Cascajal & Cayo Bejuco

Pastors: Alexei & Pilar Sanchez

Pastor Alexei and his wife Pilar completed their degree in Ministry and Counseling at Seminary in July.  Now that they no longer need to travel weekly to Havana for their studies, they are starting to work with a community nearby called Cuba Libre. In addition, they would like to start serving breakfast to people in Cascajal.  

Here’ is what he tells us about the electric power crisis in Cuba:

“The lack of electricity affects the community in every way. We have to cook with coal, and our food spoils because we only get electricity for three or four hours a day - not enough to maintain refrigerators cold. It affects us during church services at night, but also during the day. Luckily, for the church services, I plug in my motorcycle battery and use it to light our space and play worship music.

If we had to choose between other projects—providing food or buying land, or even providing breakfast and having the means to generate electricity—we prioritize generating electricity because it affects everything else.

When we were traveling to and from Havana for Seminary, sometimes we couldn’t do laundry at home, and have to carry our clothes to the seminary and have them washed there. We couldn’t work, we couldn’t study, we couldn’t rest.  We spent whole nights without sleeping because of the heat. We would return to Havana without resting or studying. Yet, we're not among those who are in the worst situation; on top of what I'm telling you, there are people in our community who don't even have water.