In 1960, my husband Zeral Brown wrote the following in a newsletter just after leaving Cuba:
Castro apparently is out to brainwash the Cuban people. His own newspaper now sets the pace for every newspaper in Cuba (except 4), as well as all magazines, radio and television stations. Everything concerning the U.S. is distorted in an unreasonable manner. For instance, when the munitions ship blew up in the Havana Harbor, the Revolution actually said the U.S. had engineered it ‘just as they did the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japs.’
There are many other things we could write about: the secret police who followed us from one campaign to another, the ninety political prisoners we preached to one Sunday morning who have never been charged with a crime or have had a trial, business men who are going broke and landowners who are afraid they will be next. The government INRA headed by Fidel Castro, himself , is taking over the people’s land, cattle, factories and other wealth and is building “People’s Stores” to drive private-owned stores out of business. In spite of all this we still had religious freedom. We were not hindered from preaching the Gospel. Our last campaign was the best we ever held in Cuba.”
During the summers we traveled to Cuba with our family. They were our special music as we had taught them to play instruments and to sing.
Today I visited with some Cuban dentists who came direct from Cuba, sponsored by STCH Ministries and the Baptist Medical and Dental Fellowship to hold a dental clinic in the Dominican Republic. Cuba has changed since 1960, but not by much. One of them said, “We in Cuba know nothing about the rest of the world. I did not even know there was a place called Dominican Republic.” The door is open to foreign visitors, the Gospel is being preached and souls are being saved and churches are growing. However, there are still many restrictions. No new church buildings are being built. However, as long as you build on to a present building as an attachment to your own house, you can build.
Money is scarce. The need for everything material is enormous. When I asked how we could help pastors, I was told, “They need everything. Money to build, clothes to wear, food to eat, ministry help in every way.” Materials are available but everything, including food, has to be imported and therefore is expensive. You can take cash up to $5,000 each without declaring it but if you bring more in your purse no one cares or asks questions. Dentists and family doctors can get permission to leave, however specialist in any medical field are denied permission.
How can we help? Please pray with us to know if and how God would have us give a hand to our neighbors. I am planning a visit to Cuba, the Lord willing, the first week of September to scout out the situation along with our Dominican missionaries. Please pray for God’s leading.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God; if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us, and if we know that He hears us, we know that whatever we ask we have what we ask of Him.” (I John 5:14-15, NIV)
-Doretta Brown
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