A 500-Seat Church After Decades in a Garage-Sized Building: Cuban Adventists Dedicate Their Largest Sanctuary

• The new Cárdenas Seventh-day Adventist Church seats 500 in its main sanctuary
• A second floor can hold several hundred more via closed-circuit television
• The project was funded entirely by private donations through Maranatha Volunteers International
• More than 1,200 people attended the dedication

After decades of prayer, Adventists in Cuba have a new church far larger than the building they left behind, Adventist Review reported in April 2017.

The Cárdenas Seventh-day Adventist Church in Matanzas province, about 90 miles east of Havana, has a 500-seat main sanctuary and a second floor that can hold several hundred more people watching by closed-circuit television. The congregation’s old building was a garage-sized structure in poor condition. The new church was funded entirely by private donations through Maranatha Volunteers International, and more than 1,200 people attended the dedication on April 22.

“This new building is a living proof of the religious liberty we enjoy in Cuba,” said Aldo Pérez, president of the Adventist Church in Cuba. “Make no mistake about it, it was God’s initiative to build this church.” Maranatha president Don Noble said: “We have a special working relationship with Cuba.”

Lazaro Leal, a construction worker and church deacon, said: “I relived the experience of the people of God who built the wall of Jerusalem.” Maranatha architect Don Kirkman observed: “After we dedicate a project and leave, membership usually doubles.”

Partnerships between local congregations and overseas volunteer builders have produced many churches across the Caribbean. They can deliver solid buildings quickly, but they depend on local land, permits and a congregation able to maintain what is built.

Jamaican congregations considering similar partnerships should secure title to the land, obtain building approval and plan for long-term maintenance and insurance from the start. A new building brings growth, as Kirkman noted, but also running costs that the congregation will carry long after the volunteers have gone home.

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