Praying for Cuba in Colombia

Fifty people from 21 nations fill a conference room in Bogotá, Colombia, for the TWR Ibero-Latin America Partners Conference.

What appears to be vexing decisions by nations so often turns out to be our sovereign God's hands at work.

The plan was that Móises Pérez, director of RTM Cuba, would be able to attend his first Ibero-Americas National Partners Conference, taking place this week in this bustling South American city. Pérez assumed the title earlier this year as the chosen successor to longtime director Alberto Gonzalez.

Many of us would have met him for the first time.

But for whatever reason, the Colombian government declined to grant him a visa.

Then Hurricane Melissa, still a Category 3 storm, barreled into Cuba overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday. As of Wednesday afternoon, no deaths were reported on the island, but major damage had been inflicted and hundreds of thousands were in emergency shelters, according to media reports.

Suddenly, it seemed apparent why Pérez was needed at home.

A Call From Cuba

The disaster led to an unscheduled item for the conference on Wednesday morning. Esteban Larrosa, TWR’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, connected with Pérez on the phone. With a microphone held to the phone, all of us had the opportunity to hear from Pérez.

“The Lord knows the reason for why I’m not there,” Pérez said. “He prevented my trip to Colombia.”

He told us the hurricane’s effects still were being felt, with flooding in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. “We’re waiting to talk to our brothers on the eastern part of the island,” Pérez added.

“The people who have been affected are discouraged,” he continued. “There is a lack of medicines and supplies. It’s a complicated situation.”

Larrosa responded: “Know that we are praying for you in Bogotá,” and then we did.

The global TWR family also was praying, with an email from Cary, North Carolina, mobilizing prayer support for our partners and the people of Cuba and Haiti, which also was hard hit.

Wise Transition

It was interesting that Larrosa cited Cuba as a shining example when he continued a discussion on preparing for leadership transition. Pérez had been director of a seminary in Havana, but he and his wife were considering moving off the island, Larrosa explained. That’s when Gonzalez approached Pérez, whom he had discipled, and asked him if he would be the next director of RTM Cuba.

Pérez agreed, but it wasn’t an abrupt turnover.

“For a year he was working alongside Alberto to learn how things are done,” Larrosa said. “He was working with Móises to generate a digital ministry in Cuba.”

It was another full day for the conference, which carries the theme “Aprobado por Dios,” or “Approved by God,” drawn from 2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,] a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Women of Hope

The day included a presentation from Susie Pek, director of TWR Women of Hope. Just ahead of this conference, the leaders of TWR Women of Hope in Latin America had a From Brokenness to Beauty conference in the same venue.

When Pek became the ministry’s global director in March 2023, the Lord gave her a vision to develop such conferences, she said. Her primary goal was to encourage leaders.

“We are all leaders here, and we know how hard leadership can be,” she said. “So I wanted … to encourage them in their walk with the Lord and also so they could have sweet fellowship with each other.”

It had been the sixth such conference and closest to home for Pek, who lives with her husband in Brazil.

New Programs

Pek also announced two milestones that were achieved on Monday:

• Season 2 of Hidden Treasures, an audio drama designed to bring hope to women caught in human trafficking, was completed.
• The first episode of Double Talk was launched. The “vodcast,” or video podcast, created by Women of Hope’s Miia Da Silva, is designed with secular European girls in mind.

It’s worth mentioning that some of the quotations I’m using in these blogs are translations. The lingua franca of this conference is Spanish. A small group of us have headphones on much of the time. We hear the words in English spoken by Jim Munger, “retired” U.S. Hispanic ministry director; Elisa Keefe, director of the U.S. Spanish ministry for TWR; or Pek, whose first language is Portuguese but who speaks fluently in English and Spanish.

A highlight for me has been getting to know a little about our hosts from RTM Colombia. But that will have to wait for another day.

Images: (top banner) Fifty people from 21 nations fill a conference room in Bogotá, Colombia, for the TWR Ibero-Latin America Partners Conference, (middle, left) Esteban Larrosa, TWR’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, holds a microphone up to his cellphone so that conference attendees could hear from Móises Pérez, director of RTM Cuba, in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa across the island nation, (bottom, right) Susie Pek, global director of Women of Hope, introduces her leadership team to the Ibero-Latin America Partners Conference.