Stan and Kim in Cuba

(blog by Stan) I've never seen a Fast and Furious movie, and don't plan on seeing the 9th one of the franchise, which was released this week. But the catchy title came to mind as I read the story in Mark's gospel of Jesus coming down the mountain and casting out a destructive spirit from a boy. The boy was prone to convulsions and gnashing of teeth, leaving him completely rigid. The disciples' inability to make any headway with the evil spirit made Jesus furious ("You unbelieving generation! How long do I have to put up with you?"). When questioned about the healing, Jesus told them there are some things that can only be confronted with prayer and fasting. So, if we're to imitate Jesus in confronting the evil and destructive spirits of our generation, we'll need to fast, and remember that it's not un-Christlike to be furious in the process of praying.   We are well into the second "unbelieving generation" when it comes to US-Cuba relation...

 (blog by Stan) Just when you thought bipartisanship was dead and buried, President Biden has single-handedly revived it by throwing his support behind Donald Trump's inhumane and ineffective Cuba policy. It seems we can now call it the Trump-Biden agenda. The former President's obsession with punishing Cuba manifested itself in no less than 240 executive measures aimed at tightening the US stranglehold on the island's economy, causing senseless suffering and unleashing a humanitarian crisis for our neighbors ninety miles away. Among his almost weekly actions against Cuba were limitations on travel, blocking a humanitarian shipment of masks and ventilators early in the pandemic, shutting down embassy services, prohibiting remittances, and placing Cuba on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terror. The last official action he took as President was to place the International Finance Bank of Cuba on the list of sanctioned institutions. Since this is the bank t...

  A couple of weeks ago I had occasion to go to the local CVS pharmacy to make some purchases, my first time entering such a store in over a year. Kim had sprained her ankle, and was in need of some anti-inflammatory pain reliever. I went into CVS and made my way to the pain reliever aisle, and quickly realized that I am not over the re-entry culture shock of coming back to the US after an extended time in Cuba. Back in Matanzas, if a pharmacy by chance had a pain reliever in stock (which it usually did not), there would only be one variety. Here, we have dozens of varieties, and I stood there somewhat paralyzed in front of so many options. I was reminded of a line from a Wendell Berry poem— "In plenitude too free." I finally did the sensible thing and called Kim to see whether she needed ibuprofen or naproxen sodium or acetaminophen or aspirin or  magnesium salicylate tetrahydrate or some combination of these, and whether she wanted tablets or capsules or cream or powder. On...

(blog post by Kim)   When we were in Cuba, I learned how to get every bit of medicine out of a tube of ointment.   Anabel, from our companion church, took a knife and cut open the tube so she could get out just a little bit more.   It works with toothpaste too.   I never realized how much toothpaste was still in the tube.   In times of scarcity, inventiveness finds ways to get every bit.   Cubans are champions in inventiveness. As the scarcities intensified before we left, I began to appreciate this not just as an innovative and creative strategy, but as a concrete way to make what we had last just a bit longer.   Our socks also began to wear out and so, being the practical but not very talented seamstress—(I should not even use that word to refer to me)—I started to try and repair socks and other clothes.   When I would show my work to friends in the Kairos Center, they would laugh as my the stitches were all over the place and everyone agree...

It seems that most of my musings and meandering blog posts about Cuba have something to do with political advocacy, or economic challenges, or cultural observations. While I have a lot of interest in all these topics, they are not what keeps me so anchored there and feeds my longing to return. The strong pull on my heartstrings comes from personal relationships we have developed over the years. I'd like to share about one of those relationships and pay tribute to one of our dearest friends, Luis Pérez Martinto, who passed away suddenly week before last, having suffered a heart attack in his bed. When Kim and I received the news, it was more than our hearts could handle. We walked down to the mountain stream to let our grief and a flood of shared memories join the currents of running water and make their way toward the ocean's depths. All last year, I had the great blessing of visiting Luis in his home at least once a week. With the COVID restrictions and the lack of church gath...

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Traditionally, those are the three spiritual practices associated with cuaresma (the Lenten season). I have been thinking a lot lately about how seeing these three practices through a Cuban lens could be transformative for our context as church in the US. Here are some thoughts on ways to re-imagine the disciplines during these forty days of renewal and preparation for Holy Week and Easter: First, prayer. I have spent a lot of time in recent years learning how to engage in "centering prayer," a contemplative way to listen to God and deepen relationships with the Holy. But, given our social location in the US as the "center" of the world with our superpower status, maybe we don't really need any more "centering." What if we spent forty days in "de-centering" prayer, a contemplative practice that would move us to the margins? Here's an idea of what such a prayer practice might involve: If English is your fir...

When Stan and I returned to the United States on December 20, 2020, we found ourselves again confronted with culture shock.  This is not a surprise for us, as we have had to do it in our comings and goings over the years.  However, this time it was a bit more challenging. First, we did not choose to return. Our request for another year’s residency card was denied. We believe that we will be able to return this coming year but on shorter term visas. However, we returned feeling a bit ripped from our hearts as we had many things we wanted to do there during the final days of Advent, Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany.  However, it was a comfort to be able to reconnect with family and friends in North Carolina during this holiday time. Second, the temperatures were bitterly cold for us coming from a tropical climate. I began to put on three shirts, a sweater, a jacket, two pairs of socks and sometimes a hat. And all that was just inside the house!  We also had snow on C...