Story number 1 for 6 Jun 2002

(India)–We begin today in Pakistan and India, where leaders are desperately working to pull the countries back from the brink of nuclear war. Officials are discussing a joint patrol of the disputed area. World Vision’s Sanjay Sojwal says their team just arrived in Kashmir. “There is tension because the fighting and the shelling is continuing everyday. Many more village people are fleeing and moving southward, away from the border. All the resources are really quite stretched. So, our first aim would be to explore ways in which we could assist them, if there is further escalations, then we’ll have masses moving away from the border, on both sides of the border.” Sojwal says their work meets physical needs, and in so doing, opens the door for the hope of Christ. “The people are running away for their lives, and they are under a terrible amount of stress and have been for several weeks. Really, this is an opportunity for Christians to express their love in very practical terms, by assisting these people, so that they might see what we Christians stand for.”