Lester Spencer, St. James UMC's senior pastor, can sometimes be hard to get a hold of. He's a busy man. The last time I tried to call him, he was in Cuba.

A couple weeks ago, he got back to Montgomery and returned my call. He said their most recent mission in Cuba was restoring an old, four-story Methodist Seminary in downtown Havana. Rev. Spencer said the building was the first Methodist seminary in Cuba, and had been controlled by the government until three years ago, when the church petitioned to get it back.

Now, the The United Methodist Church is allowed to send volunteer mission teams, twice a month, to work on the seminary. United Methodist churches from across the United States take turns going to Havana to work on the seminary. While Rev. Spencer said it's complicated to get into and back out of Cuba -- paperwork, paperwork, paperwork -- the experience was worthwhile.

He said the Methodist church is booming in Cuba, and as they traveled around the country, people were very responsive to the message. Every service they had was packed, and Rev. Spencer said there were a lot of young people in attendance.