There have been some exciting things happening in Carnalea Methodist Church (CMC) in the last few years! This article aims to give you a flavour of them.

The society has gone through the process of ‘Clearing Our Vision’, initially under the leadership of David Millen from Ecumenical Ministries and with a ‘Vision Team’ of about 8 members of the congregation and Philip Agnew the minister.

At the first meeting David explained that COV was a tool to find a way from where you are now to where you believe God wants you to be. The question was: Where could we be in 5 years time with the resources God has given us? How do we get there? Very exciting!

‘May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ Romans 15:13 David thought nothing brings hope more than vision. When people are losing hope, what an opportunity to bring the hope of the Lord Jesus!

Introduction:

I wonder what you think of when you hear of Cuba? Castro, rum, old cars, sandy beaches, cigars perhaps? Certainly in March 2007 when I first heard of an opportunity to go to Cuba that is probably the general perception I had. That all quickly changed. Spending a month there in June of 2007 opened my eyes to the real Cuba, the real people of that country and what God is doing there. 

As a communist state, Cuba is still stuck in the 1950s, with generalised widespread poverty. This poverty is not on the scale of a remote tribe in Africa yet the destitution and lack of resources is ubiquitous. With all families subjected to a ration book for food barely enough to survive on, limited job satisfaction or income and little prospect of improvement, life in Cuba is generally quite bleak. A stark contrast to the jolly, relaxed Latin-Caribbean image presented by a propaganda driven government. Hope is something that is not viable for most Cubans, dreams are crushed at a young age and the main aspiration then becomes how to leave the country for a theoretically better life. The unfortunate thing is Cuba is a beautiful country, with beautiful people and land that if used better would be a holiday paradise. Cuba is a country defined by having two faces: the one the government wants to portray and the one that real people live in. So often we get taken in by the imagery.