Cubans ask for more Bibles as Christian community expands
The demand for Bibles has risen significantly in Cuba a year after the communist regime lifted the ban on the Holy Book.
It is common for a Cuban church of 40 or more people to share just one Bible and many people are desperate to own a copy.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) teamed up with the Cuban Council of Churches to distribute Bibles in the country after the Cuban border opened to the U.S. in 2015.
"The demand is so high. You can't announce [that you're distributing Bibles]," Rev. Joel Dopico, director of the Cuban Council of Churches, told BGEA. He added that even non-believers are asking for the sacred texts.
Around 40,000 Bibles have been distributed across the country because of the "Bibles for Cuba" campaign, but Dopico said that they need more.
"We have thousands of Cubans just dreaming every day for the opportunity to have a Bible ... If you put up an announcement in Cuba saying, 'Tomorrow we're going to distribute Bibles,' there wouldn't be enough Bibles," he said.
Bibles were available in libraries for people to check out, but many of them have not been returned to the shelves due to the high demand for the book.
"When we went to the National Library, they had very few Bibles and the Bibles they had were very, very old. So we asked how many Bibles they would need to be able to have Bibles in case people asked for them," Dopico narrated.
"The library asked us for 200 Bibles, but then later said, 'It would be better if you bring us 300 because we have 100 workers, and all of them want the Bible,'" he continued.
The American Bible Society is also involved in the distribution of scriptures on the island.
It was estimated that there are more than a million Christians from 62 denominations in Cuba, but 40 percent of them do not have Bibles. Over 317,000 Bibles were provided to churches in 64 denominations through the efforts of the American Bible Society and Cuban Council of Churches.
