A Return Journey to Cuba

by David Henson & Debbie Cox

When it became clear that

Hurricane Irma was going to strike the northern coast of Cuba in September 2017, a small group of teenagers from Trinity took special notice and immediately picked up their phones. They had friends directly in the path of the Category 5 hurricane and they wanted to check on them and let them know they were thinking and praying for them.

Everyone was relieved when word finally trickled out that their friends from Cardenas had survived the storm, and the Episcopal church where just months earlier they had first met

each other, worshipped together, laughed together, and danced together was still standing.

That’s the magic of social media and international mission trips. Many of the students who went to Cuba in 2017 continued to stay in touch with the students they met in Cardenas, Cuba. Suddenly news and events that happened in a foreign country often considered an enemy to the United States became instead news about their friends and fellow Episcopalians.

That’s the case with Elliott Hensley, one of two Trinitarians who will be making a return journey to see his friends at St. Francis in Cardenas during this summer’s youth mission trip to Cuba. Since that initial trip in

2017, Elliott said he has continued to stay in touch through various social media platforms with his Cuban friends regularly, especially one of the student leaders in the church named Frank.

The experience has changed him and broadened his perspective. “Cuba allowed me to grow in new ways with my Trinity peers and expand my worldly view,” Elliott said. “Entering such a drastic cultural change and being welcomed with open arms was a beautiful experience. The interaction showed just how open, trusting, and friendly the community was.”

As a result, when he returns with Trinity, July 22-29, Elliott won’t be simply visiting on a mission trip to a foreign country with which his own is currently at odds. Rather, he’ll be visiting his friends at a church where he was made to feel right at home.

This year, the team will be helping out with some construction at the church and again worshipping and building friendships together through shared meals at the church and also through home visits with parish members.

Those visits were a highlight

during the 2017 trip for Debbie Cox, , Trinity’s director of youth ministries and parish life. Being welcomed into people’s homes and seeing how they lived was a true gift, she explained.

“They had such a welcoming and deep faith in God,” she said. “Hearing them talk about what God and the church meant to them was so inspiring. People say it all the time, but I feel like they gave us more than we gave them, and we have a lot to learn from them about being faithful Christians.”

Gratitude for the friendship and hospitality from our Cuban sisters and brothers was a common theme among the students who went on the first Cuba trip. There was excitement about how lively and integrated the church was with the broader community, even though the church itself was officially marginalized and not recognized by the Cuban government.

“The entire trip taught me so much about the love and kindness the Cuban people have and how their faith and hope finds a way to work itself into their everyday life,” Keith Rudd wrote shortly after returning in 2017.