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Our container shipment in 2021 accomplished what few thought was even possible. The challenges were monumental, but God was a lamp to our feet every step of the way. The lessons we learned proved invaluable and reshaped our plans—helping us focus on what worked and pivot away from what didn’t. One thing became very clear: this is an expensive ministry, and securing funding would be our greatest challenge.

While we waited on God’s provision, we stayed busy consulting several other ministries, sharing everything we learned and helping them launch their own efforts to deliver much-needed aid to Cuba. We are aware of at least eight other successful container shipments that have benefited directly or indirectly from what the Lord allowed us to help kickstart. Praise God!

Fast forward to today—thanks to a generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous, we now have the funding to resume operations. Praise God! In addition, we have been pre-approved by Cuban authorities to send up to 20 containers.

More recently, our ministry founder reconnected with David Gonzalez, former Vice President of the Western Baptist Convention of Cuba, now residing in Florida and still deeply burdened for the people of Cuba. Building on the experience gained from our 2021 shipment and with the support of several churches, ministries, and organizations—including the Florida Baptist Convention, Macedonian Call Ministries, Neptune Baptist Church, Trinity Baptist Church, Hope Fleet, and others—David independently launched his own container ministry to Cuba and has already successfully shipped two containers! More details about his work can be found on his blog: https://davidgonzalezdaniel.blog/

After David shared his recent successes and future plans with us, it became immediately clear that we would be stronger together. We have since joined forces with him and his ministry partners to accelerate our shared mission of supplying the needs of Cuban churches.

We are excited to announce that Shipment #2 is now officially in progress! This time, we will underwrite a full 40-foot container: one half will contain DFC-donated equipment, and the other half will be filled with goods donated by David’s ministry partners. We are prayerfully planning to ship in early spring of 2026, and if all goes as planned, we hope to send our third container by Fall 2026.

Our prayers have been answered in truly miraculous ways. Please continue to keep our ministry—and the people of Cuba—in your prayers.

The container arrived in Cuba without incident and churches in Cuba have received our donations! Pastors are astounded and grateful!

Below are thank you videos from Grateful Pastors. Thank you to everyone who prayed and donated towards this unprecedented effort.

Thank you from Iglesia Bautista Resurrection – Subtitles in English (CC)
Using the brand new sound system we provided, Pastor Samuel Betancourt along with congregational members thanks us!

Thank you from Iglesia Bautista Dios es Amor – Subtitles in English (CC)
Pastor Dariel Llanes Quintana, current president of the Convención Bautista de Cuba Occidental, thanks us for the equipment we sent.

Thank you from the President of the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba – Subtitles in English (CC)

Pastor Josue Rodriguez Legra, current president of the Convención Bautista de Cuba Oriental and Pastor of the 1era Iglesia Bautista de Palma Soriano, thanks us for the equipment we sent.

Thank you from Seminario/Templo Bautista Nazaret de Cienfuegos – Subtitles in English (CC)

Pastor Everardo Hernandez Pino, former Pastor of Templo Bautista Nazaret de Cienfuegos and founder of thier affiliate Seminary, thanks us for the equipment we sent.

Thank you from Iglesia Bautista Enmanuel de Loma Colorada – Subtitles in English (CC)
Pastor Lisvani Morales from Iglesia Bautista Enmanuel de Loma Colorada thanks us for the sound equipment, computer, and chairs we sent!

With God’s help… WE FINALLY DID IT!

Thank you to everyone that helped load the container!

Fun fact: Hurricane Ida was churning just offshore while we were loading! God kept the rain bands off of us long enough to get the container loaded! Thank you Lord!

We are sending the container to Cuba and need your help!

If you are able to lift 30-50 lbs and would like to help the people of Cuba, please meet us at 11:00am. Loading can take anywhere from 3-5 hours.

Gospel Baptist Church (in the back near the bus barn)
24861 Old 41 Rd, Bonita Springs, FL 34135

Even if its just for an hour, please come and help! Food and refreshments will be provided.

We have just been notified that the Cuban Dignitary that will oversee the container loading has contracted COVID-19. He is receiving treatment and doing well.

As a result, the container loading/pickup has been rescheduled for Saturday, August 28th, 2021. Please continue praying that the Lord remove all obstacles!

The issues that came as a result of the deterioration of political relations between Cuba and the U.S. in addition to the Coronavirus Pandemic are now behind us and our Authorization for Import has been reinstated! PRAISE THE LORD!

Our container is currently scheduled for pickup on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021!  We need your help!

During this pickup, we will need to transfer heavy items from our staging container to the container that will be shipped to Cuba. We will have a Cuban dignitary on-site to help us and perform a final inspection of items being sent. As items are being stored in 2 physical locations, the first pickup will occur at Cronin’s Porch and Patio and will take about 1 hour to load. The container will then be delivered to Gospel Baptist Church to load all remaining items, which should take about 2-4 hours. We need about 10-15 strong individuals who can easily lift 50-100 pounds to help us load. If you are interested in helping out, please contact the church office at (239) 947-1285.

We have also purchased and received 24 sound systems, 48 microphones, and other needed musical equipment that will be included in this shipment. This purchase is not yet fully funded by donations. The total investment was $7,974.75 and we still need roughly $6,000. If you would like to donate online towards this purchase, please click here and add “Disciples for Cuba” to the cart.

This effort was only possible through your prayers and God’s interventions. Our God is the God of the impossible!

We have always known that sending a container to Cuba would be a monumental challenge that can only be accomplished with the help of our God and people like you who have a heart for the people of Cuba. It has been a rollercoaster ride with extreme ups and downs! In our last communication in March 2020, we communicated that we had all approvals necessary to proceed with shipping the container. Unfortunately, during that time period the political relations between Cuba and the U.S. rapidly deteriorated as a result of Cuba’s alleged involvement in Venezuelan affairs. This political situation has resulted in an energy and food crisis in Cuba.

In response, the Cuban government has implemented new laws restricting the importation of electrical devices with high energy consumption in order to prevent additional burdens on Cuba’s electrical grid. As a result of these new laws, our approvals were unexpectedly suspended pending the submission of a report that detailed the power requirements of every electrical device in our container. In order to complete this report, we had to empty the contents of the entire container, open every box, and log the electrical details for every electrical device! As this would be a huge project, we attempted to appeal to the Cuban government to see if they would allow our first container without this report, but that request was denied after a long period of waiting for a response. We were left with no option but to proceed with this major project. Thankfully, we had the help of over 20 members of Gospel Baptist Church! Once that project was completed, we updated our computer systems to be able to accept these new requirements and submitted the report for approval. We are currently pending the approval of this report.

Our logistical plan was also significantly impacted by the Coronavirus as we could not fly members of our operational team in or out of Cuba. This is crucial in order to ensure our shipment gets to the intended recipients. With all these challenges behind us and travel restrictions recently lifted, we are confident that our container will reach Cuba shortly. Stay tuned and keep us in your prayers!

Also, please pray specifically for the food crisis in Cuba and for normalization of political relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The crisis is rapidly deteriorating with no hope in sight. If the political situation continues to deteriorate, this will significantly increase the difficulty in sending desperately needed church supplies and equipment to Cuba.