Iglesia Bautista de Alamar, Cuba
Alamar, a city of apartment buildings, was designed in 1959 as Cuba's first revolutionary housing development. Constructed along the ocean approximately 30 kilometers east of Havana, Alamar encompases four square miles and houses approximately 100,000 people. Iglesia Bautista de Alamar meets in one of those apartments as well as off-site, at Iglesia Bautista de William Carey in Havana.
Among Alamar's church members are factory workers, engineers, translators, accounting and managerial professionals, artists, physicians, chefs, medical technicians, musicians, and school teachers. About a fourth of the church's 30-plus members are deaf, and an interpreter signs during worship services and fellowship meetings.
The Alamar church enjoys strong lay leadership, and four of its members are weekend students at Instituto Superior de Estudos Bíblicos e Teológicos in Havana. The church's keyboardist, an accountant who works in Havana, is also a weekend student at a local church music school.
Co-pastors Daylins Rufin and Luis Carlos Marreno serve the Alamar church. Daylins commutes to Matanzas, Cuba, each week to teach Hebrew at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary. Both co-pastors travel by bus or motor scooter to Alamar for Sunday services, weeknight Bible studies, and church fellowships.
