Posted on

YouVersion for Russian Readers and Speakers All Over the World

Through the Bible App™ and YouVersion.com, for the first time, the YouVersion community now has the potential to reach literally tens of millions of native Russian speakers and readers—no matter where they live. Partnerships with generous publishers of Bibles in Russian have made it possible for us to steadily add popular, easy-to-understand versions like Slovo Zhizny (RSZ) and Синодальный перевод (RURSV).

Of course, Bibles are only one part of the YouVersion experience. Our incredible community of volunteers also mobilized to bring Russian speakers everything YouVersion has to offer, entirely in their native language, including menus, email exchanges, conversations on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, reading plans—even technical support!

Russians in Russia. Russians represent a massive new community for YouVersion. According to The World Factbook, Russia (also known as the Russian Federation) is the ninth most populous nation in the world, with almost 139 million people. Wikipedia says that although more than 100 languages are estimated to be spoken across Russia, 99% of its people understand Russian and share it as their common language.

Russians around the world. Russians living in Russia are only the beginning of this story. Russian speakers live literally everywhere in the world. According to Wikipedia, the largest concentrations of Russians living outside the country are in former Soviet States such as Ukraine (8 million) and Kazakhstan (3.8 million). But many also live in the European Union, and significant numbers have even emigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. As air travel and a globally connected economy have made our planet smaller, Russians have truly become citizens of the world.

We’re thrilled to welcome our Russian speaking brothers and sisters into our ever-growing global YouVersion community. And we’re excited that together we can now reach more people than ever before with the life-changing story of God’s love.

Posted on

YouVersion and the Bible App: Fall in Love with the Bible All Over Again…Or for the First Time

Our simple mission at YouVersion is to make it easy for everyone to freely engage with the Bible, no matter where they live or what language they speak. And of course, our connection to God through His Word is made so much richer when we share that experience with others. We love hearing stories from our YouVersion community about how you use the Bible App™ in your everyday life, and about what it means to you. Here are just a few of the things that people from all over the world have been telling us:

“The Bible App has been a true blessing! I’m able to keep the Word with me every day! I study the Bible more using the index, reading Bible chapters from start to finish…. And the daily encouraging messages are such a helpful way to start the day off right.”
—Phyllis B.

“Having the Bible with me all the time has made me fall in love with the Word of God all over again. The convenience is wonderful to have, and I appreciate that I can search and have numerous versions right in the palm of my hand.”
—Isabelle M.

“I found the Bible App on my husband’s phone a little over a year ago. I asked him about it because he was a ‘non-believer.’ He told me had been reading it, and last June he came home a NEW man! Now he’s on fire for Christ! He even uses the Bible App to witness to his friends. I promise you this app was divinely placed on his phone!”
—DeCole C.

What’s your story?

What about you? Has the Bible App changed the way you connect with the Bible? We’d love to hear from you on Facebook, Twitter, or on the form below. What’s your story?

Posted on

Available Now: Access Your YouVersion Account from Your Monvee Dashboard

Working together with YouVersion, Monvee has integrated YouVersion’s tools into their customizable online spiritual assessment and growth tool. This means that for the first time, if you have a Monvee account, you can directly reach your YouVersion notes, bookmarks, and Bible reading plans—right from your Monvee User Dashboard!

monvee Dashboard

Every month, millions of us in the YouVersion community add bookmarks and save notes in YouVersion. Whether you’re recording private reflections, sharing your insights on certain passages, or just thinking aloud, notes are a great way to capture what God’s Word is speaking to you wherever you are. Of course, a quick bookmark is a great way you can “mark your place” to return to a key verse later. Now, you can easily look up Scriptures and write notes relevant to your journey—all from the convenience of your Monvee spiritual plan.

monvee Featuring YouVersion

We’re excited about working with Monvee and appreciate the value they place on daily Scripture engagement. You can find out more about Monvee’s features, tools, and services at their website.

Posted on

The YouVersion Experience: Now Available Completely in Russian

Bible App™ Icon on Russia Map YouVersion.com and the Bible App™ (on iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, BlackBerry, and Android) are now available entirely in Russian. What this means is that for every interaction you have with the YouVersion community, if you like, you may connect completely in Russian. Whether it’s reading high quality translations of the Bible, using menus and other tools, reading recent blog posts, requesting and receiving technical support from native speakers—even in direct communications with YouVersion through Facebook and Twitter or email—YouVersion’s incredible volunteers are bringing Russian to you.

Russian represents our fifth complete language launch, after Norwegian, Spanish, Chinese, and of course English. But this is only the beginning. YouVersion’s vision is to make the Bible freely available to as many people as possible, no matter where they live or what language they speak. If you have friends and loved ones who might enjoy engaging with God’s Word in Russian, please let them know about YouVersion’s exciting new options. And keep checking this space—we’ll be sharing more Russian language news here in the coming weeks!

Posted on

New in the Bible App and at YouVersion.com: Segond 21

We’re happy to announce that the Segond 21 version of the Bible, published for the first time by the Geneva Society in 2007, is now available at YouVersion.com and in the Bible App­™.  We hope you’ll be as excited as we are—Segond 21 is one of the versions most requested by the YouVersion community!

The Segond 21 version took 12 years of dedicated translation work based on original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts, but it also incorporates more recently available information. According to Wikipedia, this Bible’s sponsors describe it as “L’original, avec les mots d’aujourd’hui”. Segond 21 has been a top-selling Bible among French speakers, making an appearance in the top 200 books sold at Amazon France. In fact, in their category for spirituality/Christian books, it’s even number one!

At YouVersion, we’re passionate about making God’s Word freely available to as many people as possible, wherever they live. And engaging with the Bible in the language of your heart provides a deep, rich connection with God’s great story of love, and with your faith. If you have friends and loved ones who you think might enjoy reading the Segond 21, please let them know!