June 1-3, 2002

God is moving in Cuba! Vanguard Ministries Apostolic Team member Dr. Joseph Umidi recently traveled to the Communist Republic of Cuba. Initially, the purpose of this trip was to meet with an apostolic leader in the Cuban underground church movement, Pastor Alejandro Nieto. Pastor Alejandro personally oversees 170 churches, and has appointed leaders to oversee a total of over 3,500 churches. Many of these are of the house church variety as a result of the persecution faced by the church in Cuba by the Communist regime of Fidel Castro.

Pastor Nieto and his wife Arlene are so busy with their duties as leaders of this massive body of churches that they have not taken a single day of rest in over 8 years. The nature of this meeting was to be a full day presentation of Dr. Umidi’s Transformational Leadership Coaching material. Feeling that they could not afford to take a whole day off, the Nieto’s agreed to a half-day meeting with Dr. Umidi. If you are familiar with this course you are aware that a few hours would not be an adequate amount of time to fully present its content. Knowing this, Dr Umidi felt led by the Spirit to use this time to minister directly to these to dear leaders who desperately needed a refreshing touch from God.

It seems that Pastor Nieto and his wife were so affected by this time of ministry that they extended their retreat into a three-day time of ministry, refreshing and renewal. Dr Umidi and Vanguard, seeing the importance of the apostolic ministry of these leaders, and the Nieto’s who have seen how much they needed this touch from God, have committed to a yearly retreat and time of refreshing.

As mentioned earlier, the church in Cuba faces many obstacles in the form of persecution from the government. The overseers of the churches are forbidden to own cars, which makes getting from church to church extremely difficult. Much of the food is rationed and makes providing meals for visiting leaders and overseers a day’s work in itself. Despite the persecution that the church must face in Cuba, it is growing tremendously and that the people are on fire for Jesus. The people have such a hunger and desire for God, that tears of love and joy always accompany their times of worship and prayer.

Pastor Alejandro and the churches he oversees are being used greatly by the Lord to make an eternal impact on his nation. Alejandro has seen Castro’s own nephew led to the Lord as well as a Mexican Ambassador. He has been given a vision to see his nation transformed by the power of God from the top to the bottom. Alejandro believes the Lord has given him a vision of Castro himself coming to receive Christ. This may well come to pass. Castro has previously received two invitations to attend Alejandro’s church. Upon the occasion of leading the Mexican Ambassador to the Lord, Alejandro gave him a Bible with Castro’s name engraved on the cover. On a recent trip to Mexico, the Ambassador presented the Bible to the leader along with another invitation to Alejandro’s church. Castro is said to have responded in disbelief, “I have been invited to this church three times. I will go.” Prior to this presentation, Alejandro marked a certain scripture in the Bible for Castro’s reading. The scripture is Psalm 37 and it speaks of the “wicked” and the “righteous” and what lies in store for both at the hands of God. Psalm 37 verse 27 reads “Turn from evil and do good…” Alejandro believes that this Word cut to the heart of Fidel Castro and that the Holy Spirit is right now working on his heart. We praise God for Alejandro, Arlene and all their fellow leaders and their willingness to obey the Lord at any cost. God is truly using them in mighty ways to spread His message of the kingdom throughout their land!