Russia (MNN) — The 40 days of mourning is over in Beslan, Russia. The healing has yet to begin as this city of 30,000 continues to be in shock after terrorists took over a school and killed nearly 340 people, more than half children.
Bob Provost is the President of Slavic Gospel Association. Provost traveled to Beslan so that he could better understand the needs of the church so that SGA could help the local church do a better job of ministering in the community. He says, “Without a visit to Beslan it’s impossible to even imagine both the scope of the catastrophe and the depth of the sorrow that has gripped this Russian town.”
33 children and a Sunday school teacher from the local church died in the massacre. Provost says the involvement of church members is drawing the attention government leaders. They’ve noticed while Christians grieve, they are coping. “Government officials have come to the pastors and asked them to encourage their members to reach out even more. And, in one particular case a youth pastor was requested to accelerate programs in all the school of Beslan.”
Provost says Pastors Sergey and Taymuraz Totiev, who lost six of their eight children, now have the vision for reaching all of the oblast of North Ossetia for Christ. “Their desire (is) to see the Beslan church become an Antioch church that would have the capacity to train their own members and send them out to plant daughter churches all over North Ossetia. They understand that this terrible tragedy would raise up a mighty movement to reach all of North Ossetia.”
SGA is helping the church expand their facilities, support a youth camp and provide Bibles. They will also be sponsoring grief counseling seminars in December. Funding is needed for all of these projects.
You can help Slavic Gospel assist the local church in Beslan by going to https://www.sga.org/scgi-bin/webgift.pl?d=11704.
