February 15, 2018 – Please pray for Cuba
Cuba is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is 93 miles south of the Straits of Florida and 13 miles south of the Bahamas, 48 miles west of Haiti, and 87 miles north of Jamaica. Mexico lies 130 miles across the Yucatán Channel to the west. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.
Cuba is the principal island, surrounded by four smaller groups of islands: the Colorados Archipelago on the northwestern coast, the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago on the north-central Atlantic coast, the Jardines de la Reina on the south-central coast and the Canarreos Archipelago on the southwestern coast.
With the entire island south of the Tropic of Cancer, the local climate is tropical, moderated by northeasterly trade winds that blow year-round. The temperature is also shaped by the Caribbean current, which brings in warm water from the equator.
The Cuban state claims to adhere to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend toward more private sector employment. By 2006, public sector employment was 78% and private sector 22%, compared to 91.8% to 8.2% in 1981. Any firm wishing to hire a Cuban must pay the Cuban government, which in turn will pay the employee in Cuban pesos. The average monthly wage as of July 2013 was 466 Cuban pesos, which are worth about US$19.
Cuba has a dual currency system, whereby most wages and prices are set in Cuban pesos (CUP), while the tourist economy operates with Convertible pesos (CUC), set at par with the US dollar. Every Cuban household has a ration book entitling it to a monthly supply of food and other staples, which are provided at nominal cost.
Cuba’s population is approximately 11.2 million.
Cuba is officially a secular state. Religious freedom increased through the 1980s, with the government amending the constitution in 1992 to drop the state’s characterization as atheistic.
In 2010, the religious affiliation of the country was estimated by the Pew Forum to be 65% Christian (60% Roman Catholic or about 6.9 million in 2016, 5% Protestant or about 575,000 in 2016), 23% unaffiliated, 17% folk religion and the remaining 0.4% consisting of other religions.
Roman Catholicism is the largest religion, with its origins in Spanish colonization. Despite less than half of the population identifying as Catholics in 2006, it nonetheless remains the dominant faith. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 1998 and 2011, respectively, and Pope Francis visited Cuba in September 2015. Prior to each papal visit, the Cuban government pardoned prisoners as a humanitarian gesture.
The government’s relaxation of restrictions on house churches in the 1990s led to an explosion of Pentecostalism, with some groups claiming as many as 100,000 members. Evangelical Protestant denominations, organized into the umbrella Cuban Council of Churches, are vibrant and powerful.
The religious landscape of Cuba is also strongly defined by a mixture of beliefs of various kinds. Christianity is often practiced in tandem with Santería, a mixture of Catholicism and mostly African faiths, which include a number of cults. La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (the Virgin of Cobre) is the Catholic patroness of Cuba, and a symbol of Cuban culture.
Cuba also hosts small communities of Jews (500 in 2012), Muslims, and members of the Bahá’í Faith.
The above are from en.wikipedia.org. These statements have not been fact-checked and are only used here to help us gain a better understanding of this nation.
There has been change is the government of Cuba with more openness toward tourism. Some has occurred due to the clasp of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s primary source of support. Christianity has begun to prosper in Cuba. Many Evangelical churches meet in the pastor’s homes. Support is needed to help local pastors reach their local communities.
1. Pray for the pastors who are serving faithfully and are bringing people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I have first hand reports that local churches meeting in homes is rapidly growing.
2. Pray for the national leaders of Cuba that they will be touched by God and open the country to allow freedom for missionaries to assist the local pastors and build the church.
3. Pray the Lord will guide you as you pray for this nation – a willingness to not only pray but to serve in some measure in helping the people of Cuba and demonstrating the love of God to them.
