Amid Cuba’s communism and India’s anti-conversion laws, God is powerfully at work – raising up faithful Bible teachers to lead his Church with courage and conviction.

The distance from Cuba to India is a mere 8,619 miles – as the crow flies. And if the crow was making that trip, and if they felt they needed to take a break slightly further north at roughly halfway, they would find themselves not too far from the new Crosslinks office in Elephant and Castle, London.

Cuba, the UK and India – countries as diverse as they could be, yet partnered together through Crosslinks as the Lord grows his global church through the strengthening of healthy local churches.

Prédica Fiel began life in 2009. Cuban pastor Alexis Pérez, and his wife Lourdes, had travelled to London in 2008 to study Bible-handling on the Cornhill Training Course. They returned to Cuba longing to serve local churches there by equipping pastors to faithfully teach God’s word.

Communist Cuba is one of the most challenging of countries to live in. It’s reckoned that 2.9 million Cubans have fled their country since the revolution in 1959.

Since the collapse of the USSR, the country has seen unprecedented economic pressures. In 2020 alone, the economy collapsed a further 11%. The economic, social and political situation is desperate.

Yet what Communism has done by robbing Cubans of material hope has produced fertile ground for the seeds of the gospel. Over the past 15 years, Prédica Fiel has hosted 87 preaching workshops, reaching a total of 3,448 people with in-depth faithful training in Bible teaching. In their local training centre in Cuba, they have trained 225 people and have sent out six church planters. In 2022, the ministry of Prédica Fiel expanded beyond Cuba’s borders as they launched an online mentorship programme to equip bi-vocational pastors and church-planters. In the three years since it launched, 220 people have been trained, and it continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Training seminar, Cuba

Demand for the ministry of Prédica Fiel is constant, both in Central America (Prédica Fiel is partnering with a seminary in Mexico where students are benefitting from expository preaching training) but also amongst Spanish-speaking churches of emigrants who have come from Central America to the south of the USA. 16 years on from Prédica Fiel’s conception, their vision to impact the next generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ by equipping biblical expositors throughout the Spanish-speaking world is beginning to bear significant fruit.

Meanwhile 8,619 miles away, a similar concern and burden for lost souls in North India was brewing. In 2013, former Crosslinks mission partner Robin Weekes put together a consultation paper with the vision to make available recognised, church-based, seminary-level education [for Christians in North India], so that we can provide further training for people from local churches, with a particular focus on expository preaching, without them having to leave North India.

Working through the local church, this vision fast became a reality. Under the leadership of DV, SBT:NI is addressing the colossal need for Hindi-speaking local church pastors to be trained in their own language. If you’re a stats person, then tune in: 1.43 billion people live in India. Christianity accounts for just 2% of India’s population (28.6 million). 95% of the Christians in India live in Central and South India, where there is more gospel freedom, more resources for the church and less persecution.

This means that only 5% of India’s 28.6 million Christians live in North India. Yet that 5% still signifies a significant number within India’s vast population: 1.43 million brothers and sisters believing in Jesus in the face of severe opposition. And evidence on the ground suggests their witness is bearing fruit, with the number of professing Christians
growing rapidly. This is extraordinary, not least as the anti-conversion laws of the current ruling nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, ensure persecution is a daily reality for Christians and churches in North India. But this growth means 1.43+ million fellow Christians need godly pastors who will lead healthy local churches.

Over a number of years, a team of Hindi-speaking trainers, under DV’s godly leadership, has gradually grown. With a careful, systemised and yet de-centralised approach, this has meant 28 Hindi-speaking workshops (3.5 days each) are being run across North India each year. From exegesis to exposition, pastors and lay leaders are being trained in expository preaching.

An annual conference (the Ezra Theological Conference) was established for those attending SBT:NI workshops. I had the privilege of attending 2025’s annual conference, which had over 160 church leaders present for four days of teaching on the Servant Songs of Isaiah, 1 Peter and various practical workshops aimed at equipping church leaders. To see with my own eyes how God’s gracious hand has grown this ministry and the impact it is having on many ordinary people was both humbling and exciting.

But there is more! In 2014, SBT:NI established a training pipeline for those who attended the workshops. Those most suited are invited for further training through an accredited theological course. 81 men from across the nine northern states of India have now graduated after four years of study, receiving a BTh degree and fully equipped as trainers for SBT:NI’s workshops.

The challenges of growth are being addressed, and an established ecosystem for training faithful Bible expositors and local church pastors is in place.

Yes, Prédica Fiel in Cuba and SBT:NI in India are miles apart. Yet by God’s grace and empowering, they are connected by a commitment to multiply God’s word. It is our real privilege to enable churches in the UK and Ireland to join God’s global mission through partnering with the ministry of these Crosslinks project partners. Having reinvigorated our friendships with both Alexis Pérez and DV in 2025, we invite you now to personally partner with them through praying and giving, as together we take God’s word to God’s world.