Forty years

is the number of a Biblical era. And it has been 40 years since Fayette

area pastor Sam Calleiro fled Cuba, along with his parents and siblings.

Now, today, he says he returns not only for sentimental reasons, but also

to do business for the Kingdom of God.

Calleiro serves

as founding pastor of Perimeter South Community Church that meets in the

LaFayette Center for Continuing Education (the old Fayette County High

School).

"I am

going to reconnect not necessarily because I am a Cuban, but because I

am a Cuban for the sake of the Kingdom of God," Calleiro said.

During his

weeklong stay, he said he would be establishing relationships with and

encouraging Havana pastors as well as connecting with the churches that

were planted by his grandfather, Miguel Angel Calleiro.

The elder Calleiro

was an ordained Southern Baptist pastor who assisted starting the Baptist

Seminary in Havana as well as starting evangelical churches across the

island until he was 75 years old.

Abner Calleiro,

Calleiro's father, fled Cuba with his family in the early '60s. Although

their first stop was Spain, they eventually ended up in the United States.

Abner got a secular job but also was strongly active as a lay minister,

working with Baptist churches to reach Hispanics for the Gospel. He too

is an ordained Baptist minister.

In addition

to Sam and Abner Calleiro, their travel party will include Calleiro's

brothers, Joel, Reuben, Tony, and an elder in Perimeter South Community

Church, Ron Book the only one who does not speak Spanish fluently.

Expressing

obvious excitement, Calleiro shared that he will see places where he was

born, where his father owned a lucrative factory, where the family lived,

and the churches started by his grandfather.

"It's

(the trip) is an answer to prayer. We're going back for the first time

in 40 years. A whole generation has come and gone and we will go back

(to Cuba) representing three generations of people who have served the

Lord," Calleiro added and rhetorically asked, "How often does

a family get to do that?"

The dream of

going