In Cuba, a radio listener visits Adventist Church for the first time

June 29, 2016 | Bayamo, Cuba | IAD Staff

One loyal listener to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s daily radio program stepped into the church for the first time last month in Bayamo, Cuba. Maria del Carmen Ramirez, 51, wanted to know more about the church that had provided hope and peace every day for nearly 10 months.

Maria del Carmen Ramirez (second from left) poses for a picture with Dayami Rodriguez, communication director for the church in Cuba (left) with Ramirez friend and son Jorge Verdecia, in Bayamo, Cuba. Image courtesy of Cuba Union.

Ramirez told church leaders how God had returned hope in her life through a message she heard on her shortwave radio. “I had just lost my father, and I felt so alone and sad and when I turned on the radio that afternoon, I heard the voice of the preacher saying that not everything was lost, that there is still hope after death,” said Ramirez. “My life became brighter.”

She wrote a letter to the Adventist Church’s Arcoiris Studio in Havana, and soon after Ramirez received an envelope with devotionals, magazines, and literature. She wanted to visit the church and now wants to know more about the Bible.

Welcoming Ramirez as the first listener to visit an Adventist Church in Bayamo on the island is nothing short of a miracle, church leaders said.

“For many years it was our dream to be able to broadcast messages through the radio and now it’s a reality,” said Dayami Rodriguez, communication director for the church in Cuba. “It has been a real blessing for our country and not only for listeners but also for the group that works here for the radio. Every time we receive a letter thanking us for the work, our heart rejoices and we praise God for allowing us to share our grain of salt for his mission.”

Thanks to donated airtime by Adventist World Radio (AWR) Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, listeners like Ramirez can learn of the gospel. The daily one-hour program prepared by the Cuba Union airs at 7:00a and 7:00pm every day from Radio Miami International SW1 5950 KHZ, in Miami, Florida.

AWR’s President Dowell Chow said that years of transmissions to Cuba had ceased after the closure of a radio station in Bonaire where broadcasting arrangements to Cuba had been made.

That prompted AWR to conduct training sessions in Cuba several years ago and local programming began to spring up, explained Chow.

“We tried AM from the Dominican Republic but the signal was weak and was only reaching a few spotty areas in eastern Cuba, so we decided to go short wave,” said Chow. “I am so please to know that many do listen intently to programs produced by their very own people. This has been a very intense exercise over the last two years but it is paying great dividends.”

The broadcast of the programs began airing since August of 2015, according to Rodriguez, and plans are underway to install three new recording studios at the three church conference offices across the island fully funded by AWR.

This will allow for more programming in addition to the programming Arcoiris Studios has been producing for years, added Rodriguez. Arcoiris Studios is located at the church’s Theological Seminary in Havana.

“As long as we get programs from the studios [in Cuba], we will continue to air programs on shortwave until other opportunities become available,” Chow said.

Thanks to the publishing ministries put in place in every church region in Cuba, listeners can receive literature on health, devotionals and information about the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its beliefs upon request.

The Seventh-day Adventist in Cuba has nearly 33,000 members worshiping in 440 churches and congregations.