THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL IN CUBA continued
One of the men baptized in the bay of Havana in January of 1885 was José O´Halloran who became a very active
member of the Gethsemane congregation. When the struggles for Cuban independence resumed in 1893, many of the
patriots were forced to emigrate to the United States, including O´Halloran. O´Halloran remained in Key West where he
was ordained to the Christian ministry at the same time that he participated in the Cuban Revolutionary Party, organized
and guided by José Martí.
As soon as O´Halloran knew of the capitulation of Spain in July of 1898, he returned to Cuba, but went to Santiago
de Cuba in the eastern part of the island, where he arrived toward the end of August when the city still suffered the
consequences of the war: hunger, death, epidemics, poverty and “orphanhood.” In the chronicles of Emilio Bacardi
Moreaux, mayor of the city, the first Baptist service was registered on September 1, 1898, on Juan Nepomuceno Street. In
only five months, José O´Halloran baptized 175 persons.
GROWTH AND EXPANSION
The growth of the gospel in both ends of the island can be seen as buds, or shoots. There were shoots not only in
Havana, but in Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande, Matanzas—not only in Santiago de Cuba, but also in El Cristo,
Alto Songo, Guantánamo, Palma Soriano, and Manzanillo.
On November 23, 1898, in a meeting in Washington, the Home Mission Board of the SBC signed an agreement with the
American Baptist Home Mission Society, dividing the work in Cuba in such a way that the Western end (Pinar del Rio,
Habana, Matanzas and Las Villas) remained under Southern Baptists, and the Eastern area (Camaguey and Oriente) was
under the Northern Baptist Convention.
In 1905, three important events took place: the two Baptist Conventions—Eastern and Western—were organized, and
significantly, the Baptist World Alliance was founded in that same year in England.
Having past the first decade of Baptist work in Cuba, the strength of the denomination was evident throughout the island.
In spite of the fact that the foreign mission boards were reluctant to
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PHOTO: Elmer Lavastida Alfonso
THE STORY OF THE FOUNDING OF A BAPTIST CHURCH IN CUBA
Several years ago a Baptist farmer from the area of Baracoa bought a coffee plantation north of the town of San Luis, in
a place called La Fuente. This rural area is near the hinterlands and the Gospel had never been preached there. Sister
Armanda Suarez, wife of the farmer, finished picking coffee together with a group of neighbors who came to help in the
harvest.
Armanda put down the sack full of red coffee beans at her feet and announced to those that surrounded her: “Let us
have a word of prayer.” The peasant woman raised her head and spoke to God with gratitude for the work of the day. The
neighbors were impacted by that prayer. The next day Armanda repeated the scene as she talked with God with such
passion that the other workers were left awed.
Observing the interest that her neighbors showed in hearing God´s Word, Armanda invited them to her house and a
prayer cell was born in her living room. Interest grew until the crowd could not fit in her modest farm home. Armanda and
her husband felt they needed to find help to care for these new converts and they traveled to Santiago de Cuba to the
offices of the Eastern Baptist Convention.
What a joy and surprise when this couple reported on the services they already held in her house with more than 50
persons attending. They asked for a student from the seminary to be sent or a missionary to gather this harvest. When
their home was visited by leaders of the convention the experience of Barnabas arriving in Antioch repeated itself. Acts
11:23 says, “When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain
true to the Lord with all their hearts.”
Today there is a church in La Fuente. There is a chapel and a house for the pastor to the glory of God.
- as told by Elmer Lavastida Alfonso