9/1/2017 Prayer Letters

It is amazing to me that a dream God placed on my heart in the summer of 2015 has become a reality! This dream arose from my personal experience with Healing Hearts and The Hem of His Garment Bible Study. God used that study to change the trajectory of my life. I cannot help but speak about how the power of God`s Word, coupled with the vision of Healing Hearts, is now being used to change hearts in Cuba. I am so grateful and filled with anticipation at what the Lord is going to do through all this.

Our mandate from our home church in Calgary, AB, and the dream impressed upon my heart, was to train a group of female leaders in Cuba who could then go on to lead other women to experience the healing power of God`s Word. Healing Hearts Ministries gave their full blessing to alter the usual training track in order to bring the Hem of His Garment study to Cuba. The usual training is not feasible in that country due to the lack of availability of the internet and other resources. I am grateful to Healing Hearts for being open to moving outside the normal structure and allowing God`s Word, the Holy Spirit, and this amazing tool to bring hope to the women of Cuba.

During our time in Cuba, we spent three 8-hour days walking our new leadership trainees through the material.Â We asked them primarily to take on the role of participants, as we knew that if they had not first experienced the material as a participant they would not be able to teach it properly.Â At various times throughout each day, we would stop and teach about the logistics of taking others through the material by referring them to the Leader`s Guide.Â One afternoon we also spent one-on-one time with each participant, praying specifically for her own emotional and spiritual needs.

The women responded with an openness to the moving of the Spirit as He spoke powerfully from Scripture. Many of the women commented that they had never seen or been given the opportunity to use such a powerful tool as the Hem study. Â Their personal transformation and healing were a gift, but to also be given something that could be shared with other wounded women was to them a blessing beyond description. Each woman received three additional copies of The Hem of His Garment in Spanish to share with women in her community.

While among the Cuban women, we heard stories of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of parents, teachers, boyfriends and neighbors; stories of long-hidden abortions, never spoken of but continuing to lacerate their souls; stories of divorce, betrayal and heartache. These were stories from women who had given their hearts to Christ and yet were still living in the bondage of past sin, shame, and anger. As we gathered with over fifty women in an open-air church and listened to their stories, we knew that Jesus was the only hope to heal their broken hearts.

One tremendous moment of gratitude, humbling, and a reminder of the power of prayer came to me when a Cuban woman shared that when I was there 16 months earlier, God had impressed upon her heart the need to pray for me personally. She said she remembers seeing God move in my spirit during that trip, as I was often in tears. So, she began to pray every day for me. Now she wanted me and the others in our group to know that God had answered her prayers. She said she was overwhelmed by what God had done in me and through me, and that it was only the beginning.Â I was so humbled that a woman in another country would pray for me in obedience to God!

As we await further reports of God`s moving and healing power in Cuba, we are making plans to return, to encourage the new leaders and to train even more women. The news of God`s faithful healing through His Word is spreading, and we have received invitations to several other places in Cuba. God`s plan is for healing for his beloved daughters in Cuba!

Cuba is experiencing microscopic change on the political front, and significant social decay as a result of the communist ideology of stripping the people of morality. Yet in the midst of all this, there is explosive growth in the church.Â Thank you to the leadership of Healing Hearts Ministries for seeing the unique challenges that are present in Cuba and for being willing to gift our sisters who are wounded and struggling. As the women in Cuba so freely voice in response to God`s goodness and our faithfulness to bring them resources: Gloria a Dios!

- Lana