Craig LaFollette
Member since 1988
Goodwill class

Isaiah 6:8  And I Heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?  Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Luke 12:12  “….for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

A journey to Cuba helped me turn closer to God. After a few years of suggesting, urging and toward the end begging, I agreed with my chiropractor to go with a group on a mission trip to Cuba.  Sometime during that period of coercion, I remembered Isaiah 6:8. 

The purpose of the trip was not to build or repair buildings. The purpose was to preach the Gospel and in 3 days bring as many people as possible to Jesus. WOW! Me do that? There was a sudden rush of nerves and anxiety. How? PRAYER.

In starting my preparations, I just couldn’t get comfortable with the canned presentations provided.  Then, the memory of Christ telling the disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them what to say, led me to find Luke 12:12. The fog went away, and my outline and supporting scripture verses were down on paper. Thank you Holy Spirit!!!

We traveled to Baracoa, which is near the mountainous eastern tip of Cuba with small villages. The people had access to electricity and running water, but generally lived in makeshift shelters with dirt floors that often had pigs and chickens roaming loose inside. The people seemed happy and friendly. 

Each morning a bus would pick us up at 8:00 AM and take us to a local village church that identified homes to visit and organized our 5 teams each with an accompanying guide and interpreter.  Going in different directions, we hiked the hills 8-10 hours on foot to make the home visits.  Each night we were exhausted, but it was a very good kind of tired.

A visit would start with a knock on the door.  Once inside, I would thank them and tell my story about my father leaving when I was 3, later my alcoholic Grandfather leaving and growing up with my sister, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. This seemed to get their attention and bond me closer to their own experiences. Our lives may exist in different settings, but our stories have the power to bring us together.  TELL YOUR STORIES. I grew up in a Christian family led by women. I told the Cuban people I encountered that I felt God had sent me to talk to them. I spoke about Jesus being God’s son and with God when the earth was made. Man and woman were created in God’s own image to communicate with and glorify God. The sinful nature of man saddened God. In order for this sinful nature to be overcome, God sent His son Jesus as a sacrifice.  He was tortured and killed on a cross for man’s sake. However, Jesus arose from the dead to defeat sin, so man could live in eternity with God just as it says in John 3:16-17. 

Then I would ask them if they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior?  Stand with me and say this PRAYER OF SALVATION. The local churches would conduct the baptisms.

This trip occurred just before Lent two years ago and it prepared me for an Easter that would be more meaningful to me.  I had never before looked inside my own heart as hard as I did after the trip. There were things there, that I didn’t like.

Prayer:

Lord God, dear Jesus, dear Holy Spirit, help me not only to look inside and identify wrongful things in my heart, but give me the strength and courage to meet them head on and move them out.  Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for saving me.