Day 2: Thursday morning we woke up early only because our bodies were in so much pain from the bed….I remembered hearing the night before that breakfast was over by 10AM. So I went ahead of my roommates to check the food out….and to the lobby in search for a computer to send an email to my hubby cause I knew he needed to know we had arrived ok. I had noticed a room next to the reception desk with a computer in it. I was able to buy one hour of internet usage but someone was using it at the when I arrived downstairs. I decided to head to the One restaurant. There were quite a few people in the restaurant eating, most of them tourists.

I kind of just walked over to the buffet to take a look and honestly there was very little food and it did not look at all appetizing. I noticed a woman cooking eggs at a station and I headed toward her. I asked for some eggs and she fried me One egg…I said I wanted two and she said “No niña, solo Uno!” (No dear, just One!) Ok….Just One! I ate my One egg and was grateful to have it! I also had an espresso…Wow! That opened my eyes! I sat at a table waiting for my friends to come down and I began to really pay attention to my surroundings. At some point I thought to myself when this place was first converted into a hotel it must have been nice. The tables had white tablecloths and the chairs were wicker. The staff was dressed in black pants and a white shirt with a black vest. The food staff all wore white with a white chef’s hat. The woman at the egg station was a round black woman with a beautiful smile….. I also noticed that there were a lot of black young women with older white men. I asked my waitress about this and she raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips so without words I understood. I laughed at this gesture and said to her “they are the wives right?” She then lifted her hand and rubbed her thumb with her two fore fingers back and forth in a gesture so typical of Latin America! “Ah…… I got it!

Then I noticed my two American friends happily walking towards me all smiles….I said “Breakfast is over, but….really there is nothing we could eat !” They strolled to the buffet area and came back with those same raised eyebrows. ….(I did not tell them about all the professional ladies all around us!)

We decided to take a little stroll to the grocery store across the street. Not much in stock at this place but we were able to find Sprite, Pringles and Saltine Crackers. This is where we found out our Euros would not be accepted. They only accept CUC’s which is one of the two currencies they use in Cuba. I stayed and held our supplies while Jean and Renee went back to the hotel and exchange some money. Meanwhile, I chatted with the lady at the counter…of course she was curious about us. I asked her if she owned this store and she said no, it belonged to the government….I asked her if she was happy in her country and she raised her eyebrows shook her head once very slowly and said “yes, of course”. Mmmm wonder if someone was listening. I told her a little about our conference….(in a loud voice)…in case someone was listening. She just smiled at me.

Later in the morning, we had a meeting with Rick VanCleef as he gave us some do’s and don’ts during our stay and a better overview of our surroundings and various details we needed to know. He cautioned us that our rooms probably were bugged…so he said for us to be careful of what we said. Every now and then when we were in our rooms Renee would look up at the ceiling and say something positive about Cuba! It was hilarious and we all would agree with her with our heads turned up in a loud voice….I guess we all instinctively thought the bug would be in the ceiling. Ha! I laugh just thinking about it….

We spent the day putting our gift bags together. We made about 350 bags and filled them with a tissue/Kleenex bag, lipstick, Pink finger nail file, deodorant, manicure set, candy, and a program with our pink logo pen. We then coordinated on the beds all the other items that we would be giving out each day. If anyone would have walked in they would have thought we were jewel thieves. We had 350 rings to give out, 400 crown pins, 300 moisturizer w/butterfly, etc…you get the picture? We had an incredible assembly line set up in that room.
We stopped for Lunch headed down to the restaurant again only to pretty much pass on it again…We would order a sprite and we would get a glass with One cube of Ice…so as you can see “ONE” became very significant for us!

We were picked up at 4PM and all our bags went in one car and we traveled to the church in a taxi. Upon arriving we traveled through the streets and our taxi driver was a little lost but he gave us a tour of the neighborhoods. I sat in the front having an interesting conversation with this gentleman about Cuba while Renee and Jean ooh-ed and aah-ed in the back seat because the homes had a very similar structure as the French homes in Louisiana. I talked politics and they talked paint and structure….our cab driver loved our energy!

Everywhere we went we saw pictures of the Castro brothers. Billboards of both Raul and Fidel also of Che Guevara….(I will write more about him later, this guy fascinates me totally). Interestingly what we never saw were soldiers….(this was especially interesting to me because everywhere in latin America you will see soldiers everywhere) here we are in a communist country and none are visible…..

Bethel Church was located in the corner of a very busy intersection….picture a white 10ft concrete wall with a white double wood door and a large iron rod window on each side of the door. Then on the right side of the wall was a smaller blue wood door and we entered through this side door…a kind of narrow alley that lead us to the front of the church. Immediately our bags were brought in to the church and we began assembling them on the steps of the pulpit. Some ladies began to enter and we greeted them and they begin working alongside us setting up the bags. We began pulling out our pink tissue…the kind you use to decorate a gift bag. We had to add these to each of the 300 bags. I rallied the ladies and began to show them how to do this. They followed my lead and learned quickly and then as more ladies came in they began to show those how to maneuver the tissue to look pretty in the bags. Such a simple task for us but they had never seen this done before and were excited to learn.

We left the ladies in the church finishing up the bags and we were escorted upstairs above the church to where Pastor Faustino and his family lives. They were waiting for us to have dinner before the service that began at 8PM. We finally were able to eat and we enjoyed white rice and black beans….a salad and some potatoes and chicken. Hmmmmm…

The service began promptly at 8PM and as we entered the side door to the front row of the church we were received by about 300 ladies all worshiping and their smiles just overwhelmed me. We greeted those around us and the little lady I showed how to maneuver the tissue paper Maylin, sat behind me with a big smile. She whispered in my ear “did we get the bags done right?” I hugged her and said “Yes they look beautiful! Thank you so much!” She beamed!….. Maylin decided that she was now my best friend and stuck by me for the rest of the conference!

(on the picture above she is the one with the bright pink shirt and her had raised in worship).

Their Worship team was awesome! Very powerful and fierce young women. We worshipped for an hour and some. Pastor Jean and I took to the platform and she greeted all the ladies as she has been there before. I also introduced myself and greeted all the ladies and gave them an overview as to what we were there to do…I looked out on a sea of women of all ages, sizes and color. Some dark complexion, some very light with blondish hair and blue eyes…one little girl looked a bit like my Emma, (as most of you know…she has Cuban blood in her too).

These Women captivated my heart instantly. You could see the hunger in their eyes….they were expecting a word from God and I knew God had called us “for such a time as this”. Pastor Renee came and preached her heart out! She spoke about the Shunamite Woman “It is Well”. As I stood next to her and translated the sermon I noticed the back double doors and both windows were wide open and there were people walking past the church on the street and they would stop to listen to what we were saying. There were at least 30 people huddled outside in the street looking in…all listening intently. The church was packed from the front to the back….

At the end of the service, while we were praying for women at the altar I began walking towards the back of the church just hugging and kissing ladies in each row and they embraced me with such fierceness. As I walked through the crowd many would just reach out to touch me and I would feel them press little notes of paper into my hand and into my jacket pocket….many whispered their hopes and dreams to my ear and I prayed with each one of them. Many hugged me and thanked me for coming… (I realize what a privilege this was for me since i was the only one of our team to speak spanish). Obviously, Pastor Renee and Pastor Jean had their own encounters and I know that they were also in awe of the love that was shown to them each.

One woman asked me if she could bring her son to the next evening service because he was confined to a wheelchair. I said of course…please bring him and we will pray for him…

As I was walking through the crowd heading back to the pulpit I felt someone grab my arm and as I turned to look at who had stopped me…I saw a little girl about 10 years old and she told me that her mother was in jail and was due to come out in May. She asked me to please pray that when she is released she would be happy at home with her and give her life to the Lord. She lived with her grandmother who was standing behind her protectively. I wish you could have seen this little ones face…so full of hope with tears running down her face. I held her tightly and prayed….she held me tight for what seemed like an eternity…she did not want to let go of me. I felt like she was making a demand of God through me…it was powerful. Please pray for this little one every time you think of her…

We gave out some of my CD’s and the Lioness books by Lisa Bevere in Spanish and told the ladies that the bags at the altar were going to be given out to each of them on Friday. They were overjoyed!

The Pastors were overjoyed to see their ladies being blessed! After everyone left, and as we were heading out I looked through the alley in a window of the church and noticed all the chairs had been taken up and there were mattresses all laid out on the floor of the church. These were for all the ladies that had traveled in from their provinces and they would be sleeping in the church. Many were already lying on their beds and I waived at them. They all waved back and called out “Thank you!” Wow! My heart was full!

We took a taxi back to our hotel that evening completely overwhelmed and in awe of the presence of God in that service! More to come….