|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
2002 Triennial Sessions
"So Now Finish the Work..."
Bible
Study 
by Evilyn Gonzalez Ramirez
July 13, 2002
I would like to give thanks to God this morning for the privilege that I have to stand before you and share the word of God and His work. It is also a privilege to take the place of a man who is loved and respected by all. I know that Ramon Gonzales worked for a long time preparing a message for today and I have in just a few hours given thought to what I shall say to you. However, I feel happy that the Lord has chosen me for this task this morning.
In November 2000, we celebrated in Cuba the centennial year of Friends' arrival there. We spent a long time in prayer to find a theme, a Biblical text to describe the work we have been engaged in. The Spirit led us to the book of Exodus the eighteenth chapter and the twentieth verse, "And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do." We found that the Spirit was speaking to all of us at that time and that is the reason we chose that theme. We had a church that was alive, young and new. It was a church in which many hard times had just taken place. There was economic crisis, leaders and pastors had left but it was a church full of the Spirit of God because many people had dedicated themselves to that work. We said, "Lord we have been working for a hundred years; people have sacrificed their lives and families for you. Because of you we have reached this landmark of a hundred years, but the work is not finished. Tell us in this new year, this new millennium which is coming, what we should do? Which road shall we take now? We do not know what to do."
The Spirit again came into our lives. We set out to do an evaluation of all our work. We began to set new goals that we would work on after the centennial. That is what I would like to talk with you about this morning. I would like to tell you about the path that the Yearly Meeting has taken this time. We know the road is not easy and we know that we have not finished the work. We have never finished the work that was begun by the first five missionaries, but we are walking on the road and we know that we have achieved many things.
The first goal that we set for our journey on this road was Evangelism. We began by recovering many of the Meetings that we had lost. Buildings were lost in 1959. Many have not yet been recovered, yet some have been, and with joy in our hearts we are meeting in them and gathering more Friends. The work has begun to extend south throughout the island. This has given us additional responsibility like the training of leaders. We did not have a seminary. We did not have professors for a seminary. We did not have finances to support the cost of running a seminary, but with the efforts of many, and even with the help from other denominations, we started a small seminary to prepare leaders. We have many projects for evangelism and we wait on the Lord to make the situation better that we might recover more of the buildings that we owned so that we might continue to extend the work of Quakerism in Cuba.
Another goal we have set is to have an active Youth Program. We believe that the youth are the hope for new leaders, pastors and teachers. We decided to work with them to build a strong identity for Quakerism. Cuba is a virgin land for many denominations. Some of these have tried to take us along other paths. That is why it is important for us to stop and reflect. Fortunately, we know what we believe and our church has not lost its identity. The charismatic ways have destroyed many churches in Cuba. Many of the historic churches have completely lost their identity, but not us. We have continued to believe in the light of God, which is in every person. We try to carry the message of Christ's love that enables us to be a bridge to God. Our message of direct access to God is one that helps people who receive it to say they don't know what has happened in their lives but they feel a new birth, they have a peace within themselves. People have come to know that to get to Christ they need no intermediary, they can speak directly to Him and He will answer their need.
In Cuba, we do have internal as well as external pressures. The internal pressure is caused largely by the economic conditions. In 1959 when the church was left without leaders, there were just two pastors in the whole Yearly Meeting. Many said Quakerism is finished in Cuba and the government took over the Quaker schools. All teaching was materialistic and atheistic, nothing of peace or reconciliation. But there was a small remnant who knew what they had to do. They had the light of God very strongly and it became very clear that if the work "was of man" it would fail but if it "was of God" it would live forever. Our work is of God and it has continued and is prospering.
In conjunction with our peace work activity we have launched an Alternative to Violence Project that is serving people in a number of provinces in our country. People from various churches and agencies participate in the AVP Workshops and the government has taken note of the contribution of the program.
Unlike many churches in Cuba that believe that God is going to destroy the earth in the not too distant future, we believe that we are stewards of God's creation and as a result must do what we can to help to preserve it. As a result we have, especially with the youth, launched an environmentally friendly approach to the creation so that they can learn to help protect and take care of their environment. We believe that we have to build GodŐs Kingdom here on earth and God's creation is a good place to begin.
Many churches look at us and say, "These Quaker are crazy. They don't know what they are talking about. They don't know what they are saying, and on top of that we know they are not saved because they don't get baptized. On top of that, they don't have the liturgy of a holy meal. They even say the light of God shines over them. But how can the light of God be in them? They have hope for all the world."
They confront the government, even when the Bible says we should respect the government. But we are not interested in that. We do not obey the voice of man; we obey the voice of God. The voice of God speaks to us today and we are very clear that this is the road we must take.
There are many areas we would like to work and different kinds of work we would like to do. But in the area of social work for example, the government says we must help the needy people in our communities and they will take care of the rest. We therefore are going to start feeding old people who do not have families. The situation is now right for such a project. We need economic assistance to see this through but various people in the church have dedicated their vans and their homes and many have allocated plots of land to plant food for this project. We ask you to hold this in your prayers.
From my personal experience I know that when we think we have finished the work, the Spirit of God shows us that there is something else to be done. With the work that my husband and I have done in Gibara, I know that when we put our faith in God and depend on Him to lead, He can do far above our expectation. On that first day when I was told that there was a blind woman who said she was a Quaker and was living in a house down the road, who could have thought that our Quaker work could have grown so strong today. Now we have a big church with many leaders, we are thinking that God might be ready to send us somewhere else.
We are grateful that in February we were able to achieve something that for years we were not able to achieve. After working for several years on our Faith and Practice, we were able to approve it this year. Thanks be to God, we now have the "walking stick" that will help us as we follow the road that was set out for us in our centenary theme. It was also in February that I was chosen for this journey to join my brothers and sisters and to enjoy this great experience here in Kenya. I have learned a great deal. I only hope that more Cubans could have had this opportunity. I have much to share on my return. In Cuba, there is a saying I will pass on to you; it is, "You are fantastic." I can't tell you all that I am taking back to Cuba. But among them is a strong resolve to continue the work that others have begun and to help others to press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. May God bless us all.
Return to main Triennial page:
"Friends United Meeting Celebrates Double Centenary—Double
Blessing"