BROOKINGS Twelve stuffed suitcases, six personal carry-on bags and six missionaries four members of Brookings Abundant Life Church congregation and two members of a church in Minnesota, one of them an ordained minister. Their mission: support and encouragement to small, rural Cuban churches that are closed off to the rest of the world. The team will visit the churches, encourage them, pray with them and, in what could be thought of as corporal works of mercy deliver them a wealth of various hard-to-come-by items. The Fill the Suitcases supplies will include: medical items, sports equipment, Sunday school supplies, toiletry items, clothing and Spanish Bibles.
The six missionaries making the trip, from Feb. 21-28, are: from Abundant Life, Kylie Blake, Haley Zacharias, Cody Behlings and Lynda Muller; and the Rev. John Hogdell and Jeff Custer from the Minnesota congregation.
The donations theyll be bringing include: medical items, to include over-the-counter medicines, such as pre-natal vitamins, NSAID pain relievers (aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen), allergy relievers, laxatives and antidiarrheal meds; sports equipment, to include soccer balls (deflated), air pumps, inflation needles and baseballs; Sunday school supplies, such as pencils, scissors, glue sticks, construction paper, chalk, markers and clown makeup; toiletry, like toothbrushes, toothpaste and diapers; clothing for both kids and adults and shoes for kids; and Spanish Bibles.
In Cuba its nearly impossible to send anything because of the embargo that exists between Cuba and the United States, Zacharias explained. Simple items are super-hard to come by in Cuba.
Well bring as many of those supplies as we can with us and distribute them to local churches. People in the community know that if they need something they can come to the churches and get it.
The suitcases have been in the church lobby and congregants donated the items noted above. All the medical drugs are readily available and non-prescription; soccer and baseball are recognized as being super popular in Cuba.
Blake, 16 and the only youth congregant on the team brought some face-paint kits when she learned that one of the churches theyll visit has a clown ministry.
Long-sleeve shirts were high on their list and kids shoes, Zacharias added, in reference to the clothing items. Bibles are another thing that are hard to come by. Essentially they can only receive shipments from Russia and Venezuela, and other counties that share their form of government.
Logistics challenges
This overseas mission marks the first time AL congregation members have gone to Cuba. However, the church had supported (Custer) financially in the fall, (on) his most recent trip to Cuba. Hell be the old hand helping the four Brookings missionaries learn the ropes.
We raised a substantial amount of money, Zacharias said. Jeff had been going to Cuba twice a year for the past about 10 years. (Our church) members were invited to come and see what your money is supporting.
Each of us will have two suitcases that well bring in. We have to be mindful how were packing them. If we have a lot of one item and everything is brand new and looks brand new, there have been issues with the (Cuban) government thinking were here to sell those items. They dont want us coming in to make money off of the Cuban people. Then it tends to get complicated.
So were being really mindful about taking tags off clothing and not having too many of one item in one suitcase. Jeff has been the mastermind of that.
The six missionaries will be flying from Sioux Falls to Miami where they will stay overnight. They fly from there into Veradero, about 87 miles east of Havana and touted in travel brochures as the most popular beach destination in Cuba.
Out of Veradero the missionaries wiil be visiting small rural churches. But they will spend their last day seeing the sights of Havana before flying home out of there.
Blake is looking forward to seeing how Cubans live and how their day-to-day life is. And shes looking forward to the Cuban food.
I really have a heart for a mission, Zacharias said. Im excited to get to bring other people along. Were there to help but I feel we come back with so much, too. God teaches us so much and we learn to appreciate things and how good we have it here when we visit places like that. The missionaries will have a translator and a bus and driver.
To find additional information about the Cuba venture by the six missionaries, visit the Abundant Life website and move on to: Ministries, Missions, Cuba Mission Trip, and finally to Fill the Suitcases, which will tell what items are needed. And how to make a monetary donation is also noted.
Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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