We will never forget the tragedy of 1 September 2004 when the country of Beslan became a household name and SGA launched an appeal which went to help our American colleagues working in that region. Ruth Deyneka Erdel, the daughter of SGA's founder, Peter Dyneka, recently visited Beslan and sent us this report:
During the flight from Moscow to Vladivostok my mind went back to the newsflash I had seen on TV some years earlier: TERRORISTS INVADE SCHOOL NO. 1 IN THE CITY OF BESLAN, RUSSIA. OVER A THOUSAND STUDENTS, TEACHERS, STAFF, AND PARENTS HELD HOSTAGE FOR THREE DAYS. At the end of the siege over three hundred and thirty people had been killed, One hundred and eighty one of them children and many, many others had been severely injured.
After this tragedy Dr Provost (President of SGA USA) met with brothers Sergei and Taimurz Totiev, two area Pastors who, between them lost six children. The pastors expressed the need for a Sunday School building to be erected beside the church. SGA began to raise funds for the project, the brethren began to build, and now we were to attend the dedication of their new Sunday School unit. We arrived to find a church overflowing with people. Many neighbours had come, and even a musical group from the border country of Moldova
Ruth Deyneka Erdel with Medina, who is the only child from her family of five to survive the atrocity in Beslan.
The graves of the six cousins who died in the tragedy.
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was there. The church was actually holding a triple celebration: the ordination of two young men for the ministry, a celebration for a good harvest, and the dedication of the new building.
At the close of the service Pastor Sergei Totiev said, "We never could have imagined that the death of our children would become an instrument in the hand of God." As soon as he said this, the lady next to me put her head down into her lap and wept bitterly. She had lost her only granddaughter who had come from her home village to live with ‘grandma’ while attending the Beslan school.
The next day we returned to the church for a special women’s meeting. Louetta Provost and I were delighted to meet with a wonderful group of ladies. The ladies sang, Louetta and I spoke, we ate, we sang again, they asked me to speak again, and we were there for FIVE HOURS. Even then no one was in a hurry to leave.
There were also opportunities to speak personally with some of the women. The grandma I sat next to in church expressed joy that her grandchild had found the Lord in this church and was waiting for her in heaven. I saw how the grace of God had taken over the heart of another mother who had lost four of her five children. Still another mother said, "Oh, God is so good." The tears started as she told me how glad she was her two daughters could sit together during the tragedy, hug each other, pray, and sleep together on the gym floor. And then she smiled and said, "They died together AND SAW JESUS AT THE SAME MOMENT." All I could do was hug her.
As I listened to the stories of these dear women I saw they had gripped the reality of Matthew 11:28 where Jesus said, "Come to me, all who are weary [from crying] and heavy laden [with grief] AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST." And He did just that!
The sculpture called 'The Tree of Grief' overlooking the graves.
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