ENRIQUE MELCHOR INTERVIEW, PART 1

Through an amazing chain of events that only God could orchestrate, Cuban Worship Leader Enrique Melchor made his way to the United States this week to New Earth Studios where he and close friend John Northrup sat down with Tom Brooks to pray, fellowship, and talk about God’s Vision for the people of Cuba.

Enrique is Worship Pastor at the “Manantial de Amor” (Spring of Love) church in Havana, Cuba. The church belongs to the “Buenas Nuevas” (Good News) association of churches in Cuba.

Tom: Enrique, tell me a little bit about your church, where it is, style of worship and so on.

Enrique: Our group of churches was founded by a missionary, Paul Northrup, from here, from the U.S. [in 1953] who arrived in Cuba with a vision and a dream. When he had to leave the island [in 1959], I’m sure he never imagined that years later God would do something so beautiful through this movement. The Buenas Nuevas denomination in Cuba is one of the fastest growing churches in Cuba. One of the fundamental areas of focus for the Buenas Nuevas has been renewal in the area of worship.

Personally, I am involved also in the leadership of a national organization that is called the Association of Christian Musicians of Cuba, a support organization for all kinds of movements of music in Cuba; be it with worship leaders or simply musicians. Our vision through this organization is to help churches with all issues that have to do with worship. We believe that in Cuba, as in many parts of the world, it is worship that will open the doors to blessing. Something very wonderful is happening in Cuba, extremely talented musicians are becoming followers of Christ. And within the churches we are seeing new worship leaders who have a tremendous level of spiritual maturity and they are seeking a higher level of music quality; without a doubt this combination is going to result in great blessing for the church.

Tom: I understand you also write many of your own songs - I’ve heard about a song of yours that has circulated throughout the churches in Cuba that is having a powerful impact…

Enrique: Yes, “Jehova Guerrero” [Jehova Warrior] is a song that we would say is a song that was inspired by God at a specific historical moment for Cuba. When I gave my life to Christ I began to write my first songs. At a very difficult point in the life of our church when we were experiencing an intense effort to keep us from building our own church, something we had dreamed of and worked very hard for—this song, Jehova Guerrero was born and has become a theme in our church. This song is very likely one of the songs that is being sung most often in Cuba and it has brought blessing, liberty, confidence and security to the Cuban church.

Tom: Fantastic! Give us an idea of what it’s like to be a Christian in Cuba.

Enrique: The church in Cuba has come through different stages. It hasn’t been easy. Some pastors were sent to prison because of the Gospel and it was a difficult time. Now, fast forward, when the Berlin Wall fell, Russia (former USSR) stopped it’s economic support of Cuba and Cuba went into a critical economic crisis. From that moment, God began to awaken the church. And we saw a wonderful phenomenon of God take place. The churches had been nearly empty but the pastors had been praying for and believing that God would send a revival to the church in Cuba. Today, that revival has begun!

Tom: God is still working miracles! …but the Christians there have been enduring faithfully for many years, right?

Enrique: Yes, those older pastors had been believing that God would send revival, praying for 30 years without seeing any results. But in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the churches in our country began to be filled with people. And God raised up His people in Cuba! The people starting coming to the churches and soon there were churches of 100, 200, even 500 people. Actually today there are churches in Cuba with 5,000 to 6,000 people.

Tom: It’s got to be exciting to be in the middle of such an unprecedented work of God…

Enrique: But it hasn’t been at all easy. As I have said, it is challenge, especially for young people, but we have believed that every one who pays a price and each one that is faithful to the Lord is strengthened by God, prospered by God and blessed so that they can overcome and keep moving forward.

Don’t miss Part 2 of Enrique’s Conversation with Tom, on the WorshipAlliance.com web site next week!