Taken by Raúl

Maranatha First Baptist Church is one of the largest congregations in Holguín, Cuba, a 400-year-old city of about 350,000 residents on the eastern end of the island. In 1992, the now-82-year-old church felt the firsthand effects of the Cuban government’s easing of restrictions on religious freedom, when officials granted a permit to construct its current building in the city center.

Each week hundreds of Cubans—more than 800 for special events—flock to Maranatha’s hot Sunday services in a structure without air conditioning. The vibrant congregation has planted house churches and missions, but still does not have enough space. It has repeatedly requested permission to build a larger building.

In early May Pastor Amado Ramírez Oliveros reported the long-awaited answer: Cuban authorities not only denied the construction permit, they announced the government is seizing the property that has belonged to the Eastern Baptist Convention since 1947. Maranatha will be forced to pay an unannounced amount of “rent” if it wants to remain in its building.

“This measure, apart from being unjust and arbitrary, violates the most essential principles of religious freedom that the Constitution of our Republic so much defends and promotes,” Oliveros wrote in a message obtained by WORLD. “We do not accept this decision.”

Maranatha’s experience appears to be part of a larger trend in eastern Cuba in 2015. Missions organizations report more than 100 churches are facing similar action, including threats of confiscation or destruction of churches—both registered and unregistered. Not all property disputes are as clear-cut as Maranatha’s—and some churches farther west report no problems—but the eastern trend runs counter to the Obama administration narrative that re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba would make life better for its citizens.

In mid-April President Barack Obama told Congress he plans to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism—where it’s been since 1982—but many members of Congress remain highly skeptical. The same day Obama notified Congress, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., filed a bill that would prohibit delisting Cuba until it stopped violating the human rights of its people. If Congress doesn’t pass a joint resolution by May 29, the administration could remove Cuba from the list and the two countries could exchange diplomats for the first time since 1961.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, called Obama’s decision “terrible,” noting Cuba has helped North Korea avoid sanctions and still harbors U.S. fugitives. Brooke Sammon, a Rubio spokeswoman, told me the church seizures reinforce the senator’s view that U.S. concessions are doing nothing to bring freedom to Cuba: The reports “just further illustrate the true oppressive nature of the Castro regime and the cynicism of Raúl Castro.”

Maranatha, one of 550 churches in the Eastern Baptist Convention, is not giving up easily. Church members, who spend all day Saturday in prayer before a Sunday evangelism event, are embarking on 40 days of prayer and fasting over the property dispute. Oliveros called on believers around the world to join them: “We ask you to pray for our country, pray for our government leaders, pray for our church, so that our sovereign God of heaven and earth works due justice.”