FUM 2018 Summer Mission Project “Rebuilding a Friendly Place”

On November 14th, 1900, four Quaker missionaries landed in Gibara, Cuba, to preach the Gospel. From that small beginning, the family of Friends that would become Cuba Yearly Meeting was born. Now, Cuba Yearly Meeting encompasses nine churches and four missions. There is a meeting in Havana, on the west side of the island, and the other churches and missions are in el Oriente—on the east side. In the early 1900s, a school was started in the Cuban town of Puerto Padre by Quakers from Wilmington Yearly Meeting. They sent missionaries, met expenses, and in 1905 were able to buy land to build a school. They sent a cablegram to Puerto Padre that read: We hope you will use this information on Cuba “Prepare to build—lot purchased” to help your Meeting/Church participate with By 1909, the school was finished and filled with the FUM community in raising $25,000 for the students. Since it had been founded and funded by Friends restoration of the Wilmington School. From from Wilmington Yearly Meeting, it became known as the pennies to dimes to dollars, all of your Wilmington School—or, in Spanish, the Colegio Wilmington. donations will enable Puerto Padre Meeting The school building shared a common wall with the Puerto to move forward in Rebuilding a Friendly Place. Padre Meetinghouse.

Friends United Meeting | 101 Quaker Hill Dr, Richmond IN 47374 | friendsunitedmeeting.org | 765-962-7573 | [email protected] Life for Cuban Friends—and connections between Cuban Friends and Quakers throughout our beloved fellowship—changed dramatically after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Cuba Yearly Meeting remained part of Friends United Meeting, but Friends there were isolated. In 1961, all private schools in Cuba were nationalized—including the Wilmington School. Friends in Puerto Padre were able to maintain their meetinghouse, on one side of the connecting wall, but the school on the other side fell into ruin. Then, on February 22nd, 2014, the Cuban government agreed to return control of the Wilmington School to Cuba Yearly Meeting! It’s in disrepair, but it’s nothing that can’t be rebuilt. That’s our theme for this Summer Mission Project: Rebuilding a Friendly Place.

Cuba is the 16th most populated country in the world.

Cuba is 42,426 sq miles. Comparing its size to the size of states in the USA, that puts it right between Virginia and Tennessee.

Cuba has a 99.8% literacy rate— one of the highest in the world!

Top: Plans for the 1949 addition; bottom: plans for the current restoration

For more resources and info, visit http://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/summer-mission-project-18.html Importance of the Wilmington School

Yerandi Jorge Ricardo Reyes, Pastor, Puerto Padre Monthly Meeting: From its beginnings, the Wilmington School was closely linked with the community of Puerto Padre. It served as a study house for many, with a good social and ecclesial testimony. At this moment, our desire is to recover the meaning for which it came to life. We want to share this blessing with our city and to make the building a place of meeting, teaching, and sharing the faith. We see that God gives Most Cubans have never seen us an opportunity to be a bridge of unity within our society, which snow! It snowed there once in is eager for spaces where the people can listen to others and can also recorded history, in 1857. be heard by others, where new generations continue our legacy of One staple food in Cuba is service to our neighbors. plantains. They’re similar to bananas, but they’re eaten as Jorge Luis Peña Reyes, Clerk of Puerto Padre Monthly Meeting: vegetables rather than as fruits or desserts. The Wilmington School was the first school in Puerto Padre. Its return is an opportunity not only to restore the walls but to rescue If you visited a museum a day that part of the history that belongs to us and that was part of the in Cuba, it would take you over continuous ministry of the church. Currently we are challenged half a year to see them all. both by its history of focusing on education and by its success in There are more than 250 museums in Cuba! serving the people. Since the process of reconstruction has begun, the completed rooms have already become a meeting point for Baseball is the most popular several Christian denominations seeking a better social outcome sport in Cuba. for the nation.

For more resources and info, visit http://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/summer-mission-project-18.html Plans and Expenses for Restoration of the Wilmington School

By early February of this year, we will have in place adjoining classrooms that do not have a roof, where the the four windows that we need. By the end of the Cuba bathrooms would be located, in order to build bed- Yearly Meeting Annual meeting, if we have the nec- rooms on the second level in the future. essary funds, we will start another stage of work. We According to experts, the total cost of the build- are preparing conditions to build a guest room, which ing will be around $70,000 (USD). This is why we have would add another room and a bathroom. divided the project into smaller portions. After we complete that work, we will move to Already the completed classrooms are used for restoring the exterior of the classroom wing. That will educational purposes by both the ICCP, and the Ecu- offer a visible testimony of what has been done inside. menical Faith Network of Cuba. In addition, children We would like to start making several bathrooms on and young people use these classrooms during Sunday the floor below to connect with rooms that serve as school, and we also share a lunch in them every Sunday bedrooms, and that way the building can begin earning after Bible school. money with which to continue the work. Cuba Yearly Meeting (Cuba) initially contributed We work in blocks, and the wing where the three $5,000 Cuban dollars, plus another thousand dollars at classrooms are located is almost finished. These rooms, a later time, for the reconstruction of the Wilmington built in the 1950s, cost us approximately $12,000 School. However, at the same, there are other buildings (USD) to restore. This block has included the construc- within the Yearly Meeting that urgently need to be re- tion of a kitchen for the use of the Monthly Meeting, built, because they are almost all a hundred years old. the ceiling and the walls of the guest room, plumbing andWhere sewage, on the island and are storage. CubanWe Friends have located? bought the tools and the electrical fix- With the exception of Havana turesMeeting, necessary all the Friends are for in the classrooms. We believe that withEl Oriente a similar(the east). amount, we can complete half of the

Havana MM

Typical expenses, approximately:

1 Bag of Cement: Cubans refer to their island as el Cocodrilo, which In government stores, one bag of cement costs means the crocodile. Check out our map to find 6,65 CUC (about $6.65 USD) but since they’re the crocodile for yourself! scarce, a bag can cost up to 10 CUC, since many buy and resell cement, driving up the price.

Cuba is home to the smallest bird in the world: the 1 Brick: Bee Hummingbird, which is only 2 inches long. 1,60 CUP (about 0.07 CUC / about 7 cents in USD)

In 1906, the children of Wilmington Yearly Meeting 1 Roof Tile: raised a total of $3.71 toward building the school 7 CUP (about 0.30 CUC / about 30 cents in USD), in Puerto Padre. In 2018 dollars, that would be tile or zinc plate $97.80!

For more resources and info, visit http://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/summer-mission-project-18.html