Our recent trip to Cuba was amazing. The Lord taught us all so much and showed us again that His way is the best way, all the time, no matter what. The purpose of the trip in early February was to make bread. It seemed like an easy enough task except that we had to take in EVERYTHING you need to make bread including ovens, wheat berries, mills, bowls, kitchen scales….everything! This idea of making bread started off fairly simple. We had told some friends that things on the island were getting so bad that there wasn’t any flour for the government to make bread…so no bread. Catheryn and Robbie Collins, along with Leslie and Mark Bishop, jumped in to help us help our Cuban friends. One of the first things to resolve was the flour problem. We could take flour, but it wouldn’t store for long periods of time. Catheryn suggested wheat berries so that they could grind their own flour. I have very little experience making bread, but found Everlasting Harvest in Georgia (everlastingharvest.com) on the internet and figured with a name like that they had to be Christians and could possibly help us with this mission. I called and made a purchase of wheat berries and started telling Tim about what the Lord was doing in Cuba. He was very interested and has been super helpful to us in buying supplies and sharing his knowledge of all things bread with us. He even gave us the name of a farmer in Georgia who grows wheat. We’re hoping to connect with him and learn more about planting soft white wheat in Cuba on Pastor Ricardo’s farm. Our team was busy in December buying supplies and getting things ready. We had a problem finding a container big enough for the ovens, but still within the requirements of Southwest Airlines. We did eventually find something and were packed and ready for our December 28th trip…until Southwest fell apart over the holidays and cancelled our flights.

We were all disappointed but knew God had a plan, so we rescheduled for the first of February. When the time finally came for us to leave, we prayed and asked the Lord to make a way for these provisions to get to Cuba and to help us be flexible. The Lord immediately put that prayer to task. When we got to the ticket counter, we were told that the 6 bags we had would be allowed, but the 6 containers would not be permitted. I looked at Jeff and he looked at me, both of us stunned…because Lord hadn’t we asked You to make a way? After the realization set in that Southwest wasn’t budging, Jeff got an Uber to take the containers back to the car at the hotel. I might have announced to everyone at the ticket counter that it looked like Satan was winning this battle, but I would be back to tell them how the Lord worked it out for our good. We quickly started trying to remember what exactly was in the 6 bags that were allowed to go, and because they had been packed and sitting in the dining room for over a month…I had absolutely no idea.

The first thing we did when we got to Cuba was open all the bags to see what we had to work with. We had some wheat berries, yeast, and butter and salt that Catheryn had bought the day before and stuck in her carryon. We asked Yunior and Albert if they had a mill to grind wheat. It just so happened (don’t you just love it) that 2 days ago Yunior found his mom’s grinder in the kitchen. He brought it and we put the guys to work grinding flour. With the help of some of our church friends, we were able to get 4 eggs as well and Pastor Ricardo had just put a thermostat on an old pizza oven he had…we were set to make bread!