The first half of our trip was spent in Havana at a conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of the partnership between the Presbyteries of Chicago and Havana, and the 20th anniversary of the partnership between the Presbyteries of Long Island and Havana. There were speeches and dancing and excellent food and much more, but one of my favorite events was an in-depth Bible Study led by Pastor Daniel Izquierda of Hosea 12:6: "But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always." This will be the theme verse for La Presbyteriana de Habana next year. Daniel exegeted each word (translated by Alberto), and then the Cubans and North Americans separated into groups to discuss a few questions. All our other activities mixed Cubans and North Americans together, but we separated this time to facilitate communication (translation takes a lot of time); when we came back together and shared our insights, it was remarkable how many similarities arose in answers to questions such as, "What keeps us from trusting God in the Hebrew sense?" (being tied together by a strong bond). It was also good to learn from the few differences between the perspectives of the groups.
I appreciated Daniel's emphasis on justice as restorative action and on love as the internal condition behind such action. He said, "To live in relationship with God means actions should be based in a logic of love" — for example, our partnership! Discussing this verse in Cuba while learning from and alongside our Cuban brothers and sisters invested it with so much more meaning than simply reading it here in my comfortable home or even in my home church.
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