In spite of the fact that the
entire region of the northern Caucasus is considered a political
hot spot and a potentially dangerous area for travelers, we had
a wonderful week in Nalchik, and were well cared for by the delightful
people who received us as we met with 17 Christian children’s
workers from churches in six cities in the area. They were very
grateful for the excellent training they received from Phyllis.
We held a similar seminar for 25 children’s ministry leaders
from churches in central Russia just outside Moscow the previous
week.
On Friday evening, December 10, the day after our training seminar
concluded, Phyllis, Larisa Zhukova (editor of Narnia Center’s
magazine on children’s ministry), and I traveled to Beslan
to meet with the children and youth ministry workers of the Beslan
Baptist church. Having waited more than half an hour at a checkpoint
as we drove from Nalchik into Northern Ossetia, we arrived in
Beslan just after the sun had set. As we approached the city our
driver Muayet drew our attention to the cemetery on the left side
of the road. He told us that the cemetery had been too small to
accommodate the large number of graves of the victims, so the
gates of the cemetery had to be expanded to make room for them.
Entering the city he drove us to a spot opposite the school where
the tragedy had taken place. Looking across the railroad tracks
by the light of dusk we could see the empty school and the gymnasium
with no roof, a huge semi-circular gap blown out of the upper
part of the wall.
We proceeded just two or three blocks and turned onto a muddy,
unpaved road along which the Baptist church is situated. This
church, like other Baptist churches we have seen in Russia, is
little more than a private home on a tiny lot, but in the case
of Beslan two such old houses have been joined together to make
room for a growing congregation. On this muddy street just a few
houses past the church lives the pastor of the church, Sergei
Totiev, and his wife Bella, who lost two children in the attack
and his brother Taimuraz and wife Raisa, who lost four children.
We later met the Totiev brothers to express our condolences and
to assure them of our prayers for their families and for their
city. Pastor Totiev was preparing to travel to Little Rock, Arkansas,
to join his wife and their son Azam who is to undergo surgery
for the second time. The surgical operation to save his eye severely
damaged in the explosion was, unfortunately, unsuccessful.
One of the participants at the seminar in Nalchik, Lada, a member
of the Baptist church in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the republic
only twenty minutes drive from Beslan, had told us stories of
the Totiev family, who are close friends of hers. According to
eyewitnesses, on the second day of the ordeal, Larisa, the 13-year-old
daughter of Taimuraz and Raisa Totiev, a quiet girl, stood up
and said to one of the terrorists “Shoot me and let these
others go.” She was told to sit down, and later she died
in the holocaust after the explosion. Those who survived the holocaust
have repeatedly witnessed to the fact that the children of believers
sensed the presence of Christ at all times during the ordeal,
and were not crippled by fear as many others were.
Bella, the wife of Sergei Totiev, told Lada that for the first
day she prayed that her children would be rescued, but felt that
her prayers were somehow not being heard, as if she were talking
to a wall. On the second day, while walking down the street with
her sisters she suddenly stopped in her tracks, and felt that
she must pray the words “Lord, Thy will be done.”
She realized that she might not see her children again. And then
she felt a great burden lifted.
Her son Azam, who is in the hospital in Little Rock, was sheltering
his little sister, who had lost consciousness, and was attempting
to take her to a spot to get her fresh air and some water when
the explosion which ripped his eye apart took place. His sister
was torn out of his arms. In spite of the injury to his eye, he
went to look for his sister, but could not find her.
Lada visited Beslan during those days. The air stank of corpses.
Everywhere funerals were being conducted in the open outside people’s
homes. One old man who came to the funeral outside the Totiev
family home began to invoke curses on those who had attacked the
school and called for acts of vengeance. Pastor Totiev responded
saying “The curses you invoke will only return to visit
you. My children are with the Lord. They have gone to a better
place. I will not seek revenge for my loss.”
Lada herself has a 5-year-old son. Although she lives in a neighboring
city, she says that for two months she was afraid to go outside
her house to take her son to school. Terror organizations have
continued to threaten Russian officials by Internet saying “This
is only the beginning.”
On Friday night, after stopping at the home of the Totiev family,
we were guided to a place not far from there to meet with Gehrman
and Madina Djeriev, a husband and wife team who are the children
and youth ministry workers of the Beslan Baptist church and for
the Baptist churches of northern Ossetia. On the side of the building
was a sign that read “Christian Center.” In fact it
was a beauty salon/health club, but since September, the owners
of the salon have opened their doors to the church to use their
beautiful building as a gathering place for the youth ministry
and for counseling. The youth group of the church had gathered
to watch a film that night. Gehrman and Madina told us that they
are physically and emotionally exhausted from caring for the wounded
children and grieving families of the city. No sense of normalcy
has returned to the city, and many of the children still have
not returned to school. Some children are still hospitalized,
some paralyzed, some blinded. Some children died after being hospitalized.
Some are still dying. One little boy who survived the attack,
was hospitalized with a fever caused by dehydration. Every time
his mother would come close to him he would scream “You
are a dragon!” He later died of the fever. Many foreign
organizations have sent help in inappropriate ways. Some children
have been sent on vacation after vacation. They have been given
boom boxes and laptop computers. But they have not been helped
to face their grief and losses. Psychologists who have been sent
in to help have found that there is not much for them to do because
people in northern Ossetia are not familiar with psychologists
and believe that they are only doctors for the insane. Many of
the psychologists have been giving inappropriate counsel to families
and children.
Madina says that children who survived the ordeal aged many years
in those three days. They no longer speak or act as children.
Their childhood laughter and joy has disappeared. They have quickly
become adults. The church ministry workers have been trying to
care for the families of members who have suffered loss and all
others who have welcomed them into their homes. But they are overwhelmed,
because the numbers of those who grieve and who are injured are
staggering. Phyllis was able to offer them encouragement and some
timely suggestions on continuing this difficult work. They were
distressed about one girl who had survived the siege in the school,
but whose mother had died. The mother was a member of the church,
and brought her daughter to Sunday school, but the relatives who
have adopted her are not Christians, and will not let her attend
the church or let them visit the girl.
Fourteen children and two teachers from the Beslan Baptist church
Sunday school died in the siege. The church has not been able
to conduct Sunday school classes since September, and they would
like to begin soon, if possible by Christmas, but they are not
sure how to start again after this tragedy. They have invited
me to return to conduct a seminar with the Sunday school teachers
to help them prepare for a new beginning. We are praying about
how to respond to this invitation. In addition to ministering
to the victims of the terrorist attack, they would like to open
a rehabilitation center for drug-addicted youth who have left
their families and are wandering the streets of Beslan.
Where do we go from here? In spite of such pressing needs we
are encouraged that the light still shines in the darkness. Because
of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, there is hope for the healing
of children in Beslan, for the thousands of street children of
Russia, for the children in overcrowded orphanages. It is a privilege
to help provide training for the Christian children’s workers
like Gehrman and Madina and many others we met who are ministering
to Chechen refugee children in Nalchik, kids on the street strung
out on drugs, young people in prison. There is not room in this
letter to tell all the heart-stirring stories we heard of lives
turned around by the saving power of Christ and of the risks believers
take in order to extend the love of Christ to others in the south
of Russia.
We have invited Phyllis Kilbourn to return a year from now to
train teachers who to teach her course, “Offering Healing
and Hope for Children in Crisis.” By then, Narnia Center
will have completely translated and will have prepared for publication
her entire training manual.
Please pray for us in this work. If you would like to support
the relief work of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Beslan,
you can make an online donation through Presbyterian Disaster
Assistance by clicking on the give button below.
If you prefer to donate by writing a check, then make checks
payable to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Write “Disaster
Response - Russia/2000089 “ both on the subject line of
the check and on your cover letter or note. Contributions from
individuals may be sent to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Individual Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700
Contributions from congregations may be sent to:
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Church Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643678
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3678
If you would like to support the work of Narnia Center you can
do so by sending a gift to the Outreach
Foundation or to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.) Extra Opportunity
Commitment #051800. To give online, click the give button below.
May the light of Jesus Christ abide with you.
Donald Marsden
Narnia Center, Moscow
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
187 |
