The Cuba Experiment

Our church has formed a partnership with a church in Santiago De Cuba that has lasted for several years. Their desire to worship and share their faith has been limited because of the communist leadership in that country. Churches are not able to be built and if there is to be any additional churches it must exist in the form of house churches. Several years ago we partnered with them to begin a process of planting these house churches around the city to make sure that every person would have access to a church. Since that time we have planted 9 churches and 2 Grand babies have been birthed. Yes 11 churches. However, we have not been able to go back and check on the progress of the churches until now.

I am going to Cuba with two other people and the following is a list of our goals.

1. “Survey the Land” – It has been a few years since our partnership began and the new churches have started and we are going to visit and check on the progress.
2. We are going to help train and be trained. We have the opportunity to share knowledge with one another. I will have the opportunity to preach and encourage the Christians who are there to keep fighting the good fight.
3. Document the work. We plan on capturing the work that is going on through video and photography. We are developing a new website which will highlight the work that is going on in Cuba. One of the team members sole responsibility is to document the work that is going on so we can share that with people here in the states.
4. Strategize our next steps in the partnership. We plan to determine how to move forward in our relationship with our partners to be more effective in reaching even more people in the region.

This is where you come in. In Cuba the greatest need is resources. The average Cuban makes between 7 and 10 dollars a week. Therefore, it creates a challenge for them to help plant churches. However, this opens the door for us to help plant churches. Why? Because it does not cost us much money and we can have a significant impact. With just roughly $350 a church can be fully funded. This includes a Salary for a missionary, housing, and supplies. $350 A YEAR!

My goal is to try and raise $1200 to help pay for my way down to Cuba. However, I am hoping to raise more than that to help invest in churches in Cuba.

I wanted to try a weird experiment and see if a lot of my friends would send a little money with little sacrifice... (biggest challenge would be using envelopes and snail mail.) Do you think we could we raise enough money to not only get me down to Cuba but maybe even help fund one of the church plants? Would you consider sending a gift? If you can do even more… Great!

Remember that all gifts are tax deductible and can be sent to North Rock Hill Church PO Box 2477 Rock Hill, SC 29732. Simply put in the memo line… “Chris Ruppe Cuba Trip.”

Let me say in advance… Thank You! I would be even more honored if you would consider praying for us while we are in Cuba. We will be there July 31st – August 7th.

On the Journey,

Chris Ruppe