Today's From the States features items from:

Florida Baptist Witness

Baptist Message (Louisiana)

The Christian Index (Georgia)

Tampa church planter returns to

native Cuba to teach church leaders

By Carolyn Nichols

TAMPA, Fla. (Florida Baptist Witness) -- Othoniel Valdes left Cuba in 1968 as an 11-year-old whose father was imprisoned for his faith. This summer he returned for the first time to the nation of his birth as a teacher and preacher. The trip sparked a desire in Valdes to plant churches in his homeland.

Valdes, who works as a church planter with the Tampa Bay Baptist Association, travelled to Cuba with a team of Floridians to train pastors and lay leaders in the western part of the nation, the first time a LifeWay Christian Resources team had offered training in Havana. Team members were Valdes and his wife, Carmen; Rafael and Clysta DeArmas, former director of missions in the Peace River Baptist Association; and Carlos and Ericka Ludwig, pastor of Igreja Batista da Paz, a Brazilian congregation in the Tampa Bay association.

The men of the team taught a three-day leadership conference attended by 70 from 11 churches, including nine pastors, and their wives encouraged women in the local congregations. The team worked with Pastor Ivan Elio, "LifeWay's go-to guy in Cuba," Valdes said.

More than a decade ago Valdes volunteered to be a part of a Florida Baptist Convention team exploring the possibility of a partnership with the Cuban Baptist Association, but he was advised that his presence—as a Cuban native—might create problems for the team. Valdes put returning to Cuba on hold until last year when a missions conference at Bell Shoals Baptist Church put him in contact with a Cuban pastor who told him of the LifeWay projects in Cuba.

"There was no reason to be involved before because I could not go. This time I could go, and it was for evangelism and teaching," Valdes said.

When Valdes left Cuba with his mother, Carmen, and his three siblings, the family left behind their father, the late Benjamin Valdes, a pastor who worked with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board). He had served three years of a 12-year prison term as a political prisoner. The HMB, along with First Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., sponsored the family, allowing them to exit Cuba. They flew to Spain, and eventually to Georgia.

"Thank God we were allowed to leave. This is my home now," Valdes said with a Spanish accent laced with a Georgia drawl. "I say that I am a Cuban redneck from Marietta."

Benjamin Valdes eventually joined his family in the U. S. after his release from prison, and they moved to south Florida, where the elder Valdes served as pastor of Coral Park Baptist Church and Gethsemane Baptist Church, both in Miami.

Othoniel Valdes' May 26-June 2 return to Cuba brought back only one memory of living on the island, he said. Now 55, Valdes recalled driving with his father on a "long avenue next to the port." He had hoped to return to the Yumuri Campground where his family vacationed, but the river was out of its banks, preventing driving into the area.

He said he was never concerned about his safety in Cuba.

"I wasn't sure I would be granted a religious Visa to travel, but, after I got that, there was nothing to fear," he said.

Valdes was pleased to find Baptist work in Cuba thriving.

"Baptist churches are very strong, aggressive and evangelistic. It was impressive," he said.

Valdes was also impressed by the evangelistic fervor of a layman with whom he made visits in Bejucal. The man took off work to make visits with Valdes, one of which was to a friend in prison. The inmate is the reason the Christian man remains in his community, Valdes said.

"His childhood friend is not a Christian and has lived a difficult life. We told him the plan of salvation, but his heart is hard," he said. "It was one of the saddest things I saw—the power of the evil one."

The need for churches in Cuba did not go unnoticed by Church Planter Valdes. He hopes to one day plant congregations in Matanzas, the western Cuban city where he attended church with his family as a child. The city was his father's hometown.

"This is one of Cuba's largest provinces—a 250,000 population with just one church. My connection with the city is not casual. It is no coincidence," he said.

Although relatives he knew as a child are now deceased, Valdes and a second cousin now living in south Florida are talking about traveling to Cuba together.

"I wasn't interested in going back before now, but now I know I can go back with something to help. There is a reason for me to be involved there," he said.

This article originally appeared in the Florida Baptist Witness (gofbw.com), newsjournal of the Florida Baptist Convention. Carolyn Nichols is a newswriter for the Florida Baptist Witness.

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First Ville Platte

team brings Gospel to India

By Rachel Ortego, Special to the Message

VILLE PLATTE, La. (Baptist Message) -- Undaunted by the task of bringing the gospel to regions of India where only 2 percent of the people are Christian, eight members of First Baptist Church in Ville Platte, La., packed sausage, roux and Bible lessons for a 10-day missionary trip to the area of Valiveru, India, in late May.

The trip was physically tasking and adventurous and brought them under close scrutiny by the Indian police, participants said.

"Two years ago, a missionary trip like this was in none of our immediate or even long-range plans, yet God moved mightily through a new church member, Suresh Chiruguru, who joined the church in 2010," said Pastor Kevin West. "Suresh was on fire for mission work, specifically to support and encourage the little church from his home town in India where Christians were meeting in a dirt-floor hut with no air conditioning."

Chiruguru was ordained as pastor of evangelism and missions at First Ville Platte, and Revival for All Ministries (RFAM) was birthed in a rent house on a back street in Ville Platte.

"Suresh began to work with his Christian brothers back home to forge a connection with First Baptist in every way possible," West said. "Prayer meetings were held on Skype, videos shared and a newsletter was published. When the time came, we were able to step out in faith for this mission trip that changed lives at both sides of the globe.

"It is one thing to hear about what the Holy Spirit can do on a mission trip but it's another thing to see it," the pastor continued. "It brought home to me what the first church in Acts must have been like. Even with opposition, they love the Lord and expect miracles to happen. They expect God to move. In America we go through programs rather than have expectations that God will show up and move."

Pastor West said pastors of all Christian denominations attended the pastor's conference on core values that First Ville Platte led in India in late May.

"They are not begging for handouts but want to learn how to stay the course and persevere," West said. "They are begging God to move."

Pastor Kevin is no stranger to people in the church in India. His Sunday sermons in Ville Platte are translated in Telugu and broadcast to the church where women in colorful saris fill the floor in prayer and the men serve dutifully. Pastor John Babu Moparthy leads the congregation in India of about 500-700 on Sundays.

Since the inception of RFAM, the 500-member church in the struggling neighborhood of Valiveru has moved its worship services from a thatch-roofed, door-less hut to a beautiful stone building made possible mainly by offerings from First Baptist Church in Ville Platte. Within these walls, Indian pastors are allowed to preach, but foreigners are forbidden to bring the gospel message.

On the First Ville Platte mission team's second day in India, the arrest of a local political leader made the danger very real. The man was Hindu, but converted to Christianity and supports Christian communities and churches. Routinely, Indian police would visit the church during the mission trip, asking about the purpose of the Americans' visit.

"We were very concerned that we would not be able to continue with our work, but the Lord prevailed," Chiruguru said.

"The Christians of India put us to shame with their faith and conviction," said Sunday school director Neil Ortego, one of the members of the mission team to India. "We take so much for granted here. They don't, and they are the most servant-minded people you will ever meet. So many of them are poor, but they are content and happy in the Lord."

"If you want to meet a Christian, go to India," said Lance Bertrand, another one of the short-term missionaries, speaking in a church service upon their return. At another point in his talk, he said, "Hinduism made me mad - seeing things like no funding for schools if you were Christian - but looking through God's word made me see that we need to hate the sin and love the sinner."

A newsletter with articles from Ville Platte church staff members and West's Sunday messages, translated from English to Telugu, are distributed bimonthly in and out of the state of Andhra Pradesh to Telugu-reading communities.

"When we started publishing the newsletter people were so hungry for the gospel message," Chiruguru explained. "We bumped the circulation from 500 to 750, then 1,000 and they kept asking for more. Right now, we print 3,000 copies and we still cannot keep up with the demand."

While in India, the Cajuns joined the local clergy to visit the sick, aged and poor in the area; enjoyed a high school celebration and the birth of a new baby, ordained two pastors and taught the pastors' wives and families how to bar-be-que and make gumbo.

The group also held a conference for pastors and deacons, conducted regular church services, and led a children's vacation Bible school and youth service.

This article originally appeared in the Baptist Message (baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

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