GROZNY, Chechnya — It took courage for our volunteers to venture on the long journey into Chechnya, to the war-ravaged city of Grozny.
Despite the transportation difficulties, they visited the Chechnyan capital twice in 1996, taking with them a variety of Scriptures: large-print Psalms, New Testaments, and Children’s Bibles, in both Russian and local languages, and they met young and old in the streets of this city which has been badly damaged in the fighting.
The volunteers came from the missions ‘Russia for Jesus’ and ‘New Way’, as well as from the Grozny Baptist church. During the course of their visits they distributed 14,000 Scriptures.
It was sometimes difficult to move around, but they gave out Scriptures wherever they could: to camps of the Chechen home guard, to the Russian troops stationed there, to children in orphanages and refugee camps, and to people in government institutions in Grozny.
In a letter from a man in Stavropol is an example of how people are desperate for hope to cling on to: "My name is Vitaly D Listov, born in 1952. I am a native of Stavropol, but for 20 years I have served in the special military forces. Now I am retired – an invalid of the war. I was a deep-rooted atheist in the past, but then I served in hot-spots, and I saw terrifying things which forced me to revise my attitude to religion and to life as a whole.
"I started learning about the Bible, and then I realised that people need such words of hope and faith, particularly in these troubled times. Now I want to spread the Scriptures as far and wide as possible among my fellow citizens, because I believe such writing helps to make a person virtuous and sincere."
When Vitaly’s letter was received, he was asked if he would act as our distributor in the Stavropol region. His faith and past experiences will help people come to know God.
Many people the distributors encounter have either not come into contact with the Bible before or are of another religion. So they have to be prepared to tell the people about Jesus, about his life and his everlasting love for people, and his desire that they should live in peace.