By Andrew McChesney

Seventh-day Adventists took a boat cruise to share health tips in central Russia – and the boat’s captain quit smoking.

Children wrote letters about the Ten Commandments to give away on Russian streets.

Evangelistic meetings gave power tools to people whose homes were damaged in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine.

Image © Pacific Press

These are among the innovative ways that church members are sharing the gospel across the Adventist Church’s Euro-Asia Division, a territory covering much of the former Soviet Union, in an effort to jump-start membership growth, which is largely flat.

“It’s a challenging territory, but God is working through Total Member Involvement”, said division president Michael Kaminskiy (pictured).

Eleven Adventist health professionals went on a two-week boat cruise to ancient Russian cities on the Volga River. The trip, which followed a popular tourist route, was organized by a Russian nongovernmental health organization, and the Adventists were invited to share health principles about water, sunshine, exercise, and rest, as well as conduct stop-smoking classes.

The boat’s captain, who smoked heavily, attended the classes.

“He smoked so much that there was always a cloud of smoke around him”, said Ivan Velgosha, president of the West Russian Union Conference.

By trip’s end, he had stopped smoking and made the boat a smoke-free zone. The Adventists presented him with a book about healthy living and told him that Jesus could help him never smoke again.

More than a month after the trip, the captain still hasn’t smoked, Velgosha said.

In the city of Nizhny Novgorod, schoolchildren shared their love for God by writing letters about His law. One child wrote, “We need to remember the third commandment so we don’t say bad words about God.” Another child wrote, “If people stopped stealing, we would be the richest country in the world.” The children spent five days passing out the handwritten letters on city streets.

In eastern Ukraine, church members have found that free drawings for electric drills are drawing men to evangelistic meetings. Women were coming to the meetings, but the number of men in attendance sharply increased when churches began to advertise the electric drills, said Stanislav Nosov, president of the Ukrainian Union Conference.

“Men need tools to repair homes damaged in the conflict”, he said.

Daily drawings were held at two-week evangelistic meetings conducted in several towns in eastern Ukraine. Winners chose between a drill and a set of pots, while anyone who attended seven meetings in a row received a food package with macaroni, sugar, milk, and other basic items. Dozens of people have been baptized.

“God is doing wonderful things through Total Member Involvement”, Kaminskiy said.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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