In 1994 Stan Hastey, of the Alliance of Baptists, proposed a sister-church relationship between the Williamsburg Baptist Church and the Kairos Baptist Church of Bayamo, Cuba.This was a new "house church" which had been accepted into the Fraternity of Cuban Baptist Churches in 1992. The following is documentation of the fruits of this partnership as shown by the journey of representatives from Williamsburg Baptist Church to Cuba in November, 2002. Cuba - A Journey of Faith - Pictorial The following are some pictures from a trip to our sister church in Bayamo, Cuba by our pastor and Earl McLane, a lay person.

Pastor Jim Johnson passing time at the Montego Bay Airport.

Stan Hastey, Executive Director of the Alliance of Baptists, and Earl upon our arrival in Havana.

Our very nice room at the Hotel Seville in Havana.

A view of Havana, with the Capitol in the background, from the roof garden room of the hotel.

A view of the famous fort El Morro and lighthouse at the entrance of Havana’s harbor from the roof garden room of our hotel.

Jim, our driver Nester - whom we nicknamed “the artful dodger’ -- and a new friend who was selling copies of Granma in front of our hotel. We had great admiration for Nestor's driving skill in ‘dodging’ not only cars and trucks, but also tractors, horse drawn wagons, bicycles -- and pedestrians.

Ramona Matos, the pastor of our sister church in Bayamo, leading a Bible study at the meeting of the Fraternity of Baptists in Havana.

Our friends from our sister church, the Kairos Baptist Church, who were at the meeting. Elia, Olenma, Ruth, Clara and Oneris.

Ramona with Earl.

The church of St. Francis of Assisi.

A view of the Cathedral Square in Havana.

Museum of the Revolution from the roof garden room of our hotel.

Thomas - the pastor of of the mission church at Ranchuelo, with his family. Standing behind Thomas is Manuel Delgado, the Executive Secretary of the Fraternity of Baptists, who goes by the Nickname Manolo.

Lunch at a rest stop on our way to Santa Clara with our friends from Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, TN -- who were on their way to visit their sister church in Santa Clara.

A view of a street in Santa Clara and some school children on their way to school.

Jim in front of the sister church of our friends from Glendale Baptist. The church -- and the home of the woman pastor and her family -- occupies the left half of the building

Stan with our friends from Glendale Baptist, at the church at Santa Clara.

Our hotel in Santa Clara.

Noel Fernandez, the blind pastor of the Emanuel Baptist Church at Ciego de Avila. He is often described as the ‘National pastor’ His church has started four other churches and eight mission churches. Ramona had been the pastor of one of the mission churches.

The beautiful little house church at Colorado.

Ramona’s home in Las Tunas. She and her husband and two sons have the upstairs while her father and mother-in-law occupy the lower level. Ramona commutes the 40 miles from her home in Bayamo to minister there from Friday to Sunday.

Stan and Estela Hernandes, the pastor of the William Carey Baptist Church in Havana.

The “sanctuary” of our sister church - with Jim preaching and Stan translating.

Oneris and his wife with Alvaro and Manolo. Oneris is a urologist and Alvaro a pediatrician - both were founding members of the Kairos church.

Elia, whose home is our sister church. She was one of the lay pastors who formed the church.

Ramona with her husband and sons.

Ruth and one of our previous gifts. (Note the scenes from Colonial Williamsburg.)

Another view of our sister church.

Ramona and Olenma with Perla, a previous lay pastor and founding member of the church. She visited our church some years ago. She now attends another church, but she came to be a part of our visit.

One of the older members who has difficulty getting to the church. This lovely blind woman sang a song she had also composed praying for a pastor for their church. Then she sang another rejoicing in their new pastor.

A visit with Lidia - Elia’s sister - who did manage to make both of the services at the church. The pictures on the wall are of her husband, who was a journalist and radio commentator, with Castro and Che Guevara - and of her son getting off a plane with Castro.

Having lunch at a a paladar or “house Restaurant” a few doors down from our sister church.

The house, the lower level - that our sister church hopes to rent or buy for Ramona so she will not have to commute.

Some pictures of the party that our sister church had for us on our second night there.

Ramona and Elia. The pewter candlesticks on the piano were part of our gift to our sister church.

The surf breaking over the Malecon -- the seawall and walkway that run along the shoreline of Havana.

Manolo in the pulpit of his house church on the outskirts of Havana

A shot of Manolo's congregation. Jim also preached here.

Minola and his family in their first-floor apartment of a multi-level apartment house of Soviet construction.

Nestor with the Fraternity van.

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