Baptisms, Commitments Cap Evangelism at Cuba’s Largest Adventist Church

It was a weekend of celebration and spiritual renewal for church members and leaders of the La Víbora Seventh-day Adventist Church in Havana, Cuba, August 2-3. The weekend events capped 10 days of evangelistic meetings, which attracted church members and their neighbors and friends.

The speaker for the series was General Conference (GC) secretary Erton Köhler, who led a group from the GC Secretariat in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. During the day, the team helped scrape and paint an Adventist church in Havana and met with regional leaders to strengthen collaboration and partnerships. In the evenings, several speakers, including Köhler, were dispatched across the city to address hundreds of people eager to know more about God and His message as revealed in the Bible.

“Jesus has an urgency to come back and to save,” Köhler told members, leaders, and visitors on August 2. “It is what should motivate us to commit to God today, and not leave it for tomorrow.”

On Friday, August 2, two members of the GC Secretariat team shared how they saw God working in their lives in a special way. Manuela Coppock, Secretariat meeting coordinator, told how as a flight attendant, God protected her as a last-minute change took her to Washington D.C. instead of New York, where she had been planning to meet a friend for breakfast at the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Reiko Davis, who serves at the GC Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research offices, shared how God used other people to work miracles in her life when she suddenly became a single mother with two young kids many years ago. “God is active, and He is willing to work in our lives if we allow Him to do it,” was the message they shared.

Living with Anxiety and Urgency

Köhler reminded his audience that anxiety is the ever-present evil in our century. “We don’t really know what could happen tomorrow,” he said. “We live in a constant state of anxiety, in an ongoing sense of urgency.”

When we study the book of Revelation in the Bible, Köhler said, we read that our enemy also has an urgency to destroy. “But the more he rushes to destroy us, the readier is Jesus to save us and come back to take us home,” he said. “Our enemy’s determination to destroy us should trigger in us an urgency to share God’s message and to surrender our lives fully to Jesus,” he said.

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Manuela Coppock, Secretariat meeting coordinator, told how as a flight attendant, God protected her as a last-minute change took her to Washington D.C. instead of New York, where she had been planning to meet a friend for breakfast at the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.[Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Reiko Davis, who serves at the GC Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research office, shares how God used other people to work miracles in her life when she suddenly became a single mother with two young kids many years ago. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

God has an urgency to save and to return to take us home, General Conference secretary Erton Köhler told members and visitors to the La Víbora Adventist church in Havana, Cuba, August 2. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

A local church pastor (right) smiles after baptizing one of the new members at La Víbora Adventist church in Havana, Cuba, August 3. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Lives Transformed

Sabbath activities crowned a series of evangelistic meetings and service initiatives across several churches in Havana. Church members from across many of the 44 Adventist congregations in Havana gathered at La Víbora Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is the largest Protestant church on the island. Like many other congregations across Cuba, La Víbora suffered an exodus of members, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many families, including Adventist pastors, sold their possessions and emigrated. Now the church is rebuilding its membership with new members from the community.

Attendees to the Sabbath services also witnessed the baptism of several people who had been studying the Bible. Köhler invited family and friends to welcome the new members. He also called on Adventists, old and new, to embrace God’s message of warning and salvation for this time of “the last days of earth’s history.” “Accept these messages,” he pleaded. “And then share these messages with others.”

A Worldwide Family

Köhler said his team’s visit to Cuba was highly positive, and they were all inspired by the faithfulness of local church members despite the dire needs and major challenges they face.

“Members in Cuba understand the notion of being part of a worldwide family very well,” Köhler said. He shared how church members across the 485 Adventist congregations on the island faithfully collect their tithes and offerings to support the world church. “They are aware of all the help they are getting from their brothers and sisters around the world, and they are willing to give back the little they have to show they are also committed to Adventist mission beyond their borders,” Köhler said. “I really believe this is what being a worldwide family is all about.”