Around the World, February-March 2010

PHOTO PROVIDED

Baptism in Cuba - Edelto Villa baptizes a new believer near the historic city of Santa Clara, Cuba.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD
The Christian Chronicle

Winning souls, planting churches in the heart of Cuba

Santa Clara, Cuba, founded in the late 1600s, sits near the geographic center of the island and was the site of the final battle of the Cuban Revolution in 1958. Minister Edelto Villa has helped plant seven churches in Santa Clara and the surrounding region. He also works with about 25 Cuban evangelists — some in the extreme eastern city of Guantanamo.

“God has allowed through his grace that many folks in the center (of Cuba) are worshipping Jesus — and in the right way, the way he intended for us in his covenant,” Villa told The Christian Chronicle.

Villa is one of 34 Cuban evangelists supported by the Gulf Shores, Ala., Church of Christ with assistance from the White Rock Fund in Texas. To help support the work or for more information, see www.gulfshoreschurchofchrist.org.

CAMBODIA

PHNOM PENH — After serving a Cambodian Church of Christ in Texas, Sokhom Hun and his wife, Phaline, have returned to their home country to spread the Gospel and train church leaders.

Sokhom Hun spent the first 23 years of his life in Cambodia and suffered near-death experiences at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, the totalitarian regime of Pol Pot. He and other members of the Cambodian church in Balch Springs, Texas, have made mission trips to Cambodia.

The Walnut Hill Church of Christ in Dallas sponsors the work. The church “feels this is a unique opportunity to develop an effective mission work because of Sohhom’s and Phaline’s understanding of the language, culture and history of Cambodia,” the congregation’s elders said in a news release.