Story number 2 for 6 Dec 2001

(USA)–Next, under the shadow of a terrorist alert, the disaster surrounding the World Trade Center continues to unfold. A rift along racial and religious lines is obvious in New York and surrounding communities. But, The Jesus Film Project’s Paul Eshelman encourages a different response. “Throughout the country, there is a fear of people form a Middle Eastern background. But rather than just kind of withdrawing, I think now is the perfect time to demonstrate compassion and to talk to people that are from that background.” Eshelman says the Jesus Film distribution in and around Ground Zero topped out at 16-thousand in English and one-thousand in Arabic. He says people are responding to the hope of Christ. “We have distributed large numbers of English videos before. These particular 16-thousand were part of ‘Boxes of Love’ that were given, particularly, to very, very needy families. The large number of Arabic videos is unusual, which is a tragedy, that we have not welcomed to our shores many who grew up speaking a different language in their home.”