Spreading the Gospel Around the World : Religion: International Bible Society works during crises. It has distributed more than 300 million Bibles in 540 languages. Its new project: the former Soviet Union.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —  Civil war in Yugoslavia. Riots in Los Angeles. A coup in the Soviet Union.

These are just some of the challenges that were faced by the International Bible Society during the past few years as it distributed millions of Bibles around the world.

Lars B. Dunberg, 48, international president, has been around the world more than 50 times distributing Bibles and Gospel books. He was held at gunpoint in Uganda by Idi Amin’s drunken soldiers. In Lebanon, he had to cross the dangerous Green Line five times a day.

“I had to crawl on the floor in a taxi,” he says. “There were snipers everywhere.”

Days after last year’s Los Angeles riots, more than 30,000 Bibles were distributed through churches and bookstores to anxious residents in burned-out neighborhoods.

The nondenominational society has distributed more than 300 million Bibles in 540 languages since it was founded in New York City in 1809 by Theodorus Van Wyck “to extend the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in which God has revealed the way of salvation to our lost and ruined race.”

The society now has an annual budget of $20 million, mostly from book sales and donations, and employs 105 people at its Colorado Springs headquarters.

Despite the society’s colorful history, Dunberg says, it has never faced a challenge like the one presented by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the former Soviet-bloc nations.

“I don’t think anyone was quite ready for the quick way things changed,” he says.

“Up until 1988, it was basically impossible to get Bibles into the Soviet Union. If we had 5,000 a year, it would be fantastic.”

Now the society has launched a project to deliver 725,000 books on the life of Christ to 5,600 state-run orphanages in five new nations in the former Soviet Union.

The society will provide elementary school pupils with a Bible picture book and a coloring book. Middle and high school students will be given a miniature Bible in Russian. Each orphanage worker will get a New Testament and a booklet with answers to questions children ask most about God.

The society also is working with relief organizations in Europe to distribute clothing, toys and badly needed supplies, along with books to feed their spiritual needs.

“We don’t want them saying, ‘Here come the Christians and all they gave us is a lousy book,’ ” Dunberg says. “We want them to say, ‘Here come the Christians and they care about us.’ ”

Dunberg says there is a spiritual vacuum created by 70 years of communism. One Russian summed it up, saying, “My generation was a generation without hope. Today, we’re going to study this book (the Bible) together to see if there is some hope for our generation.”

The society also was presented with opportunities by the collapse of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe.

“I think the past few years we have been involved in are unprecedented in history, not just the Commonwealth of Independent States, but all of Eastern Europe,” Dunberg says. “We have opportunities in Cuba we haven’t seen in a long time. All of these people are hungry for food and hungry for Scriptures.”

Worldwide, there are still 4,580 language groups representing 350 million people who have no Bible translation, the society says. Only 250 of Africa’s 1,800 major languages have Bibles, New Testament and Gospels written in their languages, the society says.

The work of translating the Bible is tedious, with 900 scholars working for the society worldwide, Dunberg says.