By Dr. Joe Yelton
Interim Pastor
Having just celebrated our commitment and friendship with our sister congregation in Cuba, and having completed a wonderful time with Pastors Ernesto and Marisol, we can take a moment to be grateful for much. At the outset, let us give thanks to God for those gifted and giving members of our church who made this opportunity happen. To those who planned, housed, fed, arranged, transported, and a myriad of other necessary tasks and duties, please receive our gratitude. Your sacrifices did not go unnoticed.
For perspective, Cuba is just over 1,000 miles away or, approximately 500 miles closer to Sylva than Denver, Albuquerque, and Cheyenne.
One would think that proximity would translate into similarity. It doesn’t. Cuba is a struggling nation with a desperate economy, broken transportation system, and an overreaching government. A few years back while participating in a mission experience there, I saw their poverty first hand. I have no words to describe it. However, I do have words to describe other things I saw ... children playing outside all day long, much as I did when I was their age. I saw doting mothers and fathers lavishing love upon their children. I saw church families gathered in humble, block buildings, singing praises to their God, at an almost cathedral-like experience.
Whatever the Cuban government and our government might want us to believe, the people of Cuba I encountered do not loathe or fear us. They genuinely love us and hope that the ties that bind us will grow stronger and those things that separate us will fall away.
Thank God for our sister church in Cuba. Thank God for the camaraderie we share. Thank God that we are so much alike. And yes, thank God that the more we submit to the Lordship of Jesus, the less sway any differences we may have will carry.