Adventist Church in Cuba Hosts Bible Distribution Event

November 16, 2023 | Artemisa, Cuba, Hans Johan Sagrusten, Bible Use Coordinator, Norwegian Bible Society

In Cuba the number of Christians have doubled in ten years.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Artemisa, 70 kilometers west of Havana in Cuba, recently hosted leaders from various denominations in the area to initiate a Bible distribution program organized by the Bible Society of Cuba. The goal is to distribute packages of Bibles to families through the Bible Baskets project.

For many years it was the Bible Commission in Cuba (Comisión Bíblica) which was the only legal entity which could import and distribute Bibles in the country. In September 2023 the Bible Society of Cuba was formally organized, and it is the Bible Society which now has the sole license to import and distribute the Bible to the 80 Christian denominations on the island.

Over the past decade the number of Christians in Cuba has doubled and is now at 60 % of a population of 11 million.

In September representatives from the Norwegian Bible Society visited Cuba when the formal establishment of the Bible Society of Cuba was voted. They also visited several churches in Cuba where there is a huge demand for Bibles. A demand which is very difficult to meet adequately.

“There are still members of our church who come to us and ask for a Bible,” say the pastors of the local Adventist church.

“But we have to tell them that we don’t have any Bibles to give them.”

The pastors know that the Bibles already distributed are being diligently used by members.

Every day there are people who come closer to the Lord because we put a Bible in their hands. That’s why the Bibles we receive from the Bible Society will not be collecting dust in the office. They will be distributed.

Revival

Like all churches in Cuba, the churches in Artemisa are experiencing growth and revival. The pastors in the Adventist church tell us:

“People are searching for truth, for what is really true. God bless you for the ministry you are doing, that ‘the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the Lord’ (Isaiah 11:9).

“When we invest time with the Bible, we invest time with the Lord.”

Alain Montano, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Cuba, is well known in all the churches in Cuba. In the Seventh-day Adventist Church he has a very special connection:

“I remember my grandmother well; she was an Adventist. She always had a Bible story up her sleeve. ‘Come into the kitchen and sit on my lap and I’ll tell you a story,’ she used to say.

September is the month of the Bible

In the front of the Adventist church a boy called David helps make stacks of children’s Bibles and Christian children’s books to be distributed to families. For Montano, it’s a beautiful sight.

“I love the Bible,” he says.

In September, Christians in Cuba celebrate Bible Month. On Sep. 28 in 1569 the first complete Bible in Spanish was published in Basel, Switzerland. The Reina-Valera Bible is celebrated all over the Spanish-speaking world.

“For many years, the church in Cuba has been crying out to God for Bibles,” says Montero.

“God has never forgotten this prayer,” he says with tears in his eyes.

“The Lord answers in His time and sends people our way, and He does it today through Bible friends in Norway.”

Ten years ago, I visited the Adventist church in Santiago, eastern Cuba. At the time, the pastor looked me straight in the eye and said: “I could have given out 1,500 Bibles in a day to Christians who want a Bible but don’t have one.”

“This pastor says the same thing today,” says Montano. “He still says he could have given out 1,500 Bibles in a day.”

As soon as the inspirational meeting in the church was over, church members began distributing the valuable books. Throughout the evening Montano received multiple messages and images on his phone of happy families who had just received their Bible Baskets.