The Lost City

A while ago, we bought the movie, The Lost City. It was done by Andy Garcia. The story is about a family who lived in Cuba. It shows what their family went through when Batista was over thrown by Castro.

I cried and sobbed throughout the movie. This movie made me think about my dad. My dad is Cuban. He was born in 1936. So he was there when Cuba was free. Before it became a communist country. He came to the United States just before Castro took over. I grew up hearing stories about how beautiful Cuba was. How wonderful it was before communism destroyed it.

A couple of weeks ago, Howie went on a mission trip to Cuba. Howie is the assistant pastor at our church. He learned to speak Spanish while being a missionary in Honduras and Panama.

Tonight he shared with the youth how his visit had gone. He showed pictures of how Cuba looks now. How people live. He talked about how food is rationed. People who work get paid $20 a month. How all the churches had been closed. Pastors were put in jail. No one was allowed to be seen carrying a bible or you would go to jail. Ten years ago, Castro changed his mind and allowed churches to open up again. We saw pictures of the cars in Cuba. The cars are from the 1950's and Russian cars from the 70's. He told us how the quilts, that were made by our quilting ministry had been confiscated by the government. The candies he had taken to share to share with the natives were also confiscated. How three of their luggage's were also confiscated.

It hurt to see how Cuba looks now. How greed can tear a country to shreds. How power corrupts and hurts the people. I keep asking myself, how can this be? Why do things like this happen? Sometimes it's not so much that we made a bad choice, but that someone else's choice affects us. It's the ripple effect.

We have a sinful nature. God gave us free will. He doesn't "want" all this stuff to happen. Yes, He is in control, but He allows things to happen. Sometimes it's those things that brings us closer to Him. It's those things that make us realize that we need Him. That without Him we wouldn't be able to get through it.

Our God is an AWESOME God. To think that He came down here. He walked among us. He bled and suffered for us. He died for us. No because He had to, but because He wanted to. All this to GIVE us eternal life with Him. Now THAT is TRUE LOVE! Unconditional love. Sacrificial love. It's up to us to reject it or accept it. I chose to accept.