Jul 2, 2019 You can confiscate anything we bring, but you can’t confiscate the gospel.

On June 19, a Quiet Hour mission team landed in Las Tunas CubaÑone of two teams serving in Cuba last month. Eager to go spread the gospel, the Las Tunas team was in great spirits as they deplaned in the beautiful country and headed to customs. Little did they know the challenge that would wait for them there.

At customs, their equipment and supplies were being held. The team worked patiently with Cuban officials to clear them. “I was so incredibly proud of our team!” says Pastor Roy Ice. “They were loving, never a cross look or word. Three and a half hours is a long time to be in customs…and then, on top of that, to lose so much!”

Yes, they lost well over half of the materials a mission team needs to do their work. The reading glasses, medical supplies, children’s Friendship Hour supplies, sermon kits, equipment, projectors…much of it was confiscated by customs.

“But here’s the coolest thing,” he says, “our team knew that you can confiscate everything we bringÑbut you can’t confiscate the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can’t take away our greatest hope, our greatest message even if you take away every projector, every slide, everything we have. The Enemy can’t stop the best news in the universe, because it IS the best news.”

Even though the team didn’t leave with the equipment, they weren’t discouraged. They regrouped and went to work preparing for the first Friday evangelism meetings. They had been warned by the local pastors, that attendance this first night was expected to be very light. In Cuba, many families don’t go out on Friday, spending the time at home instead. But God had a plan!

Friday night, to everyone’s surprise, the church was packed! Not an empty seat was left, or even a small space left in the children’s program area. “Even though we didn’t have the equipment, God just moved on this crowd. People were standing up and saying I want Jesus to be my friend. It was just God at work,” says Roy, “I was super excited about that!”

But that’s not the end of Roy’s story. “The coolest thing of all, by staying in that mindset and knowing it doesn’t matter because the gospel can’t be confiscated, it took away the Enemy’s ammunition, and we got ALL our equipment and supplies back a few days later. Everything.”

It was an incredible miracle.

Our teams are now safely home and rejoicing in the amazing work God did amazing in Cuba. We were able work with local congregations in Las Tunas and Puerto Padre to serve their communities and share that Jesus wants to be their friend.

It gets even better: this week there are 132 newly baptized friends of Jesus in Cuba. The Enemy used everything he had to blockade the best news in the universe, but he still couldn’t confiscate the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Photo above: This is the moment it was all back in our hands. Six hundred pairs of glasses, two sermon kits and much more. David, on the left, drove around for nearly 12 hours working with customs to retrieve, then deliver everything.

Inspiration Moment: Candy for Cuba