Eastern Cuba by I. P. Dillon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1911

Eastern Cuba

By I. P. Dillon

Nine months have passed since we landed in Cuba. Three months of this time we spent with Elder E. W. Snyder and his fellow laborers in Havana, where we received valuable help and experience in the study of the language and the customs of the people. It was decided by the West Indian Union Committee that we make eastern Cuba our field of labor; so we are living in Camaguey, a city of about thirty thousand population.

Missionaries of other denominations tell us that this is the hardest place on the island to labor, on account of the strong Catholic element here. There are fourteen Catholic churches in this place, and another is in course of construction.

We have two self-supporting schools and one church company in eastern Cuba. The church is located at Omaja, and the schools are at Las Minas and Las Tunas respectively.

We also have three canvassers who are actively engaged in the book work. I just received word from Brethren C. L. and H. C. Bond that they had reached the city of Santiago de Cuba safely, were centrally located, and had begun to make a few sales. Our other canvasser, Brother Emmeneger, is working on the north coast near Puerto Padre, and is finding some interest there.

Our schools are doing good work, and the church at Omaja is in a good spiritual condition. Recently we took into church fellowship two sisters who were baptized last quarter. About fifty persons gathered beside a stream that flows through one of our beautiful tropical forests, to witness this solemn rite.

Here in Camaguey our work has consisted largely of selling papers and holding cottage meetings, the latter being held mostly among American families who were interested in our work and wished to know what we teach. We are glad to report that one family has decided to accept the message. The members of this family returned to the home land this week. Before leaving, they declared that their sojourn in Cuba had not been in vain. Our Spanish papers are selling well, and many are studying the message.

We ask the prayers of God's people that we make no mistakes in the work which he has entrusted to us.

I. P. DILLON.