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That [bodybuilding] community was very receptive . . . There were a lot of conversions and he planted seeds.

Ruben Ortiz, a Baptist pastor in Florida in the USA and former moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida

Eventually, Lopez said he gave in, and tearfully asked

God to direct his life. “I said I want you to use me, that I want to do more as a Christian,” Lopez said. “I said I want you to use my bodybuilding experience as a tool to win others to Christ.”

Huge Underground Movement

Ortiz said the timing of Lopez’ calling couldn’t have come at a better time for their congregation, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Florida, and for bodybuilders and other athletes in the US and Cuba. With relations normalizing between the two nations,

faith-based trips to the island are expected to become easier to organize, he said. But there are challenges. “Cuba doesn’t like bodybuilding because it represents capitalism to them,” Ortiz said. “But it is still a huge underground movement based on all the gyms we visited.” Cubans who are into

bodybuilding have thrown

themselves into it with a feverish dedication, he said. “They build their own (weight) machines. It’s amazing what they do,” he said. So that community was very receptive to the five- member team from La Primera Iglesia Bautista de Deltona – but mainly to Lopez, who was the only one who had permission to speak to groups during the visit. “He talked about total health and we gave them a lot of medicines and clothing,” Ortiz said.

Lopez also shared Christ with them. “There were a lot of conversions and he planted seeds,” Ortiz said. “We’ll see what happens in that community – they were observing like sponges.”

Humbling and Exciting But Lopez said he had a lot to learn about faith and

spirituality before he could share the message with others. Even after returning to the church, Lopez said it took years before he fully understood what it meant to put God first in his life. “God said to me, ‘I do not share my power and your trophies are still your god,’” he said. So Lopez pitched decades worth of bodybuilding trophies, plaques and medals into the church dumpster. “That was 15 years ago,” Lopez said.

Since then he’s been building a ministry promoting the importance of physical and nutritional health as ways to glorify God. “I teach about God and your body and that we must take care of our bodies, that exercise is great – so that we can live healthier lives for the Lord,” Lopez said. It was a message the Cubans craved, he added. “I was able to share my

testimony over there with bodybuilders who don’t even attend church,” he said. “Some of them asked me for prayers.” The experience surpassed anything from his bodybuilding career, Lopez said. “Going to Cuba was the most humbling and exciting experience of my life,” he said. “The titles I won cannot compare.”

Jeff Brumley is assistant editor of Baptist News Global.

Reprinted and photos used with the kind permission of Baptist News Global.

JANUARY/MARCH 2016 19

Above: Anibal Lopez (center) wins Mr. America in 1978 Below: Anibal Lopez speaks to bodybuilders in Cuba