He Is with Us Still

In September of 1947, she writes:

We are now nearing the close of our seventeenth year in the work of the Lord in Cuba, and can of a truth say, “He is with us still.” Never have we been more sure of His divine presence with us than at the present time, and never have we felt a deeper assurance in our hearts that the divine will of God is being carried on in our service to Him.

As we draw near the end of this year of missionary work in Cuba, and as we step forward toward a new year of activities for the Lord, knowing that we must soon embrace the responsibilities of the work that lies just ahead, we would certainly draw back in holy fear, feeling our utter inability for so great an undertaking, if we did not know that God is of a truth working with us, and that He has promised to be with us even to the end.

Early in my ministry here God saved some among the West Indian people and the Cubans whom He later called to the ministry, and as these began moving out, naturally, more could be accomplished. Now we have around twenty-five congregations and over thirty Sunday Schools, besides several groups of people who are attending services and receiving instructions, but who are not yet saved. In most cases, it takes a long time for the souls who have been brought up in the darkness of Catholicism or Spiritualism to reach a place where they can really repent of sin and accept Christ as their personal Savior. Many of these who have been saved stand like rocks for God and truth and are really shining lights for Him.

In our Sunday Schools, we have one thousand five hundred children who are weekly taught the precious Word of God. The teachers and workers are laboring hard to plant God’s precious truth in these young hearts. Much real salvation work is done in our Sunday Schools, although the Roman Catholics have put on a terrible campaign against Christianity the past year.

She spoke at this time of the great need of a new songbook, printed in Spanish, saying that many of the people had no books and must use whatever they could get hold of. She mentioned that a number of good doctrinal songs had already been translated. Jesus Real, a young minister of the church of God, did a wonderful work of translating these songs. They were at that time waiting for God to make it possible to publish these that the message in song might go out over the Island. Also she mentioned Sunday School literature and the work of planning the lessons so that material could be had in hand to help in the preparation of the class work.

We have never mentioned before the annual convention held each year in Havana. Of this she writes:

These special assemblies are for the spiritual deepening of the children of God and for a time of real ingathering of souls and God blessing in a wonderful way. Fellowship has been strengthened, and bonds of Christian love have been brought about through the precious days spent together here. But because of the long distance and the poverty of many of our brethren, the majority of them have never been able to attend any of these gatherings. In March of this year [1947], we began district meetings.

In the province of Pinar del Rio, we have a few very fine congregations in different parts, and the second week of March we had a week of fellowship meetings. The services were held two nights each in three different congregations, and the Sunday services were held in the mission house in the town of Pinar del Rio. Crowds of brethren went long distances for the night services, and the power of God was there. The all-day services were a time of refreshing from the Lord; strong preaching in the Spirit’s power brought a melting of hearts and great rejoicing to all.

We held another of these meetings in Baenoa, near Havana, and also a third is planned to be held in the province of the Oriente. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”* (Hebrews 10:25)

It would be well at this time to make special mention of the annual national convention held in Almendares at the main church building. The first three days are given over to the English convention. From Trinidad, Grand Caymen, and Jamaica come the English-speaking people, seeking employment in the city of Havana. The pay is pitifully small, but somehow they eke out a living. This part of the work is necessarily small, as Cuba is a Spanish nation. So the English work is the minor part. But these three days are given over to them. On Tuesday night, the service is by interpretation, and all day the Spanish people have been arriving from their sections of the country. From Pinar del Rio, Santiago, Camaguey, Velasco, Caiminero, Cotorro, Santa Fe, Guantánamo, Santa Cruz, Bauta, and so on. The ministers bring their families with them whenever it is possible to do so.

As they come in with smiling faces, one can hardly believe that during the year, yea, even up to the time that they come, sacrifice and suffering has been their lot. Friends of missions forget so easily and neglect to send the means God has put in their hands to share with others out there on the field. And there is no manual labor for them to go to as in America. They would be glad to labor with their hands to alleviate the suffering by this means. But the Americans have come over and taken over large holdings and in these places have sugar mills and tobacco factories going. But let us remember that the population of Havana is about one and a half million souls, or about one third of the entire population of all Cuba. There is never enough work to go around. When a man wants a job, he must pay a large amount of money to secure it or the man who has the money already gets it. It is a cruel system, and the poor suffer unbelievably.

Do shoes give out? They must wait and wait for the new ones. Is clothing worn? It must hold together a little longer. Has the rice and beans given out? For these and other needs earnest, believing prayer must be made to God to supply and send in more and then patient waiting on the Lord.

But I fear that we have digressed a bit and must now return. On Wednesday morning, the Spanish convention is well on the way. And such singing! Their voices are wonderfully clear, for the Spanish people are a singing people. As we sit here at the desk, we can hear Joel (pronounced in the Spanish, hoe-EL), singing at his work in the boy’s home. The rest of the week is given over entirely during the day to the Spanish services and at night to the interpretation for both the Spanish and the Jamaican.

These fine pioneers in Cuba surely learn to trust God. Fares have been sent to them to come, or they would not be here. Food must be furnished without cost, or they could not eat. Sometimes when Americans come, I wonder that they cannot see much of this and help lift the load while here.

Special sacrifice is often made. One man had been coming for several years to convention. Each year he returned, his suit was growing more shabby. At last, he was able to purchase a small pig. He fed it scraps and whatever he could, always hunting up something more to fatten it on. Then he sold the pig, hoping to purchase a new suit. About that time, he heard of the needs at headquarters. There was no money to start the convention. He did not think much about it at first. Then it began troubling him, and he knew that there was a little money for the first time in his possession. At last he sent in the precious money, and then came to the convention with the old suit shabbier than ever.

Americans who come down to the English convention and go home before the Spanish miss a real vision of the work of God and Faith Stewart in Cuba. The altar services, the melting times of outpouring, the fiery sermons of some of the more outstanding ministers. There is a real spirit of true worship and a wonderful fellowship through it all.

Sometimes they are daily on their knees, asking God to reveal the fact that whether under the prevailing circumstances and the pressure of financial needs they should have a convention. But always God comes to the rescue; He will not forsake and He will provide.

It was somewhere about 1947 or 1948 that a nursery building was added to the number already mentioned at El Hogar. This cost about $5,000. An elderly minister, Sister Meyers, felt a real burden for the work being done and sent from time to time, until, by the year mentioned, enough had come in to put up a suitable building.

This building houses eighteen children, generally under six years of age, and has a roomy veranda in front of the two large rooms, bath, and kitchen. It is a cheerful building situated near the girls’ dormitory. Emma Meyers will surely reap a rich reward for the generous gift she has made to the little ones of God. They are all His. Dear little children; they come here with as tragic history as do the old, and as the days go on, they forget the heartache and play happily together.

There were two lovely children who had but recently come to the Home, and we heard their sad story. One day the young mother walked with them along a certain street in the city and stopped in front of a home with a veranda and bade the little ones to sit down and wait there for her. They sat down obediently, but as she turned to leave them, they begged to be allowed to go with her.

“No,” she said, “you cannot go. I am returning home to get something.”

“Let me go with you,” pleaded the eldest.

“It will take too long. I can go faster alone. You wait here until I return.”

She started to retrace her steps and soon disappeared from sight. The children sat patiently waiting until at last, in weariness and loneliness, they began to cry. The lady living inside the house heard them and came out to see who was crying. She felt sorry for the little ones and gave them some of the large Cuban crackers, and because they were starving, they ceased crying to eat the much-needed food and were quiet for awhile.

But time went on, and still the mother did not appear, and at last the woman came out again, finding the children crying in a pitiful way, and felt so sorry for them that she told them that if she could find the way to their home, she would take them to it. The little boy (who was about four or five years old) insisted that he knew the way and could lead her to the home. They started out, and after walking some blocks, reached the home, and the boy ran ahead and up to the door and pushed it open.

What a sad sight met their eyes. The mother lay there on the floor dead. Rushing home from the little ones, she had taken poison and ended her own life. Two weeks before that, the father, unable to find employment, having no source of help, and looking forward day by day to seeing his wife and children slowly starve to death and able to do nothing about it, thought he could no longer stand the load of sorrow and suffering and had taken his own life. For two weeks longer, the mother had striven to hold out, hoping against hope for a chance to live. But there was no charity, no welfare, no kind of children’s home as far as she knew, anywhere, and she, too, decided that she could not live any longer as things were. So, hoping someone would take in her children, she had taken them to the home and deliberately left them there. She chose death also.

Poor little children. Beautiful and intelligent and homeless. The woman at whose home they had been left turned them over to the officers, and because one of them knew about El Hogar, eventually the officers brought them here. Today they are living normal lives in the nursery at this place. Jesus told Peter to feed His lambs, but He still has many little lambs that are going hungry because you and I fail to hear the call.

Shortly after building the nursery, a much-needed grade school was erected. For some time, classes were carried on in the living room of the Homes, making it difficult for both teachers and children to cooperate. Finally, by faith, a four room structure was erected, and the government provided teachers to take care of the situation. This was a great comfort and aid of the welfare of the Home.

We must also mention another important item in the history of the mission. There is never at any time sufficient work for all the population of Cuba, so there is, at all times, hunger and suffering among the poor. Also, the pastor of the congregation must trust God for most of his living. Therefore, a great blessing, beyond the understanding of Americans, have been the boxes that have, throughout the history of El Hogar, come regularly to the mission. True, a few have not understood how and just what to send, but in the main, these boxes have been the relief and means of being able to go on because they have clothed the needy. Clothing for men, women, children, towels, sheets, pillow cases, dish towels, quilts, etc., have come down through the years and been a blessing.

Never send, dear reader, what you are ashamed to wear, or what is ragged, for Christ said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”* (Matthew 25:40)

A number of boxes came through not long ago, and some kind mothers in Israel in the United States had taken remnants of goods and made up some new little dresses for a large number of girls. They opened the box with joy just before convention when the girls were needing something to wear to the services. Underclothing, odds and ends, all were accepted with joy and thanksgiving. What these boxes have meant to the institution, only eternity will disclose. God bless the faithful hearts who through the long years have faithfully continued on in this labor of love. Because of this, precious souls have been sheltered, fed, clothed, and sent forth again to a newer, better life, and in its outreach, souls have been able to feel the human tie of living kindness.