Spokane Churches Create North American First

SPOKANE, Wash., February 11, 2010 - Eight area Seventh-day Adventist churches joined to launch the first Adventist Russian language television channel in North America.

In addition to being the first Adventist channel in North America, the Open Book Channel is also the first Russian TV channel in Washington State. The channel was officially launched at a grand opening ceremony held Saturday at the Linwood Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The new channel offers religious-themed programs, including local Slavic church services, cooking and exercise shows, and children’s programming. Piggybacking on an open channel of Spokane’s He’s Alive Television, a Seventh-day Adventist television station, the new channel is airing at 39.3 on the UHF dial. It is not currently available on cable.

Volody Nesteruk, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in charge of the Open Book Channel, says the goal of the channel is to appeal to all Russian speakers, though a lot of the programming will have a religious bent.

“We provide a wide range of programming for our Russian families here in Spokane,” says Nesteruk. “We’re trying to make our channel interesting for people who have no religious affiliation.”

Spokane is home to an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Russian speakers, a population which has been rapidly growing since the 1990s. Nesteruk says the Russian programming will be a little touch of home for them.

“We are here to share the gospel,” says Nesteruk. “We are grateful God has given us this privilege to minister to our Russian-speaking families in a special way.”

The Open Book Channel is also available online for Windows and Mac users.

by Jay Wintermeyer

High Resolution Photos
Ribbon Cutting
Volody Nesteruk
Congregation