lives Wednesday, October 13, as they ended the Orthodox traditional 40 days of mourning for over 330 hostages who were killed during a siege of the local school by gunmen, fighting for independence in Russia’s Chechnya region.
Beslan families were seen visiting school Number One and each other’s homes to pray and remember the dead, about half of them children. Hundreds are still injured or missing.
Christian groups and churches have sent trained teams to provide survivors with counseling, a relative new service in Russia, where mental healthcare and religion were discouraged under the tough Communist regime.
Russian Ministries, an evangelical mission organization, said it was looking "for accommodations for an office, rehabilitation center, for the psychologists providing help," to those in need in Beslan and others in the North Ossetia area.
"Due to the recent tragedy there, our ministry has gained enormous potential as it shines the light of the Gospel through all of the turmoil and devastation. Many ministries that first came to assist the people of Beslan are now leaving, but the local people are begging us to continue supporting the ministries of counseling and training that we have started," said Vice President Sergey N. Rakhuba in a statement to BosNewsLife.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
Rakhuba stessed a training seminar for pastors primarily from North Ossetia will be held in Vladikavkaz from October 21-24 with two professors from Dallas Seminary.
Russian Ministries is also planning "to distribute 66,000 Christmas gift boxes neatly packed by American families and delivered to this war-torn region" to give some joy to mourners, he added, in cooperation with evangelist Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse organization.
Security has been tight in Beslan, amid fears that the people of North Ossetia will seek revenge against people in neighboring Ingushetia, where many Chechen refugees are seeking shelter from the fighting in Chechnya.
ETHNIC INGUSH
Several ethnic Ingush were among the hostage-takers apparently dispatched by Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev to seize the Beslan school on September 1 Russian officials have said.
Brothers and pastors Taymuraz and Sergey Totiev from the Evangelical Baptist Church in Beslan, who lost six young children in the siege have urged the population not to seek revenge.
Pastor Sergey Totiev, who lost two children in the siege, told a crowd of mourners recently: "Yes, we have an irreplaceable loss, but we cannot take revenge. As Christians, the Bible teaches us that we must forgive. Vengeance is in God’s hands."
