Day 27 - Lent, Communists and Cuba Part 2

Day 27 The Communists had me in Cuba Part 2

Today’s Readings Psalms 27, 57, 87, 117, 147 Proverbs 27

Cuba has nothing to do with Lent but that is me – random.

Psalm 27 is an amazing one, Love David’s analogies:

The Lord is my 1. light, 2. salvation, 3. Stronghold

When you have Him, you can look around and say, “Whom shall I fear?”

The Communists in Cuba! Sometimes when we go through major trials, our faith might seem weak, but its actually being tested and proves itself strong. While I was worried, had a lot of anxiety, I was still “calm” (according to Mattie). I was not hopeless, I was not distraught. Faith is not the absence of concern, fear or worry . . . it’s courage to move forward with hope.

^27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

So true: “in the day of trouble he will keep me safe”.

The last verse is what we need to do, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

So back to Cuba,

I was sitting in the chair as nervous as I could be when the Jefe walks in and says to me in Spanish, “are you Oscar Benavides”. “Yes I am”. “Let me see your passport.” He takes it from me. There was no greeting, introduction or courtesy. The powerful don’t have to be nice, they do whatever they want. This is a huge contrast between the suffering people of Cuba and the communist, the people are the nicest, warmest people. The commies are __________ (you fill in the blank).

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.“ Psalm 57:1

The Jefe started writing down every detail from my passport, every single detail. Its amazing how slow everything is in Cuba, they always take such time to investigate passports, as if they have never seen one. . . funny now that I think about it.

After the long silence, he said to me, “You are from Mexico?” , “Yes”. “How long have you been here?”, ”I answered him, “four days”. ” “When did you arrive?” I answered. “What hotel are you staying at?”. He asked me several more questions. At this point I figured he was not asking for new information, but was checking my facts to see if he could catch me in a lie. This went on for a while.

At about this point my confidence began to rise. I knew that I had to do two things 1. Stay alive and get out of here 2. Don’t get my team or future teams in trouble. Therefore say as little as possible, be evasive if necessary without lying. Don’t lie. If he asks me a difficult question, rephrase the question in a way that I can answer. . . don’t get caught in a trap. Lord you are with me, I sense your strength.

He then said, “I know what you have been up to. . . I know where you have been and what you have been doing. You arrived at the airport at this time, went to this hotel, then you went to eat here, you have been to these homes, and you have done this, then you did this” . . . on and on he detailed everything our team had done, even the homes we visited in Velasco, a small town. I was shocked . . .tried to keep my composure. But felt something I had never felt before, like cameras watching your every move these people had been spying on us since we arrived. It was scary, who was it? Who was the spy? Was it the bus driver? Was it a translator? I wish it was like a bond movie but it wasn’t, it was dark, evil and angering. My worldview changed in that moment. I had seen so many movies of the communists, read books, etc . . . but to actually be in it, be spied upon, it changes you. You become somewhat paranoid, cynical and very careful. You lose any sense of freedom you felt all your life. I have never had my freedom of privacy taken away from me like this.
My nervousness started to turn to anger. “He sends from heaven and save me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me.” Psalm 57:3

Next he said, “I know what you are trying to do. You are doing illegal activities. You are guilty of spreading religious propaganda.”

BOOM! Those words hit me, am I going to be arrested now? Will I have to go to a joke of a court and defend myself?

Was I guilty? Well, yes and no. The American team never preached in church or in public. Our strategy was genius and hard to say its illegal according to their laws (at least by all my law school studies in Havana sic.)

We would go to Christian homes. They would invite their neighbors and we would share about America and our story. The Cuban translator would pass out tracks, bibles, etc. but our American team never would do that as that was illegal for us to do. Our story of life included our saving relationship with Jesus and through those stories, hundreds came to faith.

I now had a confidence in me, I said, “No I did not do that. We went to homes and spoke to friends but we didn’t spread religious propaganda.”
“Yes you did” he said emphatically. I shook my head no as he spoke. “No we did not, we only visited friends.” Though he knew where we were, he didn’t know exactly what we were doing in the homes.

His intimidation continued and I stood my ground and would not budge on the accusation.

He finally said, “You must either stop doing your activities or you will be kicked out of the country.”

He took out a piece of paper and wrote on it. It said that I and my team would stop evangelism or we would be kicked out. He told me to sign it.
I said, “no, I am not doing anything wrong.”. He said, “you must sign it or you will be kicked out.”.

This is where the tide began to change. I said, “Are you forcing me to sign this?” I knew what I was doing, in typical difficult Oscar fashion. I wanted to make him sweat too. I had been subjected to too many hours of intimidation by now, I was steaming and my dad’s temper was starting to seep out of me. I can’t blame this on God, this could have been all my flesh.

His eyes flared up and he was so startled by that statement. He got up quickly and brought his secretary in the office. She was a tall and expressionless Cuban. She stood next to his desk and he continued, “Here we have a witness, now, I am NOT forcing you to sign this, you are watching this, I am NOT forcing him to sign anything. . . .”

I got what I wanted, I will not make it easy for him. I had no choice now. I had to sign this paper and get out of there as soon as possible. I sign it in the worst signature possible, (another dad tactic that was used when he was stopped by cops speeding). After signing it he said to me, “You can go now.”

I asked if I could use the phone to call a taxi and they said, “NO.” I protested, “I have no way to get to the hotel.” But they persisted in being as rude as possible. I said, “How can you treat a guest in your country like this, that is rude.” I was livid that they would not even let me use the phone.

I walked out fuming. This system of government is keeping people from hearing the gospel. I walked a few blocks before I found a bicycle taxi, this country makes me feel like I'm back in the 60s. He took me to a nearer town post where I could get a regular taxi to the hotel.

It took me several hours to start talking again, other than explaining to my team the details of the morning. Our team decided to just go visit with churches, no evangelism the next couple of days. It felt like a waste at times but we could not risk future trips.

I learned so much from this valley of shadow of death. But the theme throughout my experience is, “God is in control, He is your God, He is in charge, He will take care of you, stop looking at man for help. Look up to the heavens for your light, your salvation and your stronghold. The Lord saved me from the Communists in Cuba! WOO HOO! Thank you, thank you and thank you Jesus!

Proverbs 27:21

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.”