Southern Baptists are organizing an overseas assessment team to evaluate relief needs in the Black Sea country of Georgia in the aftermath of fighting between Georgian and Russian troops and allied militias in the region.
Georgia launched a military incursion into the breakaway region of South Ossetia in early August to rout separatist rebels, according to CNN. Russia — which supports the separatists — responded the next day, sending tanks across the border into South Ossetia.
The conflict quickly spread to other parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia, another breakaway region, according to CNN.
While foreign embassies are evacuating their citizens, thousands of residents of South Ossetia have been forced from their homes by the fighting, according to news reports.
“I just got off the phone with partners updating me on the situation,” said Abraham Shepherd, who directs work in the EuroMidEast and North Africa region for Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist international relief and development organization. “Internally displaced people number over 100,000 and are pouring toward Tbilisi (Georgia’s capital) and the surrounding area. They are in bad condition.”
The United States announced Aug. 13 that it was undertaking humanitarian assistance to the region, according to The Associated Press, and called on Russia to guarantee that relief workers and supplies would be able to move about freely.
“Please pray for wisdom in determining the timing to enter the conflict zone to provide relief,” Shepherd said. “Pray for cool heads to prevail, for the sake of suffering people and for a permanent solution to the ongoing conflict.”
“Ask God to comfort the loved ones of those who have died, to give healing to the injured and stamina for the people who have been displaced,” he added. “And pray that believers in the area will be comforted by God’s love.”
For more information, visit www.baptistglobalresponse.com. (BGR, TAB)
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