Luis Gutierrez & Mike Allbutt’s Cuban Fellowship

Hi there, my name is Luis Gutierrez from Venezuela and I am the CS Spanish Caribbean Regional Coordinator. 

I recently received an invitation from a good friend and CS Mexico National Director Mike Allbutt regarding an Action Sports Conference taking place in Cuba late February. I thought it an excellent opportunity to take my first trip to Cuba and meet face to face with my CS contact on the island, Yohnly - so I promptly invited Yohnly to the conference.

I arrived in Jibacoa, a small beach town about an hour's drive from the airport. The Action Sports Conference was an underground meeting of only 22 people gathering in a small living room. In Cuba, outdoor Christian activities are prohibited, thus inspiring our low-key approach! Mike and several of the local pastors presented an excellently insightful and growth inspiring discipleship programme. 

These are the two moments that made my trip!

There was a stage during the conference when we all gathered outside the house to take a picture. As we were preparing to all say ‘cheese’ we noticed a surfer walking past with a super old broken surfboard. Me and a friend of mine named Jesus from Ride Nature (not the real Jesus although he has Jesus living within him!) went out to meet this young surfer. We engaged with him and Jesus gave him a new skimboard. Yadiel the name of the surfer works as a lifeguard. I introduced Yadiel to Yohnly where we mentioned that we were looking to restart Christian Surfers Cuba. He ended up spending much time with us over the following days and ended up recommitting his life to Jesus - to follow Him as Lord and Saviour. Praise God!!

The other highlight happened during our time of training in the conference - while I was teaching a couple of local climbers came to realise they had not truly given their lives over to Christ. So we led them in prayer to confess Christ as Lord and Saviour. Praise the Lord! We were also able to present them with the CS Foundations Training.

Once the conference had concluded, I travelled with Yohnly to Cuba to spend time with him and his family. Our conversations were rich and we touched on the surfing community in Cuba, the surfing mission, as well as Yohnly’s personal situation. There are roughly 100 surfers in Cuba and only a few followers of Christ among them. The majority of the surfing community resides in La Havana where the waves are inconsistent at best. There are other breaks outside of Cuba but it’s challenging to get to those breaks.

Christian Surfers Cuba started six years ago, but the mission ceased for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, I encouraged Yohnly to continue the mission, Lord willing. Yohnly was keen to restart the ministry. We are praying for the establishment of a powerful leadership team to lead CS Cuba. We are also praying for a partnership with the local church and other sports ministries. 

Much like Venezuela, Cuba experiences many difficulties. The financial needs of Cuba and Venezuela are immense and thus I understand the troubles my brothers in Cuba face. Also, like Venezuela, Cuba has never received a ‘Surf Mission Trip’ - hopefully, in the near future, a CS team can go to Cuba to share the love of Jesus amongst the surf community.