(…continued) Armando Valladares, and many other prisoners in the Cuban prison on the Isle of Pines, were inspired and strengthened in their faith by another prisoner they knew only as “The Brother of Faith.” ‘The Brother’ was a Protestant minister who, in that ‘hell on earth,’ created a community of living faith in Jesus Christ. In his 2001 book Against All Hope, Vallandares tells the story:
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We never knew if we would ever again see our friends who walked off to the tribunals. The bullets killed many good Cubans who stood up to the dictatorship, and the walls shook with the brave cries of “Down with Communism!” or “Viva Cuba Libre!” or “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long live King Jesus!). At those times of almost unbearable anguish and dread, the Brother of the Faith would say that the prisoner they shot was a privileged man, because God had called him to His side. He helped many men face death with strength and serenity. He came and went constantly among the groups of men, trying to instill faith, trying to calm their spirits, trying to give support.
The Brother would go through the prison aisles, looking for sick men; and then, whether the sick men wanted him to or not, he would carry off their dirty clothes. We would then see him down in the prison yard, with a piece of burlap bag or plastic tied around his waist like an apron, standing over mountains of dirty clothes. Hour after hour, he would be bent over the washbasins with sweat pouring off him, washing the grimy and putrid ‘rags’ that were the only clothes the men possessed.
He would get us out of our cots to go to the prayer meeting, saying “Get up, you lion cub! The Lord is calling you!” It was impossible to say no to the Brother of Faith. If he saw that someone was pensive and downcast, he would say to him, “I want to see you at the prayer meeting this afternoon,” and you had to go. His sermons had a primitive beauty, and he himself had an extraordinary magnetism.
From a pulpit improvised from old salt-codfish boxes covered with a sheet behind a simple cross, the thundering voice of the Brother of Faith would preach his daily sermons. Then we would all sing hymns he wrote out on cigarette packages and passed out to those of us at the meeting. Many times, the guards broke up those minutes of prayer with blows and kicks, but they never managed to intimidate him.
If some exhausted or sick prisoner fell behind in the furrows or hadn’t piled up the amount of rock he had been ordered to break, the Brother of Faith would turn up. He was thin and wiry, with incredible stamina for physical labor. He would catch the other man up in his work, saving him from brutal beatings. When one of the guards would walk up behind him and hit him, the Brother of Faith would spring erect, look into the guard’s eyes, and say to him, “May God pardon you.”
There were more than a thousand prisoners in our building. We all had great admiration and affection for the Brother of Faith. Whenever the guards broke in to beat the stragglers out to work, he was always there encouraging us, cheering us up. While we stood in the long line for our “breakfast” of sugar water he would tell us Bible stories, or make us laugh with his original and highly personal little talks on sin and men’s conduct. “Don’t ever forget that I lived in sin and knew temptations,” he would tell us. His constant goal was to teach us not to hate; all his sermons carried that message.
One night several prisoners were forced from their cells, and guards began to beat them with Billy clubs, chains, and the butts of their guns. The startled men ran in every direction, but the guards chased them down, striking them mercilessly. Suddenly, as though to protect them, there appeared a skeletal figure with white hair and brilliant eyes, who opened his arms into a cross, raised his head to the invisible sky, and said, “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.” The Brother of Faith hardly had time to finish his sentence, because as soon as he appeared, the lieutenant ordered the guards to step back, and he fired his machine gun. The burst of fire tore into the Brother’s chest, rising up to his neck. His head was almost severed, as though from the blow of an ax. He died instantly.
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Fortified by the faithfulness of this man, and then by his own faith, Armando Valladares survived the cruelty, psychological abuse, and physical torture for twenty-two years. In 1983 he was released and made his way to the United States and freedom. His memoirs of those dark years, Against All Hope, exposed to the world the hidden horrors of Castro’s prisons. He also published books of poetry. In 1987 President Reagan appointed him as Ambassador to the United Nations Humans Rights Commission.
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“Though Castro could control the Cuban press, suppress the visible church, conquer academia, and rule a ruthless government, he could not rule the spirits of those he enslaved. He could not extinguish the light of the soul set free by God. And out of a flicker of light in one dark prison came the indictment of his regime that shocked the world. Is this not the way our Lord works? Out of brokenness and foolishness come wholeness and might. Out of prison comes power; real power, that defies even the most brutal repression.”
–Chuck Colson telling the story of Valladares in his 1989 book Against the Night.
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Although the world is full of suffering,
it is also filled with the overcoming of it.
–Helen Keller (1880-1968); an illness at the age of 19 months left her deaf and blind for the rest of her life.
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Romans 4:18 — Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.
Luke 23:33a, 34a –When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him… Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Acts 7:59-60 — While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Psalm 39:7 – Now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.
Psalm 25:3 — No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause.
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O God, grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do; that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all wrong choices, and that in your light we may see the light, and in your straight path we may not stumble, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–William Bright
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This fantastic seven-minute tells more of the amazing life story of Armando Vallandares:
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