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Manuel's Crisis
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Manuel was a chemistry professor and secretary of the Communist Party at his school in Cuba. One night in 2015 everything changed when he awoke with a terrible pain in his chest, and a massive heart attack. Then he fell into a coma.
But that was not the end.
He was annoyed that his teaching assistant always kept a Bible verse on her desk. “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13, NIV). He had encountered people of faith, but was a firm atheist. He believed in the Communist party and its leader, Fidel Castro, and he knew there was no God. But Manuel had a transformative experience.
“I saw a large cloud and a man who took my hand and said, ‘Don’t be afraid; I am with you.’ I asked the man, ‘Who are you? Why are you giving me orders?’
He said, ‘I am Jesus and I saved you. Now wake up.’”
At that moment, the doctor was asking for permission to remove him from life support because there was nothing more she could do. But Manuel opened his eyes and told his wife, “Jesus has saved me.”
Now Manuel tells everyone that he is alive today because of Jesus. He received his first Bible from donations to his local church. He has spent many hours reading and has grown to know the Jesus who saved him. Since then, “Jesus also helped me to set right my spiritual life,” he says. “He not only forgave me, but taught me to forgive others.”
And the verse that annoyed him so much before has become his favourite Bible verse: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength”. It has given him courage to face new challenges in his life.
“I live because of God and for God,” he says. He wasn’t free to share the gospel at work, so he quit his job as a professor and has become a pastor and evangelist. Through sharing the Word of God, Manuel’s wife has become a Christian and his cardiologist has now chosen to follow Jesus as well.
Manuel is part of the booming church in Cuba, where there is great need for Bibles. You can help others encounter Jesus through the Word of God, and bring joy to Cuba by sharing the Bible. Give now to support the work of the Bible Society in Cuba.
