". . . and having done all . . . stand firm." Eph. 6:13

Newsletter

The News You Need

Subscribe to The Washington Stand

X
Commentary

‘Tribulation Has Not Stopped the Purpose’: Wife of Jailed Cuban Pastor

October 23, 2024

Maridilegnis Caraballo lost a part of herself when her husband was arrested. Pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo had peacefully gone out with his eldest son, David, to the streets on July 11, 2021 in the city of Palma Soriano. There he was immobilized by the military, transported to one of the local political police barracks, beaten, and humiliated. Today, he is serving a seven-year prison sentence.

Together with Rosales Fajardo, Caraballo pastors a small church that the State refuses to register. Together with him, she also took care of her children, both teenagers, now affected by distance and injustice. Caraballo, like other wives and mothers of political prisoners in Cuba, has come out into the public arena to make the cases of their loved ones are visible.

The last time she received news from her husband, it was hard: his health was failing again, his kidneys were failing again, he drank little water, and he worked hard in the sun. Caraballo has spoken to the press and has looked for every opportunity to take the message outside.

Meanwhile, life continues its slow flow on the impoverished and dark island where she lives. Meanwhile, she tries to hold up the pillars of the home that socialism cracked.

Here is my interview with Maridilegnis.

What feedback have you had from the neighborhood, the neighbors, since the pastor’s imprisonment?

Not only in our neighborhood, but in the community in general, we have received support from family, friends, and even people we don’t even know. Sometimes they approach me on the street to show their support. We have experienced the love of the people of this place in many ways.

Something that impresses us is how, on the occasions that my husband has gone on leave, many people come to our house to see him. The point of coincidence in each comment is the injustice that we have had to live through — and not only us, but thousands of families. People know what happened to my husband. Since July 11, 2021, in the presence of the entire town and without any cause, he received the first and brutal beatings of many that would follow. Added to all this is the cruelty that comes with being imprisoned in the current context of our nation and without having committed any crime.

A story that touched my heart was told to me recently. Ministering the love of God to other inmates in the maximum security prison of Boniato, in Santiago de Cuba, he was in detachment number 18, the one for repeat offenders. Some had a sentence of more than 40 years in prison, they would never get out of there. Several opened their hearts and began to tell the reason for which they were imprisoned. It was shocking: the cruelest murders, even of family members. When Lorenzo finished telling me, he said, “And me, who did I kill?” If on the one hand, the judicial system had supposedly done justice for the crimes of those people, on the other, my husband found himself in the midst of them all, like another criminal, in one of the most dangerous detachments.

An important part of the life of faith is the community of believers. How has it responded to the situation of your family?

In the midst of this trial, not everything has been bad. We have grown a lot as people; as a family, we have gotten closer to God, and that is something spectacular for which we are grateful. But seeing and experiencing the love of God in action, seeing His work in each brother during this time has been one of the most beautiful gifts and experiences of my life.

Like Job, today we can say, “I had heard of you before, but now I know you.” Many Christians were prepared by God for this time. Many, not only in our country but also beyond our borders, do not stop praying for my husband, for our family. Others have collaborated again and again so that we lack nothing, others have opened doors so that Lorenzo’s case is known, others have advocated at the highest levels for my husband’s freedom, others do not cease to encourage us through their letters.

And I can say even more: these almost three years have been possible thanks to the men and women of faith that God has used in every corner of the world. Today, I take the opportunity to publicly express our gratitude to each one of those lives. We have seen fulfilled the parallelism that the Bible refers to when it compares us to the human body: many members, many functions, but being one, all of them grieve with our pain.

What is the status of the independent Monte de Sión congregation, which you pastor with your husband?

With our trial, the church was also tested. It has also been very difficult as a congregation to get to this day. There is a whole path in which, unfortunately, some are not on, but in which we have also seen the owner of the church, the one who bought it with the price of blood, guard it, sustain it, guide it, and build it.

We continue to listen to His voice, obey Him, bring the kingdom, and know Him to make it known.

I know that Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, despite the hard life of political prison, has not stopped preaching, and that he has even served by encouraging and advising other inmates.

He always says that the only thing that changed in this process was the platform. Despite everything, he has not lost his joy and sense of humor.

Looking at his life, I cannot help but think of the Apostle Paul when he said, “Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ.” The tribulation has not stopped his purpose. Despite the suffering, he has continued to show Christ, preaching, advising, helping many and experiencing true freedom, despite the bars. Many of them have even been baptized.

His daughter, who is in high school, has suffered harassment from teachers because of her father’s participation in the 11J demonstrations.

Yes, my children have suffered greatly from their father’s unjust imprisonment. They have been forced to have an absent father at very difficult ages, such as adolescence and early youth. As if that were not enough, they have had to deal with being singled out and humiliated by people or teachers at school. In a recent incident, a teacher called my daughter a “worm” and a counter-revolutionary in the middle of the entire class.

All because she is the daughter of Pastor Lorenzo Rosales, a prisoner of 11J, of whom we are extremely proud.

Has your son, David, experienced similar circumstances?

My son David was also arbitrarily detained on July 11 with his father. He was only 17 years old. He spent a week in jail and then was given bail as a precautionary measure. Finally, his punishment was a fine and police surveillance that lasted months.

Despite everything, he made an effort to finish his 12th grade and obtained a university degree. Although we do not have to regret an event similar to what happened to my daughter at school, this situation and the imprisonment of his father have affected him. David was forced to abandon his studies because, financially, he could not support the home in the current context.

There have been many tears and frustrations for not having their father, who was always with them, especially with him, in their emotional life, accompanying him in his challenges, his experiences, his fears at this stage of life, as he stopped being a child and became a man.

Many nights David needed his father, and although God has not failed us and has been that loving Father who has sustained him until today, my husband’s imprisonment has affected his spiritual life. I know that he has many questions before God.

What do you think has been the main impact of Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo’s absence for you, as a wife?

It has been and is very difficult for me to see my children grow up visiting their father, a man of God, an excellent father, just once a month in a prison. On the other hand, all that has happened on an emotional level in our lives has nothing to do with our faith. In other words, we have an unshakable faith in what God has said and in His word, and we are sure that all of this will work out for good. We recognize that today, through the test, we have grown and have come closer to God in an extraordinary way. Lives have been reached and brought closer to Christ, we have seen families restored through this suffering, and that is glorious.



Amplify Our Voice for Truth