Cuba: Where God Answers Prayer
By: Dr. Rick Rhoads, President, BCM International
A BCM leadership team was privileged to visit Cuba in the early days of January 2025, consisting of myself, BCM Caribbean regional director Wali Ahmad, and Bolivar Cuevas, a BCM missionary from the Dominican Republic who has been involved over several decades in pastoral and leadership training across Cuba. Not long after meeting our contacts on the ground in the southeastern port city of Santiago, a host pastor expressed, “Welcome to Cuba, the place where God answers prayer!”
He went on with a chuckle, “Foreigners who visit often ask us if we have a different Holy Spirit here in Cuba. We don’t. We just rely on Him for nearly everything. And because we rely on Him, He shows up!”
This certainly proved true during our week on the ground. BCM ministry began in Cuba with the arrival of Helen Black in 1947, who faithfully remained in Cuba until her passing to glory in 2003, teaching at the Eastern Baptist Seminary, establishing Bible clubs across the island, and doing camp ministry (see “Helen Black: The Woman Who Refused to Leave,” BCM World Magazine, Fall 2011). In conjunction with the Eastern Baptist Conference of Cuba, she founded “Mi Campamento” (My [God’s] Camp), the longest continuously operating Christian camp in Cuba, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2024. BCM Peru leadership have also participated in children’s ministry leadership training, VBS, and camps (see “Partnering for Children in Cuba,” BCM World Magazine, September 2016).
During our time in Cuba, the BCM team traveled nearly eight hundred miles, meeting with Cuban brethren in Christ from Santiago all the way to Havana, including the Mi Campamento campus. In a historic meeting with the president and leadership team of the Eastern Baptist Conference, we were able to express mutual thanks for the ongoing ministry of Mi Campamento and the disciple-making legacy of Helen Black. Under their direction, the original ministry of BCM Cuba has expanded to seven camps while the Eastern Baptist Conference now encompasses over seven hundred churches.
In preparation for our coming, the Eastern Baptist Conference and seminary leadership hosted an open-air worship and prayer night. Like Holy Spirit movements around the world, a simple gathering of prayer and worship grew into a gathering of God’s people nothing short of the miraculous. One young prostitute asked if she could attend. She was told that all were welcome. She showed up with ten friends. All eleven accepted Christ and decided they wanted to get out of their current lifestyle.
Cuban street
Bay of Santiago de Cuba
Virtually every Cuban Christian we met along the way cited the ministry of Helen Black and BCM as the direct contributors to their faith. Two of these were Dunierqui and his wife Odelgis, who met attending a youth camp at Mi Campamento and made commitments to God’s service there. Today Dunierqui has an accounting practice while Odelgis is a doctor. But they also serve as widely as ministry volunteers. Dunierqui helps run the Mailbox Bible Club children’s Bible correspondence program for Cuba, which reaches 3700 children in almost three hundred churches. Odelgis participates in Christian medical outreach in rural villages. Both participate in training events at Mi Campamento.
In 2024, Mi Campamento reached hundreds of children, youth, and adults in onsite ministry while the children’s ministry through the Eastern Baptist Conference served seventeen thousand children. Two hundred additional children and families are fed through sustainable agriculture on the camp property.
Some very special moments for the BCM team included visiting the grave of Helen Black and meeting two of her long-term BCM Cuba colleagues, Ruth Pain, now in her nineties, and Clara Bertha, who has now passed her hundredth birthday. From them, we heard stories of all God has done in Cuba over now three-quarters of a century of BCM impact on the island.
Sustainable farmland to feed families
Gravestone of Cuban missionary Helen Black
Going back to God’s answered prayer in Cuba, it wasn’t long into our first afternoon of meetings with Eastern Baptist leadership at precisely 1:55 p.m. when my phone vibrated silently where it sat beside my portfolio on the large conference table. This led to explaining BCM’s daily prayer practice known as Project 155, based on Christ’s words in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Around the globe, BCM teammates pause daily for one minute at 1:55 p.m. to pray for BCM ministry and be reminded that apart from God we can do nothing.
Right there, we stopped to pray for the work of God through this partnership between BCM and God’s people in Cuba. That became the pattern for our remaining days on the island. In a van, at roadside stops, on train tracks, in a cemetery, in a sugar cane field, during meetings, with colleagues and strangers, we paused each afternoon at 1:55 p.m., acknowledged God’s presence, and placed our reliance in Him.
A highlight was stopping for prayer at the Eastern Baptist seminary where Helen Black once taught and eight-hundred-plus students now study for the pastorate. The current seminary president is among those led to Christ by Helen Black. At the center of campus stands a bell used daily to call students to prayer and remind those who hear it of our dependance on God. With that, let me invite you to join us in prayer for God’s continued work in Cuba.
- Pray for the ongoing ministries of Mi Campamento and the countless Cuban ministry leaders and volunteers impacted over the decades by the camp and BCM outreach in Cuba.
- Pray for ongoing plans to bring In Step with the Master Teacher (ISMT) children’s ministry training to their church conferences during 2025 as well as to help train and equip seminary students for the pastorate.
- Pray for the additional land camp leadership is seeking to purchase to double their agricultural output with a goal of employing more camp staff and feeding eight hundred people per week in the name of Jesus.
As you pray, consider setting your alarm for 1:55 p.m. and joining the BCM global team for just one minute of daily prayer because if apart from God we can do nothing, then it is equally true there is nothing we cannot accomplish and no limit to the fruit we may bear in partnership with God and God’s people around this planet. Including in Cuba!
Mi Campamento Campus
Oriental Seminary Bell Tower
Originally Published in BCM World March 2025
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