Seventh-day Adventists in Euro-Asia have launched a Russian-language Web site that will make Adventist beliefs accessible to people who would otherwise have no contact with the church, according to Valery Ivanov, communication director for the church in the region.

“People can find so many Web sites about Adventists, but most of them are in English,” he says. “We designed our new site not only to tell people about Adventist activities in Euro-Asia but also to offer basic information about the Bible, church beliefs, and church structure. English speakers can find these facts at the adventist.org site, but Russian speakers need their own introduction to Adventism on the Internet.”

Plans are also underway to add pages about Adventist humanitarian work, the Bible and science, medical and health information, books, the Adventist seminary at Zaosky, and weekly news.

“People who would never enter an Adventist church are welcome to visit our site, read the devotionals, and learn more about the Bible,” says Ivanov. “More and more people in Russian-speaking countries have access to computers, especially young people at the universities. We need to have an Internet presence if they come looking for us.”

Russian is the first or second language for most people living in countries of the former Soviet Union. There are also large groups of Russian speakers in Israel, Turkey, the United States, and Canada. Altogether, there are more than 270 million Russian speakers worldwide.

To see the new Russian-language Web site, go to www.adventist.ru.