Elizabeth Lee Brown of The Tampa Tribune. May 17, 2001
Next week's missionary trip to Cuba will be a first for Idlewild Baptist Church, whose overseas missions have taken members around the globe to Paraguay, Romania, Guyana, Nicaragua and Russia.
Members from this 7,400-member congregation make about eight to 10 missionary trips a year, but going to Cuba will be special, said Reno Zunz, an Idlewild minister who works with missions.
"I think a lot of people in our church just have a heart for that island,'' Zunz said. "There's a real mystique to that island, and spiritually, there's a great deal going on down there now.''
Fourteen members will fly to the communist country on Monday and return May 28. Missionaries will help church members finish renovations on a building which Idlewild members funded. Members will attend church services and make home visits.
Group leader Keith Sims said his trips to Cuba have been a call from God.
Two years ago, Sims tried to enter Cuba, but failed to get a visa. Last year, at the last minute, Sims was invited to join a missionary trip with another church after a member dropped out.
While in Cuba, Sims met the pastor of Regla Baptist Church near Havana where they briefly discussed the small church's needs.
Soon after, Idlewild sent $20,000 for building materials. And during the past year, Regla members renovated an adjacent building to be used for extended education, Bible study and as a children's area.
Idlewild member Ray Sanabria, one of the Spanish-speaking missionaries, said he's also been called to go on this trip.
"I think we're all going with the purpose of serving God with the idea of finding out what God wants us to do here. We want to make sure we make an impact on the lives of the people there,'' Sanabria said.
In the past, missionary trips to Cuba were rare.
But as more church groups enter the communist country through federal religious visas and share their experiences and accomplishments, interest has grown, said Pastor Pedro Gonzalez of Christian International Family Travel.
Gonzalez heads the Tampa branch of the Miami-based company organizing Idlewild's trip. He said the missionary trips are humanitarian and ministerial.
"This was something impossible in the past,'' he said. "The Christian movement has grown a lot in Cuba. Cuba is having its own revival, and we're basically going there to help them with what they need materially.''
In Cuba, the government bans building new churches, so it's common for residents to convert their home into a church and have 40 to 50 people over to pray, Gonzalez said.
Elizabeth Lee Brown covers Lutz and can be reached at 885-5437 or ebrown@tampatrib.com
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