Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley says that despite the significant changes in Cuba’s leadership in 2018, the country’s government remains committed to communism and atheism and sees Christianity as a threat to the revolution. “Churches in Cuba continue to face severe pressure from the government, but the government works hard to hide that persecution in order to protect its reputation globally,” says Representative Foley. “The persecution is more hidden than it used to be, but it hasn’t decreased. Christian leaders are often called into meetings with government officials or imprisoned for up to 48 hours to pressure them. Churches are demolished by hired gangs so the government can deny responsibility. Church buildings are seized, and no new church buildings have been built in the country since the revolution. Many believers meet in unsanctioned ‘house churches,’ often extensions of the pastor’s home or shaded structures in the back yard.” 

In the 1980s as a Cuban teenager, Joel saw his pastor dragged off to jail in 1984. “He was … in prison without having committed any crime, just for preaching the gospel,” Joel told Voice of the Martyrs. Even though Joel was devoted to the Lord, he was certain there was one calling her would never follow: He did not want to be a pastor. 

Instead, Joel’s interest—and talent—was in baseball. But as Joel advanced to higher levels of competition in the sport, he could see that it brought challenges and temptations that he needed to avoid as a Christian. So just a few years after he saw his pastor dragged off to jail, at the age of 17 Joel surprised his father, his baseball coach, and himself by deciding to become a pastor. 

“I heard God’s voice,” Joel told Voice of the Martyrs. “He told me that he wanted me to serve him.”  

In 1996, newly married and freshly graduated from seminary, Joel arrived in a mountain town about 20 miles south of where he had studied to become a pastor. The town, he told Voice of the Martyrs, was a uniquely difficult mission field, “a city of places where the gospel wasn’t allowed.” 

In their first four years of ministry, Joel and his wife, Maruchi, experienced the same pattern over and over again: They would find a house, begin meeting there as a church, get evicted, and start over.  

“Seven times, authorities closed their churches and confiscated their property,” says Representative Foley. “During 12 years of ministry in the town, Pastor Joel was arrested 17 times for preaching, distributing Bibles or evangelizing.” 

Pastor Joel and his family moved away from the community in 2008. By then, they had planted 25 churches led by locally trained pastors serving more than 6,000 Christians.  

“Among those churches was one in an old ammunition factory, which is still active today,” says Representative Foley. 

Not long after, Pastor Joel found himself back in the community where his ministry had begun, pastoring a small church there. One afternoon, he walked to the local ballpark with a bat, two balls and a couple of gloves to begin training a few boys in the fundamentals of baseball.  

“As word got around, he soon found himself training 80 young people — all non-Christians,” says Representative Foley. “He began each practice session with a Christian devotional, and he often did ‘team talks’ where he shared from the Bible. He gave all the players Bible texts and Christian literature to take home to their families.” 

Pastor Joel told Voice of the Martyrs that reaching young people through baseball has allowed him to bring the gospel to people who would never have considered going to church.   

Representative Foley says that Pastor Joel and Maruchi Samonim have faced a greater challenge in recent years: the need to send their children out of the country. 

“As their children became more engaged in ministry work, they also began to experience persecution,” says Representative Foley. “When one of their sons was arrested and imprisoned by state security officials, they felt it was necessary to help their sons leave Cuba.” 

But Pastor Joel told Voice of the Martyrs that he and Maruchi Samonim are remaining in Cuba to do ministry. Pastor Joel said that God gave them a verse of scripture—Isaiah 42:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”—to encourage them that God is about to do a “new thing” in Cuba. 

“We are waiting for a revival in our nation,” Pastor Joel said. “That is why we stay here in our country, even though our kids left and it is hard, because God called us to be here. It is a privilege being part of what God is doing in our nation. It is a blessing to see the thirst and hunger that there is for the Lord.” 

Representative Foley says Voice of the Martyrs posts urgent prayer requests for persecuted Christians like Pastor Joel on its website at https://vomkorea.com/en/prayer/urgent/.