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Cuba Welcomes Southeast
Christian Choir
By James Zambroski. WAVE
3 TV, Louisville, KY.
(HAVANA, Cuba) -- Cuba is a place few Americans
get to see, but just last month 100 members
of Southeast Christian Church went there
on a mission, hoping to bring some joy and
hope for Christians brave enough to practice
their religion in that Communist country.
WAVE 3 Investigator James Zambroski and
Photographer Scott Utterback went along
to record the experience.
It is a nation unlike any other, a Communist
country floating like a jagged scar on the
ocean, 90 miles from Florida. Cuba was once
considered the playground of the Caribbean,
catering to the rich, famous and notorious.
Today, nearly 50 years after Fidel Castro's
revolution, everything Cuban struggles under
the weight of Marxism. Despite the revolution's
promise of a single economic class, without
wealth or poverty, Cuba is a land of contrasts,
both to its people and visitors from around
the globe.
"I am proud of having a cigar like
this," said one man we met, sitting
in a comfortable chair, enjoying one of
the world's most sought-after cigars.
Meanwhile, another man on the street made
a convincing pitch for a handout. "If
you give me $10, it will pay for food for
one month. You'll go into my heart, it will
go into the sky for the rest of your life."
Travel to Cuba is illegal for most Americans.
There are exceptions: religious groups can
go if they're licensed by the U.S. State
Department. Louisville's Southeast Christian
Church has such a charter, and in October,
it sent almost 100 members of the Master's
Men Choir, and their wives, for a 1-week
concert tour and mission trip.
Southeast Christian Church's Senior Minister,
Bob Russell, says the Cuba trip "gives
us the opportunity to bring the hope of
Jesus Christ to these people. And also to
make a connection between Communist Cuba
and the prosperity of the United States."
The church reaches out to 32 countries
around the world, spending about $3 million
in support. Tina Bruner heads the mission
ministry at Southeast. "It gives our
members a chance to give back. You know,
we freely receive, freely give, so I think
that our members are looking for outlets
of how to be actively involved in great
commission type work."
Church members who go on 50 such trips
annually are committed volunteers. "They
actually raise their own support,"
Bruner said. "They either pay for it
themselves, or they have friends or family
who become part of the trip by financially
supporting them. So they raise all of their
own funds or pay for the trip themselves."
We flew aboard the Southeast charter from
Miami to Havana after getting journalist
visas and work permits from the Cuban government.
We checked into our hotel 12 hours after
leaving Louisville. By Monday, we were on
the steps of the Cuban capitol in Havana.
Two million people live in Havana, and
the city's architecture is simply stunning.
Street life is just like you'd expect in
any city of this size: Lots of beautiful
women. Locals coming and going to work.
Tourists. Street vendors of all sorts. And,
of course, the government is everywhere.
However, the constant presence of government
officials didn't stop the mission: the Master's
Men spent the week rehearsing and performing
in small venues, getting ready to sing with
the Cuban National Choir and Symphony at
historic sites in old Havana.
Meanwhile, their wives spent their time
reaching out to some of the poorest neighborhoods
in the city.
Tune into WAVE 3 News at 11 on tonight
and tomorrow for parts 2 and 3 of this saga,
and see how nearly the Master's Men and
their wives go into the belly of the beast
of Communism with a message of hope, and
how the experience changed their lives forever.
You'll also meet some of the people we
met along the way. Coming up tonight in
Part 2, James Zambroski shows us how Christianity
came to be tolerated in Cuba and how the
Southeast Choir members and their wives
reached out to believers still afraid to
be out in the open.
Online Reporter: James Zambroski
Online Producer: Michael Dever
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