Cuba has long been a place plagued with political instability – due in part to its lack of a gospel ministry.  During the insurrection of 1868, when Cuba first sought independence from Spain, three ladies made their way from Cuba to Mississippi.  There they were met by Christ and were born again.  When they returned home, they asked their American friends to “come over and help us.”  In 1879, J. B. Hamberlin took the gospel to Cuba and before the second rebellion against Spain in the 1890s a Baptist foothold was established.  On this day in 1891 a building in downtown Havana was restored and converted into the Templo Bautista, and it became the center of evangelistic labors throughout the island.  In time a church was established in the capital, along with a seminary and a print shop.  There is still a struggling Baptist presence in Cuba, and one of the friends of our church, Brother Rodney Spears, still travels to Cuba in support of the work there.
Source – “This Day in Baptist History II” by David Cummins and E. Wayne Thompson