Warm greetings in the Savior’s Name!
I am grateful to bring you joyful news . . . the growth of the gospel around the world . . . thanks to the partnership that you and I share in the Lord’s service. “And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
We bear the Good News even in the midst of unprecedented pain and confusion . . .
I’m just back from Cuba, where the people are surviving in amazingly difficult conditions. You’ve seen the news, but I can tell you firsthand, it’s worse than you know.
Ever since 1962, Cuba has been under embargo by the United States, but it’s never been as tightly enforced as it is right now. President Trump has imposed tariffs on any country that sells fuel to Cuba. (The only bit of relief: Russia’s President Putin asked permission to bring in a ship for “humanitarian” purposes, and Trump allowed it.)
When I arrived, the island had not received a shipment of fuel in more than three months. The few countries whose airlines still fly into Cuba must use planes that can carry enough fuel to proceed to the nearby Dominican Republic or some other country for refueling because there’s too little fuel available in Havana.
It takes fuel to run the thermo-electrical plants that generate Cuba’s electricity. But fuel was in such short supply that electricity was being severely rationed—available only three hours in any 24-hour period.
Rationing has driven prices sky-high. The team and I paid $32 for a gallon for gasoline. Diesel was $20 per gallon. (And prices have continued surging since we left.)
So the Cuban people are forced to improvise—as they have for decades. In my 26 years of ministry there, I’ve often heard Cubans repeat the common saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” (It’s usually credited to Thomas Edison, who patented 1,093 inventions, but it’s actually a paraphrase from the Greek philosopher Plato.)
What about evangelism? What about church-planting? Our brothers and sisters in Cuba have “invented” relentlessly as electricity has become more and more inconsistent. At first, churches began buying gasoline-powered electric generators, if they could afford to. But as fuel became scarce, many church meetings were simply conducted without electricity.
In an evangelistic meeting, after the preaching of the gospel, the preacher no longer urges people to raise their hand if they accept Christ as Savior—it’s too dark to see raised hands! Instead, he asks them to call out their own names!
Cuba actually began feeling a fuel-supply crunch some years ago. One clever fellow named Pino went viral when he converted his tiny Polish-made Fiat to charcoal power. Charcoal is still plentiful, and dirt cheap. Unfortunately, charcoal conversion isn’t practical on a mass scale.
So, many more Cubans responded to fuel shortages and higher prices by purchasing electric-powered motorcycles. The preferred model is a three-wheeler with a small cargo hold—it looks like a tiny pickup truck. The innovative Cubans can carry as many as seven people with this rig.
But what do you do when the power plants fail altogether and there’s no electricity for recharging your electric vehicle? ¡La necesidad engendra otra invención! Necessity mothers another invention! Cubans have turned to solar power.
People are snapping up any solar panels they can find, many as small as two square feet, and affixing them to their electric tricycles. Multitudes of solar-powered tricycles are ferrying passengers, seven at a time, all over the island. No need to wait for your battery to recharge! Cuba lacks much, but it does have sunlight! Trike-drivers are “fueling up” continuously, under the sun, traveling hundreds of kilometers nonstop.
Of course, as you can imagine, countless numbers of Cubans are desperate to find solar system components. Those who operate little restaurants, ice cream shops, auto repair shops, or other small businesses urgently need solar, but the components are sold at astronomical prices as fast as they arrive in the country.
In the midst of the scramble for energy and transportation, we are pulling out the stops to keep churches fully functional in the harvest work to which we’ve been called together.
And now, I am thrilled to report, the Lord has led us to a phenomenal outreach-expansion opportunity!
Please give me just two minutes to explain . . .
The largest church building we’ve ever built in Cuba, planted many years ago with the help of a friend from Oregon, continues to serve as the hub of a vibrant ministry. To construct the facility, the pastor and people maneuvered tirelessly—and brilliantly—to stretch every peso as far as possible.
They actually invented a rock-crushing machine to make their own gravel. They went to the river for sand and rock. They went to the forest and cut down pine trees three stories tall to support the structure. They roofed the building. They laid their own floors. And the list goes on.
One day the pastor and a driver were on the road in the church van when they came across a very familiar scenario: a car hopelessly broken down. (To find yourself at the side of the road in a broken-down vehicle is absolutely part of the “Cuban experience.”)
The pastor and his companion pulled over to help. They towed the hapless traveler to a repair place. Full of gratitude, the man asked the pastor to let him offer some expression of thanks. In classic Cuban fashion, he had something other than money to offer. In this case: marble.
Of course! Every pastor in Cuba wants such a luxury. It’s a beautiful, durable material for church floors and walls. But it’s painfully expensive. Plus: the market for marble is so intense; to purchase it requires a government permit—practically impossible to get.
But the man was unfazed. His broken-down vehicle actually belonged to the director of the marble company. He had full authority to sell marble at his own discretion. The permit would be granted and approved! The only question was: How much do you want?
With the marble-seller’s approval, the pastor was able to secure marble at a nominal price for all of his fellow pastors—and fully fund a supply of marble for his own church.
I tell you this story because we now have a God-given opportunity to apply the same strategy in the current crisis and equip our Cuban churches with solar power.
We have identified three companies in China that will sell us solar panels, batteries, and inverters at one-quarter the price that Cubans normally pay.
If we can fund the purchase of two loads of solar equipment, we can distribute one set to a few churches—and sell the other set. With the proceeds from this sale, we can purchase another two loads, and repeat the process—until all our churches are powered by the Son but also by the sun!
Even if the flow of fuel is somehow suddenly restored to the island, this extraordinary advance will keep churches strong and self-reliant no matter what crises may befall the Cuban people in the future.
It will take $50,000 to set this miracle in motion. So I bring you this challenge. Would you please pray about it and give today to help seize this moment for the Kingdom?
I ask you to give as generously as possible because this is only one mission field where God is opening up beautiful doors of opportunity for evangelism and church planting:
- In Spain: Great end-of-school-year momentum! Graduates are preparing to start fulltime ministries around the country. We are doing a course on the life of Paul with a pastor friend from California. Right after graduation: a summer of evangelistic campaigns!
- In Venezuela: About to graduate 90 church planters—who have already planted more than 300 churches even before completing their studies!
- In Myanmar: The goal was to launch 100 churches—but we’re already at 105!
- In Kenya: Blueprint complete for starting 300 church plants. Funding for 200 is approved for two years. Need: $3,300/month to secure the other 100.
- In India: Near completion of a three-story school/church building. (I’ve been invited to the July inauguration.)
- In Nepal—Spain—Portugal: Ministry is going well, greater and greater participation in our evangelistic and training efforts.
This is what God does when you give.
Which is why I so boldly ask you to give today. Your investments are growing dividends for eternity. You are reaching huge numbers of souls . . . yet it would all be worth it if we reached only one—because Jesus died for each one.
I think of a man who attended our meetings in Cuba. He was called a “deaf-mute”; he didn’t speak because he couldn’t hear. A friend was communicating the words to him.
He was fascinated by the teaching theme of the week, a focus on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. Throughout the campaign, we displayed a beautiful poster depicting Jesus and the woman.
The deaf man was mesmerized, tears filling his eyes as he heard about Christ’s interaction with the woman. At the end of each session, he asked if he could please keep the poster . . . and at the end of the week, the team presented it to him.
The next day, the man was found on a busy street corner, with the poster displayed on a wall.
He was calling passers-by to look at the picture, and with enormous effort—gestures, grunts, word-like sounds—he did everything possible to communicate Christ’s love, and people’s need of the Savior.
He was doing his dead-level best, however he could, to share the life-giving Good News.
Let us likewise do our dead-level best, however we can . . . so the lost may hear the message loud and clear.
I hope to hear from you soon, with your response to the harvest opportunities the Lord has placed before us. God bless you today and every day!
Joyful in His service,
Dr. Manny Fernandez
P.S. The Cuba-solar opportunity will mean a self-sustaining ministry across the island—despite that nation’s heartbreaking struggles! Please be a part of this. Thank you again for your partnership!