Much to my surprise, the Methodist church is growing and thriving in Cuba.

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1 Good morning and let me start by saying thank you for the many prayers you lifted up during the 5 days that Virginia McKenna, Ken Parris, John Page and I spent partnering with the Methodist church in Cuba last November. And above all, thanks to God for the awesome privilege of having a front row seat to witness how He is working through these Cuban Christians to bring spiritual transformation to this Communist country. Much to my surprise, the Methodist church is growing and thriving in Cuba. With over 700 churches covering 90% of its cities, the Methodist church has grown from about 5,000 members in 1990 to over 30,000 strong who are actively touching the lives of hundreds of thousands more each day. Think about that, the number of Methodists in the entire nation of Cuba in 1990 was just a little more than the number of members we have here at Athens First. Another exciting fact is that 70% of these Cuban Methodists are under age 30 and are on fire for our Lord! These young pastors and lay missionaries are full of passion and energy and absorbed like sponges the training materials and testimonies we went to share with them to help equip them for ministry and to further their church planting efforts.

2 We partnered with Mount Zion Methodist Church in Gibara, a beautiful coastal town of about 27,000 people who are being claimed for Christ by this growing and vibrant congregation of about 140 members. Pastor Pedro Cabrera, his family and the entire church showered us with extraordinary love and hospitality and since the only Spanish I remembered from 2 years of it in college was the name of my textbook Vamos - or let s go - our translator Tania was an extra special blessing! Shortly after arriving in Gibara, we joined them in worship not just any worship, but stirring and inspiring worship that registered about a 15 on a scale from 1 to 10! The presence of the Holy Spirit continued to overwhelm us during the workshops and other worship experiences we shared we these adults, youth and children. My greatest takeaway was how deeply they love and trust Jesus and how this inspires and empowers them to plant other churches in and around Gibara. In the 2 years that Pastor Pedro had been at Mount Zion, their number of small groups grew from 4 to 10 and their number of church plants had grown from 1 to 6.

3 And I m quite confident that their reach has grown even more since last November, not because of what we shared with them, but because of their radical commitment to loving, trusting, and following Jesus. 1 st Peter 3:15 urges us to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts and to always be prepared to give an explanation for the hope that we have. Pastor Pedro and our Cuban brothers and sisters gave me a crystal clear picture of what this truly looks like. You see, the people of communist Cuba have every reason in the world to have little hope for their future. Yet they possess deep and rich hope rooted in their relationship with Christ, their relationships with each other, and the unbridled passion they have for transforming Cuba by simply GOING and sharing God=s love. But the greatest transformation I witnessed in Cuba, was what I experienced in my own heart. Their passionate faith gave me a much greater desire to share the faith, hope and love that we have in Christ with a world that so desperately needs Him.

4 The Gospel of Matthew closes with the familiar GO and LO passage in Chapter 28 where the risen Jesus commands us to GO and make disciples of all nations and then assures us that LO, He is with us always. In his New York Times bestselling book Radical, UGA grad David Platt writes this about his experience in Cuba: In Cuba you will not observe large buildings and flashy church advertisements. You will hardly notice the church at all UNTIL you get to know the people. We visited one small, impoverished Cuban church. This one church had planted 60 other churches. The next day we visited one of the churches they had planted. That church had planted 25 other churches. Cuban Christians are taking Jesus at his word and multiplying the church by MAKING DISCIPLES. Nothing big and nothing extravagant. Just GOING, baptizing, and teaching, and in the process planting churches from coast to coast across that island nation. This is precisely what we saw God doing through Pastor Pedro and the church in Gibara. I m so grateful and excited to have these Moments for Missions during our worship time this month and when I think about my own Moments for Missions, I have to confess that they are really just that Moments Moments that are too few, and Moments that are too far between.

5 But on the other hand, our Cuban brothers and sisters are multiplying their Moments for Missions into Lifetimes for Missions Lifetimes of Going, Lifetimes of making disciples. 5,000 Cuban Methodists in 1990, under Communist control, oppression and with little resources, helped ignite this spiritual transformation by simply GOING and sharing the love of Jesus and the hope they have in Him with their neighbors. imagine if you and I and the 3,500 members of THIS Church, with all of our resources and freedoms imagine if we faithfully and joyfully committed more of our time, talents, gifts, service, and witness to Going, and making disciples imagine how God would multiply our Moments for Missions and imagine how much more deeply we would experience God s love as we are more fully engaged with Him in making disciples around the corner and around the globe. On a regular basis, I try to answer this question - When during the past week have I felt closest to Christ?

6 My answer is always a Moment in Mission, IF I, and especially IF I and my family, took an opportunity to share the love of Christ, not just in word, but in truth and ACTION with a neighbor in need. I ve come to see that Jesus command in Matthew 28 to GO is not because He NEEDS us, but because He LOVES us and He wants us to experience His presence more deeply and He wants us to grow closer to Him by Going and Making disciples. So taking the title of my Spanish textbook literally VAMOS - Let s Go and Let s share the love of Christ with our world, Let s Go to our co-worker who just lost her mother, Let s Go to our classmate who just doesn t seem to fit in, Let s Go right outside these doors and serve our neighbors, who are drawn to the Mobile Food Pantry each month, Let s Go by sponsoring a child in Africa orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic Let s Go to Appalachia, Costa Rica, Tijuana, Uganda, and Cuba, Let s Go EVERYWHERE God is inviting us to join HIM in making disciples of all nations. So by the authority of our risen Lord and with the power of His presence always with us, Let s Go and Let s help ignite the spiritual transformation our world hungers for by turning our MOMENTS for Missions into LIFETIMES for Missions.