RUSSIA: Sochi and the North Caucasus

With the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi just a short distance from the troubled Caucasus region, it’s a great season to remember God’s heart for unreached people groups there.

A narrow 300-plus mile sector lying between the Black and the Caspian Seas, the Caucasus region is home to some 50-60 minority people groups, most of whom are of non-Slavic ethnicity and Muslim.

Operation World identifies the Caucasus region as Europe’s least-evangelized region, with little in the way of Scripture translations or churches. The Caucasus region is not only one of geographic Russia’s least stable regions, but also the poorest, with the highest unemployment and the highest birthrates as well.

People groups of the region are isolated from one another by the rugged terrain and by the violence of their historical conflict with one another – violence that has even reached parts of the world unaware of the religious and political realities of that region.

From the point of view of 12 disparate militant Islamist factions functioning in the region, the Sochi Games are a perfect time to raise awareness of their plight and worldview – perhaps with violence. The security at the Olympics and of the rest of the region is a critical component in the coming weeks.

“Many people know little of the geography or existence of these unreached peoples,” [says a cross-cultural worker]. “Our prayer is that believers everywhere will learn about and awaken to the spiritual need of every single tribe and tongue represented in the North Caucasus.”