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Champion Bodybuilder Shares Skills, Faith IN CUBA

W guy.

And that’s just what the Baptist pastor from Florida, in the United States, had with him during a September 2015 mission trip to Cuba to evangelize the island nation’s largely underground bodybuilding community. “He is the star,” Ortiz said about personal trainer and

retired bodybuilder Anibal Lopez, 73. “He is a former Mr. America.”

The sole purpose of the September 23-30 trip to the province of Ciego de Avila was to connect Lopez with young Cubans, particularly men and women who are bodybuilders, though not necessarily Christians,

said

Ortiz, the pastor of La Primera Iglesia Bautista de Deltona in Deltona, Florida.

Having Lopez share workout techniques, healthy eating habits and Christian testimony worked, Ortiz said. “They were so hungry to listen to that,” he said. “They were crying – those muscle men were crying and saying ‘please tell me more.’”

Seeking God’s Direction But there was a time, not all that long ago, when Lopez Above: Anibal Lopez with a young bodybuilding enthusiast in Cuba Below: Anibal Lopez signs his Mr. America photo as he engages Cuban bodybuilders

himself was the one crying and asking for guidance during an encounter with Christ. That return to faith was preceded by decades of

spectacular athletic success that began at age 14. That’s when he discovered his mind and body’s proclivity – weight lifting. And that’s when the trophies and plaques began to accumulate. In the late 1960s, after service in the US Army, the Puerto Rico-born Lopez won serious bodybuilding titles including Mr. Gotham, Mr. New York State and the Amateur Athletic Union’s Outstanding Body Builder of the Year. The stakes were larger a decade later, Lopez said. In 1978 he was named Mr. America and Mr. World with added recognition for Best Legs, Abdominals and for Best Poser.

His success continued after retiring from competitive bodybuilding in 1983, he said, as he embarked on a career in speaking, consulting and personal training. But while all of this energy went into building himself

up physically and financially, Lopez said, he did nothing to develop his soul. “I was born [in the Bronx] to a Christian mother,” he said. “My mother was Baptist … and taught me from childhood to believe and trust in God.” But it wasn’t until he was 50 and living in Florida that he began to sense God’s presence and, he said, that his career and fame as a bodybuilder was about something other than trophies and money.

18 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

By Jeff Brumley

hat does it take to get a bunch of tough guys to open up emotionally and maybe even consider embracing the spiritual side of life? Ruben Ortiz says the answer is simple: another tough