maranatha.

Evening Evangelism

Many team members also led or assisted with evangelistic meetings during the evenings and weekend programs. Most meetings ended with baptismal ceremonies on August 3.

At the Mantilla Adventist Church — another of the congregations supported by the GC Secretariat team and Maranatha — shuttles filled with church members, their neighbors, and friends arrived every evening for the church’s meetings.

There, in the recently painted church sanctuary and despite the stifling heat that the new Maranatha-donated wall fans could barely cool, people filled every pew, eager to listen to a message from God’s Word. Thomas Porter, longtime church missionary to several continents, preached the Word every evening.

It was a scene that repeated itself in other congregations across Havana. At the Marianao church, the speaker was Clifmond Shameerudeen, coordinator for the Center of South Asian Religions at the GC. Köhler and Gerson Santos, GC associate secretary, also led evening evangelistic meetings despite spending daytime hours performing grueling work, often under a scorching sun, to beautify the church infrastructure in Cuba’s capital city.

“People are eager to hear a message from God’s Word,” local leaders said. “We are thankful that a team of church leaders and Maranatha have partnered in this endeavor. We thank them from our hearts for being so committed to mission,” they concluded.

The original article was published on the Inter-American Division website.