In the middle of a worship song on Sunday, the morning after Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed for a second time in six days, the preacher at Renewal in Christ Church in Havana said he had a message to share that came to him in a dream.
Sunlight splashed in through an open window to the right of the raised platform where he stood, as a battery-powered light affixed to the ceiling shone weakly over the pulpit. A row of desk fans, plugs dangling, lined the top of the concrete walls of the shadowed sanctuary.
Almost every plastic and metal chair was filled at this small evangelical church, built from two housing units along a block of row housing in East Havana, which, like most of the city on this morning, had no power.
“If you are thinking of giving up, don’t give up, keep going, keep going,” said Pastor Daniel Cisnero, sweat on his brow, eyes closed, his voice a shout.
“It’s not the time to give up, it’s the time to keep walking holding God’s hand.”