Russia (MNN) — Yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of the Beslan School terrorist attack. The initial kidnapping and resulting gunfire and explosions killed 330 people, nearly half of which were children. While the people of Beslan are still grieving, the Beslan Baptist Church is getting ready to celebrate a new beginning.
Slavic Gospel Association Joel Griffith says the church will dedicate a new Sunday school building. “The Sunday school building dedication coming up September 10 is just the latest outgrowth of the seed that was planted. They’ve been able to have a great outreach to obviously the community’s surviving children and this new Sunday school building is going to help greatly enhance that ministry to those children.”
Sergey and Taymuraz Totiev, brothers and pastors at the church, lost six of their eight children in the siege. According to Griffith, while it’s been very difficult, “God’s been able to take this and use the church to be able to bring healing and the love of Jesus Christ into a lot of people’s lives. So, indeed, what the enemy meant for harm here, God meant for good and He’s used it for good in the ministry of the church.”
The tragedy has brought other unique outreach opportunities. “The Lord, through this tragedy, has raised up the church to such and extent that they’ve been able to have outreaches in all local public schools with the approval of local government officials.”
In the meantime, Griffith is asking Christians to pray. “Pray for the use of the Sunday school building that many children and their families will be drawn to the church because of this and the activities that this will provide for. And, obviously as more and more young people come to Christ, that’s going to have a dynamic on not only Beslan, but the surrounding region of North Ossetia.”
