East Cuba
CELEBRATION ORCHESTRA
Oct 26 - Nov 4, 2023
Our return to Cuba after 4 long years was an amazing blessing. Things have changed dramatically there due to extreme food, medicine, and fuel shortage. However, our host, Elio Mora, insisted it was time for us to return to Cuba and bring encouragement and love to the people. It has been said that the believers in Cuba are like Paul; in prison but singing with joy to the Lord in spite of the circumstances. Truly, in spite of their circumstances, the believers in Cuba are joyful in the Lord and showed us incredible love and kindness. It was wonderful to return once again.
We were blessed to have Steve Kirby with us as co-director with Camp. Steve is the Instrumental Music Director at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, FL and has been to Cuba over 20 times. He was a great asset to our project musically but also because of his connections with many people in Cuba.
Over the course of the project, we were blessed with over 200 Cuban musicians that joined with our musicians. Most of them were not Believers, but they were invited to play with us as a way to minister to them.
We started out in the city of Santiago where we rehearsed and prepared for an evangelistic concert with our team of 25 American musicians plus 80 more Cuban musicians. We witnessed 30 people giving their lives to Christ at that concert and many were the professional musicians. God is so good!
We were privileged to go to the Sala Dolores, the primary theater in Santiago, to hear a concert by local symphony musicians plus a small student string orchestra. Both were under the direction of Michael, who we met on our last visit to Santiago. We are continuing to build a relationship with him and his musicians.
Due to issues with power outages and fuel shortage for transportation, we were only in two cities on this project and only performed two concerts. Our emphasis on this project was connecting with professional musicians in both Santiago and Holguin.
In Holguin, we also did something brand new for us. There were 5 professional choirs (a total of 86 Cuban singers) who each performed with our orchestra of 25 Americans and 110 Cubans. They also joined together for the last two selections on the concert. It was a glorious acclamation of the glory of God and 8 Cuban musicians came to Christ that night. Two of them were conductors of the choirs. God is good!
Pictured below are (left to right): Yanelis, Junior, Camp, Hanoi, and Yamila. Junior and his wife (Yanelis) are music directors of the Eastern Baptist Convention. Yamila and Hanoi serve in the same capacity in the Western Baptist Convention. Junior has been a partner with us in the East for many years. Yamila is beginning her service in the West and is assisted by Hanoi. She will be our host for our Celebration Orchestra project in April 2024.
We love these leaders and respect them greatly for their service to God and Cuba. They are truly our brothers and sisters in Christ.