Havana Global Leadership Summit Day 2

If you’ve been to the Summit, you know that feeling at the end of the conference where you are so full and inspired, and you have been challenged to take what you’ve learned and apply it to make a kingdom difference. You’re ready to take on the world and itching to apply what you’ve learned. We experience that in spite of abundance of resources at our fingertips. Now imagine how a Cuban church leader who has no internet access besides email (only the government and hotels for tourists have internet), rarely travels far from home and has limited access to books feels leaving the Summit. The ones I talked to had never experienced anything like it. They loved it. And they’re ready for more. 

This was not a Willow-run event, per se. The team from Primera Iglesia Evangelica "Los Pinos Nuevos" (First Evangelical Church, New Pines), in Old Havana, where we held the conference ran the event.

Willow usually does a two-day training for the administrative and technical leaders from Latin American churches in Guatemala or Mexico, but they didn’t get to do with this team. So with only a little training before the event, one Willow technical advisor from the Dominican Republic and a huge rented projector from the States, a team of dozens of volunteers pulled this off. They did a superb job, too. And they’re ready to take it on the road to other cities. 

Havana Global Leadership Summit Day 1

It didn’t have all the bells and whistles but you could feel, hear and see Willow’s influence not only because of what was playing on screen, but also because everything started right on time, and the transitions from video to worship band to MC were executed flawlessly after a lot of practice. In fact, that was a big emphasis of the orientation yesterday with the leaders from Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba. Putting on the GLS is like advanced training for these teams preparing them to lead out with excellence that stands out from the crowd.

The host church isn’t big but it has big vision—to transform Cuba with the gospel. Their pastor sees the Summit as only one part of their overall leadership training strategy where they train leaders that multiply themselves. They do training in the church all year long. He told me this event is huge, like a “gold ring” for the strategy, because of the quality of the event and of the speakers and because of the influential leaders who are attending.

I asked him if it would ever be helpful if we brought church and business leaders from Five Oaks to do leadership training. He laughed at me for asking. The answer is a big Yes. In fact, the V.P. of International Ministries for our denomination spent a week at this same church doing training just two months ago and the pastor said they’re already changing some organizational things thanks to him.

Speaking the language is so helpful for me in forging relationships and learning about their lives here. We’ve had a lot of time to talk over meals and between sessions. It’s been incredible!