As a Cuban teenager devoted to the Lord, Joel was certain there was one calling her would never follow: He did not want to be a pastor.
“I grew up in the church,” Joel said, “and I felt so many of the things that my pastor went through.” Joel even saw his pastor dragged off to jail in 1984. “He was … in prison without having committed any crime, just for preaching the gospel.” But Joel soon learned that following Christ would mean turning from his own plans.
Joel grew up with a love — and burgeoning talent — for baseball. In Cuba, baseball is more than the national pastime; it is a symbol of the communist, nationalist ideals of the Cuban Revolution. As Joel grew in skill and advanced to a provincial team, he began to see that playing at a high level brought challenges and temptations that he needed to distance himself from as a Christian.
“In my country, the sport was linked to idolatry,” Joel said. “It was linked to a whole system that [drew you toward particular] vices, and I had to make a decision.” Joel’s decision was to leave behind the sport he loved. It baffled his father, who was proud of his son’s athletic accomplishments, and stunned his coach.
“I heard God’s voice,” Joel said simply. “He told me that he wanted me to serve him.” To 17-year-old Joel, the call was clear, and it was a call to the very path he had rejected in 1984 — to become a pastor and shepherd a church.
In 1996, newly married and freshly graduated from seminary, Joel arrived in a mountain town about 20 miles south of where he had studied to become a pastor. The town, he said, was a uniquely difficult mission field, “a city of places where the gospel wasn’t allowed.”
In their first four years of ministry, Joel and his wife, Maruchi, saw their work cycle through a repeating pattern: They would find a house, begin meeting there as a church, get evicted, and start over. Seven times, authorities closed their churches and confiscated their property. But Joel didn’t stop.
During 12 years of ministry in the town, Joel was arrested 17 times for preaching, distributing Bibles or evangelizing. Joel and his family moved away from the community in 2008. By then, they had planted 25 churches led by locally trained pastors serving more than 6,000 Christians. Among those churches was one in an old ammunition factory, which is still active today.
Not long after, Joel found himself back in the community where his ministry had begun, shepherding the congregation of the little church there. Joel saw the potential for fruitful ministry work in the church and community, and over time he and some church members repaired and built facilities to host camps and retreats. Joel also found that God was repurposing the passion of his childhood.
One afternoon, he walked to the local ballpark with a bat, two balls and a couple of gloves to begin training a few boys in the fundamentals of baseball. As word got around, he soon found himself training 80 young people — all non-Christians. And eventually the ministry expanded to include other sports.
Joel’s training begins with a devotional, and team talks are more likely to include encouragement from the Bible than tactics for hitting a fastball. The Bible is taught on and off the playing field, and every participant receives Bible texts and Christian literature to take home to their family. “You introduce the gospel,” Joel said, “and that is how many people are saved, people who wouldn’t have gone to [church].”
Joel and Maruchi have faced a greater challenge in recent years. As their children have become more engaged in ministry work, they too have begun to experience persecution. And when one of their sons was arrested and imprisoned by state security officials, they knew it was time to help their sons leave Cuba.
One verse in particular spoke to the couple as they considered the dream God was growing in them. Isaiah 42:19 says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” And despite the challenges they face, they are excited about the “new thing” that is happening in Cuba.
“We are waiting for a revival in our nation,” Joel said. “That is why we stay here in our country, even though our kids left and it is hard, because God called us to be here. It is a privilege being part of what God is doing in our nation. It is a blessing to see the thirst and hunger that there is for the Lord.”