People ask often, “What’s it like in Cuba?” Here you go…a deeper and wider look that you will not find anywhere else!

Sixteen years ago our Cuba leader, Elio Martiz, began praying “Cuba for Christ!” Increasingly, that prayer is becoming a reality. Our recent trip to Cuba accelerated our Cuba ministry toward that prayer goal—and beyond! On our recent trip two simultaneous events occurred, both filled with miracle moments. Now God will use that to accelerate our Cuban ministry.

One of 1,000+ Cuban Youth Ministries in JFYM Training

We are the largest youth ministry influence in Cuba with a consistent presence in over 30% percent of the cities with at least one leader trained in active ministry service in each city. Because of the intentional Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry paradigm shift, are able to integrate that concept with what the Christian life is all about: Jesus, a personal relationship with Him and to make disciples; wherever you are, whomever is around you, and whatever else goes on. —Elio Martiz

 Going Deeper We design our annual Eagle Leaders’ Experience to both refresh and refocus . Living in an exceedingly difficult daily environment, our leaders make great sacrifices to train new leaders who reach and disciple teenagers. Our retreat motivates them to press on. This year, we invited a smaller group (35 of our 120+ Eagle Leaders) to the retreat in order to give these proven leaders a personal and ministry prototype that they can replicate in their regions.

Eagle Leaders' Experience--A Glimpse

With “ refresh ” and “ refocus ” as our goal, we dove deeper into two “stories” asking “Who is God?” and “Who am I?”. We designed content and discussion to challenge them about who they are becoming, leading, influencing, and discipling, concluding with a strategic look at how they want God to use them to multiply Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry this year. Their response: this was the most honest, detailed look into their personal lives and ministries ever. They left ready for 2019!

Expanding Wider And we filmed our Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry Online training in Spanish! How it happened we called “miraculous” because we saw God’s hand at work in so many ways. As a result of this filming experience, soon we will expand our training into the larger Spanish-speaking world.

Miraculously, we got 5 huge pieces of luggage full of very expensive video equipment into a communist country! Not without drama…special required permits, extra scrutiny at customs, disappearance of two camera bags for two hours, an anxiety increase knowing items had been stolen on previous trips. Finally…all bags in the van! Miraculously, we filmed 15 Impact Stories of our Eagle Leaders, each one describing how one of the six essential characteristics of Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry had positively changed his/her life and/or ministry. Their stories will inspire thousands of Spanish-speaking leaders in the future.

Miraculously, we captured 16 JFYM Online Content Segments. In a 100-year-old Cuban church, four of our Cuban leaders delivered the JFYM content before a live audience at an all-day JFYM Forum. They nailed it! Most miraculously, our video team—Elio, Israel and Todd—worked around the clock for

Todd Slocum, Israel and Elio--Working Hard!

two days to edit ALL 31 videos—a monumental task. Realizing the significance of what they were doing, Israel said, “This could be the most important work I do in my entire life.” Needing to depart for the airport at 11:00, they finished their final edits at 10:55! And then, miraculously, we got all of the video equipment out of the country!

Eventually, these kinds of large and small miracles--and many others like them--will accelerate Reach Out into 30 new countries, training 100,000 leaders, who will reach and disciple 2,000,000 teenagers globally.   Our deepest and widest thanks  for all you do to pray and give!

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