SGA Plans Outreach after Visit to Grieving Beslan

The 40 days of mourning in Beslan, Russia has already passed, since the tragic school massacre where nearly 340 people were killed by terrorists, more than half of which were children. Deep scars remain in the heart of most parents while children that survived from the horror are still in shock at the nightmare. Dr Bob Provost, the President of Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), recently visited the grieving city of 35,000 and started planning outreach for all the broken hearted.

Dr Provost visited the school that had been destroyed by the terrorist attack and listened to the personal testimonies of eyewitnesses, surviving hostages, parents and grandparents who lost their precious children.

Dr Provost shared, “Unless you have been here in Beslan itself, it is impossible to even imagine both the scope of the catastrophe, as well as the depth and breadth of the numbing sorrow that has gripped this Russian town.”

The evangelical churches are doing their best to reach out to the afflicted families. In the midst of all the sorrow, the surviving adults are emotionally still unable to return to their work. Even worse, anger and a spirit of revenge has appeared within the community.

Local governmental officials have discovered that the answer to this seemingly hopeless problem can be found in the local churches, according to Dr Provost.

33 Sunday school children and one Sunday school teacher from the Beslan Baptist Church were among the hostages (15 of these children and their Sunday school teacher died), their grieving Christian families have found strength in the Lord to cope and go forward, Dr. Provost related.

“Observing their faith, local officials have come to the pastors and asked them to encourage church members to reach out to their grieving neighbours. One official asked the youth pastor to arrange programs to help the children and youth in the six surviving public schools in Beslan.”

Dr Provost now has revealed the plan of outreach in Beslan. SGA has scheduled a special grief counselling conference for the training and equipping of church workers, and have committed to help the church conduct several youth camp sessions beginning with a camp for high school seniors in November.

In addition, SGA of Rockford, Illinois, has provided resources for Ossetian-language New Testaments and Russian Bibles to aid the church members in their outreach. SGA partners have provided resources for financial assistance to affected families, and are also helping the Beslan Baptist Church expand its facility to accommodate more children and youth in their excellent programs.

Funding is needed for all of these projects, now SGA is calling for sponsorship and donation. SGA is an interdenominational mission which has been working in the former Soviet Union since 1934. SGA focuses on helping churches in the lands of Russia with Christian literature, pastor and lay leader training, sponsorship of national church planters, and humanitarian aid. SGA is the official representative of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and a sponsor of the Eurasian Federation of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists.