{"id":51447,"date":"2025-10-28T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=51447"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:26:39","slug":"first-baptist-church-chipley-mission-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/first-baptist-church-chipley-mission-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Spreading the Gospel in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAVANA\u2013\u201cCuba is very special to me because it is the land of my heritage,\u201d said Jennifer Duncan, ministry associate for missions and women\u2019s ministry at First Baptist Church Chipley.<\/a> In 2014, Duncan went on mission to Cuba, meeting her uncle for the first time. She was able to share the gospel with him, and he received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n

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“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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mike Orr<\/strong>
pastor, First Baptist Church Chipley<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Since then, Duncan has gone on mission to Cuba several more times and was excited to go with her home church this year. The nine-member mission team partnered with the Baptist Seminary of Havana where Mike Orr, pastor, First Baptist Church Chipley, gave an encouraging talk to students during the convocation to begin the new semester.<\/p>\n

Training next generation of pastors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, as Orr celebrated 25 years at First Baptist Church Chipley, the church honored his name and service with the Mike Orr Scholarship to provide tuition for students at the Baptist Seminary in Cuba.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pastor has a heart for training up the next generation of pastors,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n

While in Cuba, the mission team presented the scholarship to its first recipient. \u201cHe was so grateful, and it was very humbling,\u201d Duncan said. The recipient, a man saved out of the practice of Santeria and addiction, burned his idols when he began to follow Jesus and is now attending seminary to become a pastor.<\/p>\n

\u2018Door is open for gospel\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The team also led vacation Bible school and worship services at Iglesia Bautista Salem de Arroyo Apolo. After hearing Orr preach about \u201crenewing your first love\u201d from Revelation 2, several people came to the altar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is exciting to see how God is using the Church in Cuba. The door is open for the gospel there, and He is showing Cubans that true hope is found in a relationship with Christ,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Orr also preached at Star of Bethlehem Church. There, the mission team provided and served meals for the local community.<\/p>\n

The team served with a house church led by a husband and wife who open their home as a place of worship. There are more than 800 house churches in Cuba\u2019s Western Baptist Convention. In this particular home, the wife prayed for 20 years for her husband to know the Lord. When he came to a saving faith, they both were baptized and saw the need for a place to worship in their neighborhood.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the team shared the gospel of Jesus Christ in the community surrounding the house church, they saw idols from the practice of Santeria and received resistance from families who refused to forsake the idols. The team continues to pray for these Cubans.<\/p>\n

First Baptist Church Chipley will continue to invest in spreading the gospel in Cuba through seminary scholarships and future mission trips. Dane Caldwell, missions pastor, Grace Church Bonifay<\/a>, also joined the team. \u201cI had heard that the church was growing in Cuba, and I couldn\u2019t wait to see it. The leadership structure and plan for sending out the gospel amazed me. God has stirred a revival in Cuba, and Grace Church wants to be a part of it,\u201d said Caldwell. Grace Church Bonifay is currently making plans to establish a long-term partnership with the Church in Cuba.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a team, we came away spiritually renewed and encouraged by our Cuban brothers and sisters in Christ,\u201d Orr said. \u201cSpending time with them and sharing the gospel with others rekindled our fire for evangelism and gospel conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCuba is very special to me because it is the land of my heritage,\u201d said Jennifer Duncan, ministry associate for missions and women\u2019s ministry at First Baptist Church Chipley. In 2014, Duncan went on mission to Cuba, meeting her uncle for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":51454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2617,17,18,20,23,25,51],"tags":[2809,888,273,970,498,448],"class_list":["post-51447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expanding","category-featured","category-missions","category-multicultural","category-partnership","category-sharing","category-stories","category-region-west","tag-baptist-seminary-of-havana","tag-cuba","tag-first-baptist-church-chipley","tag-gospel","tag-mike-orr","tag-missions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67907,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447\/revisions\/67907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}