Wheaton Football Ministry Partnership, Cuba 2017
Wow, what a trip to Cuba! I've been out of the Wheaton Football community for going on a couple years now, and there are few things as refreshing as getting plugged back into a group you know so well, doing meaningful work. One of the more obvious things I noticed working alongside the other men was how the football team and culture hasn't changed a bit (in two years, that can happen quickly in any collegiate organization), and that is one awesome thing to be able to look at and see. Young men continue to be challenged, shaped, and grown into who God is calling them to be while playing football at Wheaton College. This trip was great for a few reasons, one of them simply being able to learn the stories of the guys on the trip and hear how much their lives are being impacted by attending and playing at Wheaton.
One of the things that fascinates me about these trips is the way in which my view on them has shifted over the years-I used to believe that the short-term missions trip was designed solely for those being "served". After going on more than a couple of these, I'm realizing how backwards I've had it...these trips aren't really for those in other countries being served, but they're for those who are serving. While the missionaries working in-country and the nationals absolutely benefit and receive blessing from these trips, I have a hard time imagining the impact of a single trip lasting longer in terms of psychological or spiritual encouragement for more than a few weeks at the most. However, the impact of these trips on the men that take them each year continues to prove to be profound and deep. It was the same on this trip to Cuba as its been in the past-getting outside of the comfort zone (for us, the USA) and into another culture to see how God was working in that particular area in that particular country was an eye-opening and heart-transforming endeavor.
Arriving in Cuba, we stepped into a world frozen in time. I had known very little about the culture of Cuba before going into this trip, and now realize how deep and rich the history is. While there, I realized how little I actually knew and wanted to later do some further investigating about it's history. I don't want to do it a disservice (which I would by attempting to summarize it) so I'll include a link to it here. For better or for worse, Cuba went through its own revolution in 1959 and Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba.
Above is a memorial dedicated to José Martí, one of Cuba's most influential men and a hero of the current government. His philosophical ideologies are were touted enough by the current government to warrant this massive memorial. This is located in Revolution Square (or Plaza de la Revolución) which is pictured below, featuring the faces Che Guevara and Camila Cienfuegos, two leaders of the revolution along with Fidel.
Very few new things have been built in Cuba since 1959. Cars driving the streets are almost all old, and many are classics from the 1950's and 1960's.
So to say we stepped into a different world is not an understatement. Having barely passed Spanish during my time at Wheaton, communication with anyone that didn't speak English (which was most of the population) became fairly difficult. Fortunately, we had a couple of really stellar interpreters that knew their languages well and could make up for us in the areas we lacked.
I thought this was fascinating. So, it turns out that back in the day when the US and Cuba were on good terms, they literally copied our White House as their own governmental seat. So, seated in downtown Havana, Cuba is a near replica of the United States' own White House. After the revolution is ceased to be the governmental seat, and is now the Cuban Academy of Sciences.
This is what much of the architecture is like in downtown Havana. Old, ornate, and beautiful-it makes you think you're walking through an old city in Europe.
We also did manage to make it out to the ocean for a day when we were in Santa Clara. It was unbelievably beautiful.
I had previously thought we were going to be working at an orphanage inland, but I realized later was not the case. The reality was we were going to help paint a couple of churches, both located in Santa Clara, a city inland further inland and a few hours drive away from Havana. So first we spent a couple days in Havana learning about the history of Cuba, doing some sightseeing, etc. After attending church Sunday in Havana and getting to see the ocean Monday, we drove out to Santa Clara and began work the next day. I've gone on a few of these trips and I can confess the work has not always been very...hard. Not so on these trips. This was some of the hardest I've worked on any of these trips, and I think many of the others guys would say the same. The painting was not so much physically taxing as much as it was a unique challenge of trying to complete whatever the wishes of the churches there were (sometimes they would add extra tasks that we didn't have time or abilities to complete) as well as the limited nature of our resources (we had to bring pretty much all our supplies into the country-brushes, rollers, paint trays, tape...everything).
The way Cuba's economy operates currently, everyone has multiple jobs. If you try to work one job, you'll have a lot of free time on your hands and very, very little money. So everybody works 3 or 4 jobs, and somehow they get by. People doing professional work (such as a doctor) earn as little as $25 or $30 a month, because the government controls where the wages get set at. So for some, it makes more sense to be a housekeeper than a doctor, because you'll make more money. That was the case of the woman at the hostel in Havana where most of us stayed. To work as a doctor, she would earn far less than working as as the house-lady for the hostel, so she chose the latter. Little things like that in Cuba continued to blow our mind throughout the week. Learning about the economy and the current feelings towards politics were both intriguing and a little scary to realize how locked down everything was. Communism (or Socialism) wasn't in your face outright, but you could see its enduring effects everywhere.
Above is the first church we painted in Santa Clara. This was a one day project, and it took us some time to get on our feet and figure out how to do it. The most time consuming part of the job was painting the aluminum window shutters that most buildings there have. Cubans love painting their buildings in loud, wild colors, and these churches were no different. So yellow and blue it was. We were able to get most of the church painted in the day, but sadly one of the most helpful contributions we could've made would've been repairs to the leaky roof, which will eventually make any new paint job inside or out null and void. However, one small step forward at a time.
Pictured above, here is the church after we'd finished painting it. It may not look like much, but it did look much better than when we'd started it. And it had been a good training ground to prepare us for our next church painting project (a two-day ordeal) which is pictured below pre-painting.
So this is the second church we tackled. It's called Los Nuevos Pinados Iglesia (The New Pines Church) and was considerably bigger than our previous project. With fifteen guys, we had good manpower, but had to figure out how to divide up labor and avoid bottlenecks (more than one person waiting to use a ladder for a particular job, need to move the scaffolding, etc). That was the other thing...normal things like ladders and scaffolding that are fairly easy to come by in the US are an entirely different story out of country. We made multiple trips to different people's homes, in which they let us in and took us into their back rooms, where they kept their tools and home improvement materials. These rudimentary workspaces were the lifeblood of these workers who either worked on their own homes, or worked as laborers on others' homes. They graciously lent us their ladders and scaffolding...but sometimes they would need the scaffolding back! So after one day using one set of scaffolding, we had to tear it down the next, take it back, and go to a different house to get someone else's different set of scaffolding. This kind of juggling in the Third World strikes me as being pretty classic and fairly indicative of the way things go. American efficiency and a desire for things to go smoothly can capsize a good work ethic if you let them, so you just have to accept that this is the way things go in Cuba!
These pictures are a little dark because the blinds were closed, but I love the way the light is streaming through the front windows and door of the church. This is the church (above) two days later after we'd finished painting it. It had been very difficult to reach the high spots, but after using ladders and scaffolding and some other secret methods I won't mention here, we got it done and it looked great. The church was very pleased indeed.
The funny thing about it is, we could've easily sent down a fraction of the money spent on this trip and paid day laborers to do this job just as well (if not much better) as well as probably faster. But the point isn't getting the job done, its how it gets done. The young guys working on this project were forced to get out of their comfort zone and into a different world, in a way that challenged their worldviews and helped them be exponentially more grateful for the many blessings we have here in the United States. Not only that, but these trips are instrumental in inspiring dreams and helping guys catch a vision for what God is doing all over the world. For myself, to travel to Africa my freshman year and realize that Africa didn't need saving from its "savior" the United States blew my mind and challenged my worldview that everyone else wanted to be like us in the US. To be sure, the standard of living could be much higher in Cuba. And along with that, there are many issues looming that are real, and hopefully can and will be addressed (infrastructure issues, political pressures, economic stagnation). But the truth is there are issues all over the world (especially in our own backyard in the US!) and there always will be. The point is that God is working through local churches, all over the world, and these trips help the players that go on them to see that and get to experience the deep, rich lessons that come from serving with a humble heart. The best parts of the trip were these spiritual/relational aspects.
This is the roof of the hostel we stayed at in Havana. The couple nights we were there, we met as a group and talked about the stories of our lives. Each night a couple guys shared a short testimony about themselves and how they came to be at Wheaton. They included their triumphs, failures, and struggles. It ended up being a really rewarding experience in which we all grew closer to one another as we learned each others backgrounds and histories. This relationships building is crucial to development as a unit on the field, but also beyond the gridiron and in life after school.
Meal times were always fun though. The longer we spent together the more fun we had as we continued to work and play hard with each other.
Above is a youth service that was held at one of the highest points in Santa Clara. This was a really cool night. So while we'd spend the days working on the churches doing painting projects, we would usually spend the evenings doing something with the local church cell groups or different youth from the church community. This night, we gathered for a worship service where we sang songs, offered praise, and listened to testimony. It was a powerful experience to listen to other believers from Cuba talking about their steadfast faith in God and their desire to know him more.
This also is a picture from that night. These are a few of the guys that are part of the New Pines Church and hung around throughout the week at the various youth events we participated in.
The last Saturday we were there, we had a day at the park where we played sports together. It was an outreach to Christians and nonChristians alike, an meant to be an Evangelistic outreach through having fun. We played soccer, basketball, and a few of us tried playing a little baseball. They also wanted to see a demonstration of American Football, which we obliged. After playing we got together as a group and had a short time of worship and heard a testimony.
Our last day there, we gathered with the youth ministry we'd be interacting with all week and our missionary contact Keith preached a sermon that was translated by our amazing interpreter Geraldo. After the service, we hung out and played some games before we headed back and rested up for the big day of travel ahead the next day.
This is a final picture of our team with the Cuban youth ministry at New Pines Church. The trip was an incredible experience and I have no doubt it had as much of an impact on the lives of these young guys as these trips have had on mine for years. For me, it was personally encouraging to realize the ways in which the football team continues to do it's own thing-that being creating men of character that hunger for Christ and love playing football. The program continues to create these kind of men that will be difference makers in the world, and these trips absolutely help facilitate that growth. And above all, its always a real blessing to be able to see the work God is doing around the world, often in spite of some of our best efforts. He works through all circumstances, and for that I am grateful. And I am also grateful for your prayers, well wishes, and contributions to help make my trip possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
