Story number 1 for 6 Jan 2003

(Iraq)–We begin today with a look the tensions building between the United States and Iraq. The threat of war has sparked rallying cries in neighboring Islamic countries, and raised the specter of continued anti-US terrorism. Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton says the connection is dangerous for missionaries because: “Saddam Hussein has already tried to paint this as a war of Christians attacking Muslims. I think if war does come, you will hear that theme repeatedly, ‘this is the Christians attacking the Muslims’, and really, a call to arms among the Muslim world to fight back, to defend Islam.” Nettleton says even as the threat of war escalates, believers see it as a time for reaching out with the hope of the Gospel. “When times are uncertain, when there is a battle raging, people are thinking about things of eternity, they are thinking about things of a spiritual nature. That can be a time of great ministry and a time of great outreach for Christians.”