Story number 1 for 9 Apr 2003

(Germany) — Headlining today’s news, while it appears the United States is winning the war in Iraq, their involvement is causing ill feelings elsewhere. Germany is just one example. Keith Copley is a missionary there with OC International and tells us that anti-American sentiment is popular. “A lot of our friends have said to us, ‘well Keith, it’s not the American people, we don’t think they’re bad, but this Bush guy is really bad.’ One of my friends has nearly attacked me when I try to defend Bush and give reasons why he’s leading this coalition against Iraq. And, we’ve discovered that that’s not a subject we can talk about.” While anti-Americanism is affecting some outreach, Copley says it not hurting their work. “We have not felt any kinds of affects, except personal affects. My wife has been very involved with an evangelistic outreach in our church. She’s fully integrated in the leadership of this group. I’m in the Promise Keepers leadership team for Germany. So far our ministry hasn’t been affected.”