DR. R. C. SPROUL:
"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, is the startling conclusion to John's prologue, 'In the beginning was the Word'. The Cosmic Christ enters our humanity. The birth of Jesus is the very center or core of human history. It is the supreme moment of visitation of the eternal with the temporal, the infinite with the finite, the unconditional with the conditioned. It is the center point of the very meaning of human history. It is Christmas, the moment of nativity when the eternal God became flesh for our redemption."
Monday, December 14, 2009
Curtis and Leroy
You may have seen this, but I thought it was too funny to pass up!
Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the The Oxford Eagle Newspaper in OXFORD, MS. and bought a mule for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night." Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule." The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?" Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."
The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!" Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!" A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis &Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked. "What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"
They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do.."
Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.."
The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"
Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."
Curtis and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the Bailout Program.
Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the The Oxford Eagle Newspaper in OXFORD, MS. and bought a mule for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night." Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule." The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?" Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."
The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!" Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!" A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis &Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked. "What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"
They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do.."
Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.."
The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"
Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."
Curtis and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the Bailout Program.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
You Could Have Bought Cuba
You could have bought Cuba, and the package would come without Fidel or Raul Castro.
A real estate group in the Miami area was representing a organization that had the rights to the island and at first glance it looked like a fun project.
"There should be a lot of rich Cubans interested," one of the promoters said.
"There should be a lot of rich Cubans interested," one of the promoters said.
A video tape prospectus was going to be shipped any day. There was a website. But suddenly the steam behind the project dissipated. The Cuba sale had gone silent. What would have been a fun idea evaporated like spit on a griddle.
The "Island of Cuba" was part of "The World," a man-made series of islands just off the coast of Dubai. Shaped roughly like the land mass of the Earth, the various "countries" were being sold to high rollers and corporations world wide. The islands were to be laced with mansions, hotel developments, resorts, all themed to the corresponding country.
The "Island of Cuba" was part of "The World," a man-made series of islands just off the coast of Dubai. Shaped roughly like the land mass of the Earth, the various "countries" were being sold to high rollers and corporations world wide. The islands were to be laced with mansions, hotel developments, resorts, all themed to the corresponding country.
Yes, there is a small island representing Cuba within the $14 billion project, which by the way was basically the dredging costs.
How much to buy Cuba? The ultra small patch of sand would set you back about $10- to $15 million. The owner would have to create the ambiance that would replicate "Cuba."
How much to buy Cuba? The ultra small patch of sand would set you back about $10- to $15 million. The owner would have to create the ambiance that would replicate "Cuba."
But alas, there seems to be no chance to purchase "The Pearl of the Antilles." The World project is slowed, if not stopped altogether according to news reports. Not maintained, the sandy islands could slip back into the water. Cuba could go under quicker than most due to size and no apparent buyer on the horizon.
Now the world's financial squeeze has finally surfaced in Dubai. The go-go days have screeched to a halt. Will the financial crisis squash any chance of someone buying "Cuba?" Likely, and so a Cuba without the Castro Brothers continues to just be a dream, at least in the short term.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Abegg ELL -Pruning and Plans for the Future
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
We are thanking God for so much this year, including each of our friends and supporters.
The Abegg's Electronic Love Letter
To those who have been called,
who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ;
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
-Jude 1:1
Abegg Family Updates: Pruning and Plans for the Future
I like grapes. I also like what we get from grapes: juice, jam, raisins and good Californian or Chilean wine. (I don't hide my bias). Anyway, what does this have to do with a family update? No, we're not starting a vineyard (though Claudia dreams of doing just that), but the Lord used a recent sermon on John 15 to give me a better understanding of what He has been doing in "our" life over the past few years.
If you've been following the Abegg chronicles you know that up to a month ago we anticipated stepping away from LAM and parachurch missions (missions through a non-church organization). In short we were lead to seriously and is some ways painfully analyze our belief and theology of missions. (To better understand the reasoning behind this please see our "missionunderstandings" blog.) Anyway, I thought that based on our convictions, the best option was to step out of parachurch missions and continue in missions from our local church while supporting the family through a secular job. As the year wore on though, and I didn't sense direction from the Lord as to what occupation I should step into, I began to grow weary and feel more and more barren even as I continued with the ministry projects at hand. I was torn in not being able to see how my theology and my daily work in ministry matched up, and wondered why the Lord (and I do believe it was His hand) would apear to strip something away from me yet not provide something new to serve Him in.
Here's where the grapes come in. Living near wine country in CA didn't make my dad a vinedresser, yet his impressive pruning techniques, akin to current "slasher" horror movies, proved to be exactly what our one and only grapevine needed. Every fall, the yard plants would tremble in fear as my dad got out his preferred pruning instrument, an 18" gas powered chain saw, in order to "clean things up a bit". Nothing green was spared be that oak trees or berry bushes. Guava plants and even the hedge dared not resist his onslaught. Some plants actually survived, their limbs removed, hauled off and burned in our fireplace. But it was the grapevine that always amazed me. Every summer that vine would foolishly send 40 feet of twisting greenery along our fence. And every fall it would stand defiantly before my father only to be hacked back to a pitiful, miserable looking brown stick. Each year I thought, "well, that's the end of that", but each spring it would rise again, stretch its limbs far and amazingly produce clusters of grapes.
In the recent sermon, I learned that true vinedressers do actually prune back each years growth to what looks like a dead stick, although I doubt they use a chain saw. In his own special way, what my dad was doing actually provided the cared that the vine needed and prepared it for the next year's growth and fruit.
What the Lord was doing in Claudia and my hearts over the past "season" is very similar:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing... 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples… 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last." John 15:1-17
Less than a month ago, LAM president Steve Johnson asked me to assist in developing what may grow into a "Department of North American Church Missions". The idea is to help mission minded churches to strengthen relationships with their missionaries as well as the ministries they partner with throughout Latin America or the world. On of my concerns this past year was in seeing churches essentially "outsource" missions and let the parachurch (i.e. LAM) handle the care and feeding of their missionaries instead of assuming the role of pastoral care and being a full partner in fulfilling the Great Commission thus receiving the rich returns and benefits that accompany that involvement. Over the past year the Lord, in His mercy, has lead me through a course in missiology and church-missionary relationships even though I wasn't aware of the purpose.
I'll share more on what this new work will look like in the weeks and months to come, but needless to say we are VERY excited about the possibilities and ask for your prayers as we step into this new area of growth and by faith…fruit. Cuba will remain in our scope of ministry and we are excited about some new possibilities to help meet the incredible lack of literature and resources that Cuban pastors have to draw from.
Thank you so much for your partnership over the years. We look forward to what the Lord will be doing as our new branches grow and He produces fruit that will last in our lives, the churches we are involved with and in you, our partners in the Great Commission.
Specific praise, prayer and partnership opportunities:
Praise for the Lord's leading: We are so thankful for the Lord's leading and the work He is currently laying before us. Please pray for His continued guidance, wisdom and provision as we step forward in faith.
Praise for safety and van repair: If you've visited our blog lately you know that our van was involved in an accident right in front of our church that totaled three other cars. We praise the Lord that nobody was gravely injured, and also praise the Lord that we just received it back from the body shop in great condition.
Prayer for Monthly Support: We thank God that between Kevin's dedicating one day a week to home repair work and Claudia's jewelry sales, all the bills continue to be paid. Our hope and prayer is to be able to dedicate this time completely to the ministerial projects at hand. Please join us in prayer for this and for a good response to the end of year donation letters that will be going out shortly.
Prayer for Roof Repair: Over the past year we have been attempting to save enough to re-roof the living area of our home. This has included refinancing (an answered prayer) and setting aside as much as possible on a monthly basis. Still, we are currently about $3,500. and need to have the work done before the rainy season begins in April. Please pray for the Lord's provision.
Prayer for Chilean Wedding: Claudia's youngest sister Christy will be getting married in Chile on May 28th. We hope to combine this wonderful event with visiting family, friends and churches as well as some ministry opportunities. Please join us in praying for the airline and other expenses of this trip, currently tickets are about $800. each.
Prayer for LAM Fundraising Dinner: This Sunday President Steve Johnson and other LAM staff will be in Pheonix for a fund raising dinner in support of various projects as well as the overall budget. Please pray that this goes well and for the Lord's provision through those who attend.
Missionary Support and Special Gifts
Through the generosity and prayers of partners like you, we are able to continue ministering to the Churches in Cuba and elsewhere.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please take advantage of the links below or simply send checks to Latin America Mission with a note indicating "For the Abeggs" to:
Latin America Mission P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami FL, 33152-7900.
· Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)
· Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit/debit card donation)
How to Contact Us
E-mail: kabegg "at" lam "dot" org
Office Mail: P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami, FL 33152-7900
Office Phone: 305-884-8400 x25
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Open house in Mt. Hermon, Santa Cruz this Friday PM!
Hi All!
We've been enjoying fellowship and catching up with friends at WCPC, but are headed down to Santa Cruz next. We'd love to see anyone in the area if possible. We will be having an open house this Friday from 5:00 – 8:00 PM at Huckleberry Cabin at Mt. Hermon. (See below for map link). Huckleberry is located up the hill from the post office. Take Forrest and make your first left on Lake Ln, and first right on Mound. It's the 6th house on the left at the corner of Mound and prospect. Look for the "huckleberry" sign. We'd love to see you there!
In His Hands / En Sus manos;
Kevin S. Abegg
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Abegg ELL - To CA this weekend!
The Abegg’s Electronic Love Letter
To those who have been called,
who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ;
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
-Jude 1:1
***For those in SF Bay Area & Santa Cruz CA, please note that we will be there starting this Saturday. See below.
In this Issue
Project: Recursos Pastorales Update
Waiting on the Lord: What we anticipate for the coming year
Abegg Family Update: In CA starting this weekend!
Missionary Support and Gifting for the Abeggs
Project: Recursos Pastorals
As you know we have been working on a project to provide materials (Bible dictionaries, concordances, Greek textbooks, commentaries, counseling aids etc). to pastors in Cuba. This has been slow going due to the difficulty in getting permission from Cuban authorities to enter religious materials into Cuba. We have been literally mailing in individual books but due to the expense involved are looking at other possibilities for the coming year as well as contacting publishers asking them to partner with us by providing their literature free or charge to a market that they don’t have access to anyway. Please pray for this program and that the anticipated changes would bring greater fruit to the pastors and their congregations throughout Cuba.
Waiting on the Lord
Over the past year I have been doing lots of praying and thinking through my beliefs on missiology, the church and the parachurch’s role in missions. I believe that the primary intuition that the Lord has given us to accomplish the Great Commission is the local church. Though I highly value LAM I have actually been wrestling with my involvement in a parachurch ministry when my heart is with the local church. Thankfully Claudia, the boys and I are intimately involved in a church that takes seriously our call “to make disciples of all nations” and has a heart for Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America as a whole. After much scripture searching and prayer we believe that the Lord has us at LAM for many purposes, especially to encourage and assist the local churches in Cuba as they seek to fulfill the Great commission in a very difficult place. Please pray for us as we end this year and look forward to what the Lord has in the coming year for our family, Latin America Mission, our home church in Miami and the many churches and pastors we seek to encourage and assist in thiere own ministry to and through their own local church.
Abegg Family Updates:
we’ll be in CAlifornia this weekend!!!
For those in and around the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz. We are headed your way starting this weekend and we’d love to see you!
This Saturday (10/24) Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church: Missions Celebration Weekend
Saturday: We will be presenting a ½ hr. seminar and taking part in a Q&A session on missions and our current ministry to Cuba. From 3:00 pm. – 5 PM
This Sunday (10/25) Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church: Missions Celebration Weekend
9:00 1st Worship service & missionary interview.
10:00 - 10:45 Global Village Missionary Experience
10:45 2nd Worship service & missionary interview.
This Monday (10/26) Walnut Creek
Open House with the Abegg Family. 5:00 – 7:00 PM. We want to see everyone, but simply cant visit each of your homes. So we have reserved the parlor at WCPC (between the library and the sanctuary). We’ll have a few snacks and drinks so stop by on your way home from work or even feel free to pick up your dinner and eat it there.
Friday (10/30) Santa Cruz / Scott’s Valley
Open House with the Abegg Family. 5:00 – 8:00 PM. We are thankful for Walnut Creek Pres that is flying us out for the missions conference which also allows us the opportunity to sneak down to Santa Cruz and see people there. Although we don’t know the exact location yet (watch the website next week for details), we plan on having a similar open house at Mt. Hermon. As before, we’ll have a few snacks and drinks so stop by on your way home from work or even feel free to pick up your dinner and eat it there.
Back to top
Missionary Support and Special Gifts
Through the generosity and prayers of partners like you, we are able to continue ministering to the Churches in Cuba.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please take advantage of the links below or simply send checks to Latin America Mission with a note indicating “For the Abeggs” to:
Latin America Mission P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami FL, 33152-7900.
· Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)
· Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit card donation)
How to Contact Us
E-mail: kabegg “at” lam “dot” org
Website/Blog: http://www.abeggloveletters.blogspot.com/
Office Mail: P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami, FL 33152-7900
Office Phone: 305-884-8400 x25
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday's Crash
We are thankful that nobody from church was injured as this happened right when everyone was arriving for the service. We’re all so thankful for God's hand of protection. Claudia was home with the boys since Nico wasn't feeling well. We think the woman in the black car had a seizure and lost control. Please pray she recovers fully and that the Lord gives us opertunities to minister to her. Our van got the smallest amount of damage of the 4 cars. We need to go to the auto body shop, while the others will be shopping for an auto. Please pray for grace for everyone involved.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Baah We're Lambs
Palm Vista had our tallent show last night. Jeremy, Nicholas and Kai Ospina did "Baah we're Lambs":
Friday, August 14, 2009
LESSONS WE'VE LEARNED FROM OUR KIDS #13
Benefit to having a 4 year old: you don't need to purchase a paper shredder. Drawback: he's self serving. - It's a blessing to see that the boys want to serve by washing my car. It's also a blessing when it rains that evening to re-wash what they washed.
Jeremy: "If God is everywhere at once, wouldn't we bump into Him any time we move?" - Jeremy: "Can I pour my own juice when I'm older, like 50 years old?"
Exaggeration happens -Nico to a friend: "Daddy says that if you shake a soda can and then open it, it will blow up the whole house!" - Note to self: the next time you have Jeremy and Nico help with gardening, be VERY specific as to which plants are weeds to be pulled out, and which plants should stay in the ground. P.S. buy Claudia some new flowers.
- 23 story apartment buildings are for throwing paper airplanes or water balloons off of. (OK, Daddy already knew that one).
Jeremy: “Worms live in dirt so that's what they eat. We live in air so that's what we eat… Wait, that's not right!" - Faith of a child -Jeremy: "I can't wait to die." Daddy: "Why would you say that? Don't you know how much we would miss you?" Jeremy: "Yeah, I’d miss you too but then I get to be with God!" (See Phil 1:12-26)
While at Disney for Nico & Grandpa’s Birthday, Jeremy got to take part in "Jedi Training" and is now convinced he can
use the force on Mommy and Daddy: “You don’t want to discipline me”. So here’s some for you Star Wars fans:- Nico: "If knights had to fight dragons today, they'd use light sabers!"
- Nico: Ham Solo is captain of the Mañana Falcon.
- Jeremy: "If I feed a worm a lot, would he get as big as Jabba the Hut?"
- Nico: "If a bad guy came to our house I'd spin around and around with my light saber and he'd just run away!"
- Jeremy: "Chewbacca needs to shave like daddy."
Waiting On the Lord
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Prov 19:21
I first got my missions feet wet 22 years ago. Over the past two decades, my passion and labor for foreign ministry has not changed but literally multiplied as the Lord provided me a wonderful missions minded wife in Claudia and the chance to teach Jeremy and Nico about being “strangers in a strange land” no matter where we are (Heb. 11:13-16). We anticipate always being focused on fulfilling the great commission and foreign missions in particular, yet for over a year now we’ve sensed the Lord stirring our hearts toward a new path. We believe strongly that the Church, and specifically “local churches”, are the means by which the Lord has given us to “Make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28). For that reason we have made a point of being intimately involved in a local church wherever God has planted us (California, Chile, Florida and Cuba by extension), and sought to use our gifts and abilities in these churches while receiving the benefit of being under the direct spiritual authority and guidance of pastoral leadership.
Lately we have found ourselves hungering to be more intimately involved in missions work from the ground floor, or “grass roots” level of the local church as they partner with other local churches in various parts of our own countries (U.S. & Chile) and around the world. This may sound strange from someone who has been involved with the parachurch ministry of Latin America Mission for many years now, so I want to carefully emphasize that we have the utmost admiration and love for LAM as a whole. We actually joined LAM because we saw in them a respect for Latin leadership, and a desire to work alongside of churches in Latin America, so please understand that as we consider what steps the Lord would have us take next, it is not due to any difficulties with LAM. Instead, any future changes will be as a result of a God given burden for the local church on both the sending and receiving ends of mission and a continued desire to see the fulfillment of the great commission.
We recognize that this is big news, and as one dear friend told me when we first started considering a change: “It seems like the death of your dream of foreign ministry”. I explained to him that at this point we don't know what the change will be, but it is in reality the exact opposite from a "dream death". The very heart of what we are doing now, and wherever we will be working & serving in the future, doesn’t vary in any way from what we’ve been doing throughout our years of missionary work: following our Lord wherever He leads us. If our hope and desire is to Glorify God and make Him known, instead of seeking our own temporal “dreams”, we have nothing to lose, since the very one we want to Glorify is the one guiding our steps! “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” (Prov. 16:9).
So where do we go from here? Frankly…I’m not sure at this point. So until the Lord opens the next door, we will continue where He has us now, including the various Cuba and other projects at LAM, Kevin working one day a week in home repair, Claudia as a Lia Sophia jewelry advisor and serving in our local church. We are hoping that by the end of summer we will be able to see God’s leading and provision clearly, but as always, we wait on His timing. My purpose in writing this is to ask you to pray for wisdom and guidance for our immediate ministerial work as well as these future decisions. Thank you for your continuing the wonderful encouragement and financial support we have been so blessed to receive over the years. When the time to step into a new job/ministry comes, we will let you, our faithful prayer supporters, our financial partners and our dear friends know with anticipation.
Thank you for your amazing faithfulness which has allowed us to do the things the Lord has called us to over these years.
If you are interested in following my thoughts in a more extensive format, please log on to: http://missionunderstandings.blogspot.com or simply send us an e-mail or give us a call.
In His Hands;
Kevin, for the family.
I first got my missions feet wet 22 years ago. Over the past two decades, my passion and labor for foreign ministry has not changed but literally multiplied as the Lord provided me a wonderful missions minded wife in Claudia and the chance to teach Jeremy and Nico about being “strangers in a strange land” no matter where we are (Heb. 11:13-16). We anticipate always being focused on fulfilling the great commission and foreign missions in particular, yet for over a year now we’ve sensed the Lord stirring our hearts toward a new path. We believe strongly that the Church, and specifically “local churches”, are the means by which the Lord has given us to “Make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28). For that reason we have made a point of being intimately involved in a local church wherever God has planted us (California, Chile, Florida and Cuba by extension), and sought to use our gifts and abilities in these churches while receiving the benefit of being under the direct spiritual authority and guidance of pastoral leadership.
Lately we have found ourselves hungering to be more intimately involved in missions work from the ground floor, or “grass roots” level of the local church as they partner with other local churches in various parts of our own countries (U.S. & Chile) and around the world. This may sound strange from someone who has been involved with the parachurch ministry of Latin America Mission for many years now, so I want to carefully emphasize that we have the utmost admiration and love for LAM as a whole. We actually joined LAM because we saw in them a respect for Latin leadership, and a desire to work alongside of churches in Latin America, so please understand that as we consider what steps the Lord would have us take next, it is not due to any difficulties with LAM. Instead, any future changes will be as a result of a God given burden for the local church on both the sending and receiving ends of mission and a continued desire to see the fulfillment of the great commission.
We recognize that this is big news, and as one dear friend told me when we first started considering a change: “It seems like the death of your dream of foreign ministry”. I explained to him that at this point we don't know what the change will be, but it is in reality the exact opposite from a "dream death". The very heart of what we are doing now, and wherever we will be working & serving in the future, doesn’t vary in any way from what we’ve been doing throughout our years of missionary work: following our Lord wherever He leads us. If our hope and desire is to Glorify God and make Him known, instead of seeking our own temporal “dreams”, we have nothing to lose, since the very one we want to Glorify is the one guiding our steps! “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” (Prov. 16:9).
So where do we go from here? Frankly…I’m not sure at this point. So until the Lord opens the next door, we will continue where He has us now, including the various Cuba and other projects at LAM, Kevin working one day a week in home repair, Claudia as a Lia Sophia jewelry advisor and serving in our local church. We are hoping that by the end of summer we will be able to see God’s leading and provision clearly, but as always, we wait on His timing. My purpose in writing this is to ask you to pray for wisdom and guidance for our immediate ministerial work as well as these future decisions. Thank you for your continuing the wonderful encouragement and financial support we have been so blessed to receive over the years. When the time to step into a new job/ministry comes, we will let you, our faithful prayer supporters, our financial partners and our dear friends know with anticipation.
Thank you for your amazing faithfulness which has allowed us to do the things the Lord has called us to over these years.
If you are interested in following my thoughts in a more extensive format, please log on to: http://missionunderstandings.blogspot.com or simply send us an e-mail or give us a call.
In His Hands;
Kevin, for the family.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cuban economy feels heat of world downturn
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@MiamiHerald.com
2009 Miami Herald Media Company.
Fernando used to have a cushy job in Havana as a teller in a government bank office with air-conditioning, a nice computer and a bank-provided lunch.
Not anymore.
Amid Cuba's deepest economic crisis in nearly two decades, his office has shut off the AC and his computer constantly crashes because of the heat, exasperating him and his customers. His lunch, Fernando said, has ``shrunk to a snack.''
Driving the bulk of the crisis has been the world recession, which slashed demand and prices for Cuba's few exports, like nickel, and choked off new credits to a government already deeply in debt. Add the island's internal woes, and Raúl Castro's recent description of the problems as ``a matter of national security'' seems like no exaggeration.
After Castro replaced brother Fidel, ``most Cubans hoped for some improvements in the medium term. But now everyone is preparing for worse and worse,'' said one Miamian who recently returned from a visit and asked for anonymity to protect her relatives there.
Castro has adopted Draconian measures to survive the storm in the short term.
To cut electricity consumption by 12 percent -- Cuba imports half its oil needs -- the government has shut down many factories and ordered state office buildings, theaters and other facilities to shut off their ACs. Inspectors also are cracking down on Cubans who steal electricity through illegal hookups with $23 fines -- about five weeks' worth of the average salary.
``Banks are built to keep out robbers, not to let in a breeze,'' said Fernando, who asked that his surname not be published because of fear of government reprisals. ``Without [air conditioning] . . . my office is two bus stops past hell.''
Some hospitals also are shutting down their emergency rooms for two hours a day, and elective surgeries are being postponed until electricity services become more dependable, said Elaine Scheye, a Chicago consultant who has studied Cuba's health system.
LESS FOOD
Portions for many rationed foodstuffs have been cut -- red beans and chickpeas from 30 to 20 ounces a month, salt by half to about four ounces per month -- while food deliveries to factory, office and school cafeterias have been trimmed, according to official announcements.
Harsh police crackdowns on the food black market -- apparently an attempt to ensure that more items reach the legal outlets -- have driven up prices yet left many of the legitimate sales points with shelves oddly bare, Havana residents say.
Even foreign businesses are suffering, with the government tightly controlling withdrawals from their accounts. Castro also replaced his entire economic Cabinet in March, and just last week the legislature created a comptroller's office to attack official corruption.
Yet many analysts in and out of Cuba argue that those belt-tightening moves are far from what's needed to address the crisis.
``Mercurochrome and Band-Aids for deep wounds with heavy bleeding,'' Miami activist Juan Antonio Blanco wrote in his blog, Cambio de Epoca (Epochal Change). Even the official Granma newspaper called the situation ``grave.''
EARLIER TROUBLE
Cuba was already in deep trouble by the fall of 2008, after four hurricanes caused $10 billion in damage -- equivalent to a whopping 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for 2007. Imports for 2008 spiked 41 percent to $14.2 billion from the previous year while exports remained flat at $3.7 billion, meaning the island's already huge trade deficit mushroomed by 65 percent.
Food imports alone rose from $1.5 billion in 2007 to $2.2 billion last year as the government tried to replace hurricane-damaged harvests, according to official Cuban figures.
And then the world economy plunged into recession, drying up lending markets. Foreign commercial lending to Cuba fell by $1 billion in 2008, according to the Bank for International Settlements, a crippling blow to a government that for the past decade had been taking on ever larger debts to pay for imports and older debts -- ``financing by arrears,'' as one economist put it.
Russian auditors reported last month that Cuba had failed on three dates to make payments due on a $355 million loan signed in 2006. And some 80 Cuban government enterprises postponed payments to foreign creditors this year, according to Carmelo Mesa Lago, a University of Pittsburgh expert on the Cuban economy.
GRIM OUTLOOK
With remittances and tourism expected to be flat this year and the price of nickel -- 41 percent of Cuban exports -- at about 25 percent of its 2008 levels, the outlook for 2009 remains grim. Over the past month Havana cut its predictions of 2009 GDP growth from 6 percent to 2.5 percent and then 1.7 percent -- though some Cuba economists are privately predicting a .5 percent drop.
``The country is again facing a situation as adverse'' as the early 1990s, the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America wrote earlier this year. Cuba's economy shrank by 35 percent after the Soviet Union collapsed and cut off its $4 billion-$6 billion annual subsidies to Havana.
LONGER-TERM REFORMS
Since Raúl Castro officially assumed power in early 2008, he has also been putting in place several longer-term reforms that he hopes will give Cuba a more productive, streamlined and less centralized economy.
In his government's most ambitious effort, it has loaned 1.7 million acres of fallow state lands to 82,000 Cubans, hoping to increase food production and slash costly imports. It also shifted Acopio, the notoriously inefficient agency that gathers and distributes farmers' products, from the Agriculture to the Domestic Commerce Ministry.
The government also has increased some salaries as incentives to productivity, allowed Cubans to hold more than one job at a time and let retirees to return to work. Castro last week predicted cuts in government spending on health and education, and said imports would be cut back this year.
Havana also has hinted that it is studying opening the doors wider to foreign investors and abandoning the costly food rationing system. One leading Havana economic analyst, Ariel Terrero, even suggested recently that the government put more of the economy ``in the hands of producers'' -- for example, allowing state grocery or clothing shop workers to run their own enterprises.
`RATIONAL SOCIALISM'
Despite early speculation that the reputedly pragmatic Castro would move Cuba toward a Chinese-like ``market socialism system,'' his reforms have remained relatively moderate.
Brother Fidel remains a powerful opponent of more profound changes even three years after he was last seen in public, analysts say, and Raúl Castro must know that opening Cuba to more market forces could fuel a potentially destabilizing increase in the island's social and economic inequalities.
In a keynote speech to the legislature last month, he prescribed a move toward a kind of ``rational socialism'' that will preserve Cuba's political system while cutting back the bureaucracy, state subsidies and waste, and increasing productivity and efficiency.
``It's a matter of defining, with the broadest popular participation, the socialist society to which we aspire and can build, given Cuba's current and future conditions -- the economic model that will rule the life of the nation in benefit of our people,'' Castro said.
Lest anyone get the wrong impression, Castro added a caution.
``I was not elected president to restore capitalism in Cuba or surrender the revolution,'' he said. ``I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not to destroy it.''
Monday, August 10, 2009
In all my trips there, I've always had to bring my own.
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Thursday, July 9, 2009
Hands Off Honduras by Philip Giraldi
Giraldi does a good job of sifting out the events and giving an understanding of both what happend (and is happening) as well as the consequences. I don't agree with him on every aspect, but I believe he attempted to be balanced in his coverage.
Hands Off Honduras by Philip Giraldi
Hands Off Honduras by Philip Giraldi
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Stop me if you've heard this one: An Imam, a Priest, a Monk and a Rabbi walk into a Turkish game show…
In general I'm pleased when God and Salvation are a topic of conversation, it provides Christians an opportunity to share the eternal, as well as present hope we have in Christ. Paul’s discourse with the Greek Philosophers (Acts 17) took advantage of their idol “to an unknown God” as a springboard to teaching about salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. As a result, a few became believers, but apparently Paul didn’t accept the philosopher’s invitation to return and continue in empty dialogue, he chose to move on. The recent article about a Turkish TV game show offering salvation is great, but there’s one big problem, God is not in the equation at all and I imagine Paul would pause shortly to see if the Lord provides any fruit, and then move on. Obviously the Turkish network is focusing on gathering viewers, and it makes business sense if you can do so from four major religious groups. I imagine (although it’s a stretch) that the four contestants are approaching this to see if there will be any fruit for their particular faith, but I look at the entire show similar to the Greek’s Idol to an Unknown God . In a sense it’s “American…” I mean “Turkish Idol” where contestants try to rationally convince the judges who are atheists, that their religion is best. The understanding is that it is possible to bring people to salvation without God first working in their hearts. The show may not necessarily be dedicated to Biblical Principals: "We don't approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn't matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe," but quite possibly can be used by those who not only seek to share their hope in Christ’s salvation, but trust in God to bring the fruit as they are faithful to respond to the opportunities He provides as Paul did on Mars Hill.
Today I’m praying for the wisdom to recognize the opportunities that the Lord places before me however strange they may be, and then to respond to them in faith, trusting the Lord to bring the fruit.
Link to Reuters Article on Turkish Gameshow
Today I’m praying for the wisdom to recognize the opportunities that the Lord places before me however strange they may be, and then to respond to them in faith, trusting the Lord to bring the fruit.
Link to Reuters Article on Turkish Gameshow
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