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Dr. & Mrs. Jimmy
Nelson Missionaries training Nationals around the WorldL.A.M.P. P.O. Box 820308, Fort Worth, TX 76182 |
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March 9, 2004 Dear Reader, February 9th I
left DFW and flew to Cancun Mexico and on to Havana Cuba. I met with Brother Corrales briefly on
Tuesday and then Wednesday Brother Roe, his family, and I left Havana and
traveled until about 9 pm. We spent
the night in a hotel in Camagúey.
Thursday we drove to Campechuela where the Seminary Extension is
located. I met Brother Lester
Acosta and his family. It did not
take very long to understand that Brother Acosta and his family are wonderful
people and very dedicated to the Lord.
Shortly after moving to Campechuela Mrs. Acosta, who is a medical
doctor, resigned her practice in order to help and support her husband in a
growing church (about 300) and ministry. Brother Roe, Brother
Hernandez, and I spent the next three or four hours with Brother Acosta. During our time together he thanked me and
told me how grateful he and the church were that we were willing to provide
the video material and establish a Seminary Extension in Campechuela several
times. He made the same statement
that we hear time and time again. “I
have men that need seminary training, but I don’t have the time to teach them
all of the classes they need and we don’t have a place to send them to
study.” He went on to say how it
thrilled his soul to hear that we had a Seminary Extension Program available
and how great an asset quality teaching material on video/DVD was. Brother Acosta has a group
of men that travel into the more remote areas of Cuba to preach the Gospel,
establish preaching points with the intent of starting churches. He said that the Seminary Extension was an
answer to pray. That became very
evident as we discussed the pastors vision for reaching Cuba, how we could
best help him accomplish that goal, as well as answering his questions, and
discussion the details of operation for the Seminary Extension. The Campechuela Extension
has two groups of students. One group
meets in the mornings and the other in the evening. Friday we were privileged to meet with both groups. Brother Roe and I spoke to both groups and
answered their questions concerning their studies. After Brother Hernandez finished teaching we spent some time
getting to know the students better.
I am excited that there are fifty students taking classes at the
present time. Saturday we drove to
Baracoa where we had the meeting last year.
We had problems with the car and did not arrive in Baracoa until late
Saturday night. Early Sunday morning
Jim contacted the car rental agency about the problem we were having with the
car. Monday morning, believing the
car to be repaired, we left for Las Tunas.
On the way we made contact with Pastor Osiel Matos Hernandez. But within and hour the car was spitting
and sputtering again, and by God’s grace we finally reached Hoguín. However, it was evident that we were not
going to be able to meet with the students in the Seminary Extension in Las
Tunas. Tuesday morning Jim meet
the manager of the car rental agency and they took the car to Puerto Vita to
the mechanic shop to remove the fuel tank, filter and fuel pump to clean them
and put clean gasoline in the tank.
By 12:30 we were underway again for Las Tunas. We arrived at the church
in Las Tunas were the Seminary Extension has been established. Upon our arrival I meet the second
professor, Brother Abram and his wife, and pastor Grabiel Abad and his
wife. Again we spent time getting to
know the pastor and answering the question he and his students had about the
curriculum and operational procedures.
Brother Abad also expresses his joy and appreciation for the training
materials. Since I had meetings
planned with Brother Corrales in Havana, we were not able to stay in Las
Tunas to meet the students. Around 4
pm we left for Havana. We arrived at
2am Wednesday morning. Wednesday, Jim and I met
with Brother Corrales and the men he had arranged for us to meet. Two men enrolled Wednesday and five other
pastors have enrolled in the Extension in Havana since I left. Brother Corrales says that
every pastor he talks to wants to study himself and/or start classes in order
to train men in their church. This is
very evident! Brother Hernandez
emailed us and said that two more churches want to begin classes. The time spent in
Campechuela, Las Tunas, and Havana has convinced me that God is going to do
wonderful things in Cuba. |
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