Editor’s Note: During the 2025 Florida Baptist State Convention Annual Meeting in Orlando, our news team sat down with the presidents of the Eastern and Western Cuba Baptist Conventions for an in-depth conversation. We sought updates on their ministries, listened to the challenges and opportunities they are facing, and celebrated the ways Florida Baptist churches are partnering to support gospel work across Cuba.
ORLANDO, Fla. – When life becomes difficult, even overwhelming, Cubans are turning in faith by the thousands to the only One who can offer hope amid despair.
In the past 13 months, the island nation has been wracked by natural disasters, with earthquakes and hurricanes unleashing terror on the disaster-weary Cuban people. In the final quarter of 2024, two back-to-back earthquakes rocked Eastern Cuba Nov. 10, creating widespread damage and power disruptions in areas still recovering from Category 1 Hurricane Oscar, which struck Eastern Cuba Oct. 20, and Category 3 Hurricane Rafael, which made landfall in Western Cuba Nov. 6, 2024. More recently, Hurricane Melissa hit Eastern Cuba, in the Santiago de Cuba province, as a Category 3 storm in late October 2025, causing devastation and power outages due to 120 mph winds, flooding and landslides.
Disaster relief from the natural disasters has become almost a way of life for Cubans in the storms’ paths. Although, Florida Baptist churches’ generous giving over the years allow resources to be positioned before storms occur.
As if natural disasters were not enough for the Cubans to experience, a heartbreaking apparent gas explosion in May 2022 devastated the historic Saratoga Hotel in Old Havana and rained destruction on nearby Calvary Baptist Church, the first and largest Evangelical church in the country. Originally, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering was the key fundraiser for the purchase of the building, which was also home to offices of the Western Cuba Baptist Convention, organized in 1905. The Western Cuba Baptist seminary was founded in the building. Annual meetings for the convention were held in the spacious historic church, with a membership of about 1,200.
Although it’s been more than three years since the explosion, the building is still unusable; repair is ongoing, slow and painstaking. Demolition and cleanup are complete; now the rebuild is getting underway.
“These three years (since the explosion) have been really difficult,” expressed Barbaro Marrero, president of the Western Cuba Baptist Convention. “I have this hope that the whole nation will see the rebuilding. And it’s going to be a testimony of the power of God for the whole nation.”
“I can only imagine the celebration when we can go back to that building again with many people, many churches, even unbelievers, to go and see God’s work. I think (the rebuild) is going to be an opportunity for the Gospel. Buildings can collapse, but the Church moves on.”
Running to Jesus
In a recent in-person interview in Orlando, Aramis Rodriguez Coutin, president of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention, said, “In Cuba, we have the experience that every crisis results in people coming to the feet of Christ. It’s like those people we’ve preached to for so many years, until they face a difficult situation, it’s as if they’re just not interested. But when they realize that the only solution and the only way out is in Jesus Christ, they have to run to Him.”
Marrero agrees, “God is working; He is touching many people. Many people are realizing the need for God. Many people are finding hope in Jesus Christ.
“I think when we are in trouble as human beings, we recognize how fragile we are, which is good because sometimes we think we are immortal, that we have superpower, which of course we don’t have. But when we are in trouble, in trials, in tribulation, it’s easy to realize that we need God, we need to depend on Him desperately.”
Thinking back to the 2024 earthquakes, Marrero said, “When the earth trembles, we have the good tendency to put our eyes on heaven. And I think that’s what is happening in Cuba and in other places as well.”
Marrero stated that the Western Cuba Baptist Convention is reporting “the highest numbers of baptisms in the history of the convention. Most of our churches are packed with people.” Havana Baptist Seminary, which Marrero also serves as president, “has the highest enrollment in the history of the seminary. The Lord is raising a new generation of leaders.”
With the large enrollment, the seminary experiences growing pains, always needing more space and resources.
In Eastern Cuba, “The Baptist work in Cuba grows every year. We have the joy of planting more than 25 churches every year over the past 25 years. It is a work that enjoys the presence of the Lord. I can confidently declare that the hand of God is with us because He works every day and surprises us in a difficult context where there are many problems and many needs, but the hand of the Lord works in favor of His people, His Church and our convention,” Coutin said.
Many of the new churches are launched and continue to meet in homes, even as churchgoers find themselves squeezing into limited space. Some of these homes damaged heavily by Hurricane Melissa still offer a physical and spiritual refuge for Cubans.
Not alone
In facing these crises and the Gospel opportunities, Cuban Baptists are not alone.
Florida Baptists have partnered with the Western Cuba Baptist Convention since 1997 and the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention since 2013. Through the partnerships, Florida Baptists provide resources, send mission teams and pray in an effort to undergird Cuban Baptist efforts at meeting needs while proclaiming the gospel.
“We thank the Lord for the Florida Convention,” Coutin said.
Marrero is grateful for the partnership; he describes the partnership as an encouragement and blessing. “You’ve been an encouragement for us for many years. We don’t feel alone because you are with us. We have been able to continue. Our request will be to please continue by our side. We are blessed with this partnership.”
During the recent 2025 Florida Baptist State Convention annual meeting in Orlando, the Western Cuba Baptist Convention welcomed a pledge of financial resources from the convention to help in the rebuild of a new convention building. Also, Mike Orr, pastor of First Baptist Church in Chipley and outgoing president of the Florida Baptist State Convention, pledged financial resources from his church to undergird Havana Baptist Seminary in its mission to educate Cuban church leaders.
A team from First Baptist Church in Chipley recently returned from a mission trip to Cuba, with Orr stating, “As a team, we came away spiritually renewed and encouraged by our Cuban brothers and sisters in Christ. Spending time with them and sharing the gospel with others rekindled our fire for evangelism and Gospel conversations.”
Prayer ‘gives strength … encourages us to keep going’
Coutin and Marrero know that prayer is the foundation of all that God is doing through His people in Cuba. They urge Florida Baptists to pray for their Cuban “brothers and sisters” as the Gospel changes lives.
“Knowing that the Florida Convention, our brothers and sisters in Florida, are praying for us is something that gives us a lot of strength and encourages us to keep going,” Coutin said. “Pray for strength; pray that God’s grace will continue to be poured out over our lives.
“Pray that we can continue doing the work that God has entrusted to us. Pray that we remain faithful in the midst of the difficult times we are living through. Pray that we do not give into anything or anyone, and pray that we can keep bringing the gospel to people with or without resources, with or without opposition, but that we do not stop because there are so many people who need Christ Jesus.”
Marrero added, “Pray for the Lord to raise new leaders. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest We can see the need of leaders when Jesus said, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’”
He requested prayer also for “the rebuilding of Calvary Church and the convention headquarters. Pray for the pastors and their families – that they may have a boldness in a time like this (and that) the Lord would continue providing for their needs.”
Looking ahead
Both Coutin and Marrero remain hopeful for the future of Cuban Baptists.
“We believe that the future of the church is in God’s hands; we can understand that the church stands firm. The church keeps moving forward. The church continues to grow, and the Lord continues to plant churches in other places because nothing, no one, can stop the Church of Christ, and circumstances will never be able to overshadow the love of the church,” Coutin said.
“I think that the best day for Baptists in Cuba is in the future,” Marrero said.
To contribute financial gifts to the Western Cuba Baptist Convention or the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention–please send checks payable to the Florida Baptist Convention, 6850 Belfort Oaks Place, Jacksonville, FL 32216. In the memo line on the check, designate either Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention or Western Cuba Baptist Convention. Further designating funds to specifics ministry may also be written. Please email [email protected] with any questions.
This article originally appeared at flbaptist.org.
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