Story number 2 for 9 Dec 1999

Elsewhere, as Russian forces concentrate their fire on Grozny, the military says it is allowing civilians to leave the city unimpeded. That passage of relative safety extends until December 11th, when the Russian government has threatened to unleash a military bombardment. Shelter Now’s Jeff Hollenbeck says although they are watching the situation: “It’s still very much a war zone, there’s not a lot that we’re able to do. It’s different than the Kosovo situation in that there are refugees flooding out into an are that’s relatively safe where we can start taking care of them…but the bombs are still falling over there and it’s still very much up in the air about what the damage is. I think we can just pray that the situation doesn’t get any worse.” Hollenbeck says because of the war, this is a good time to spread the hope of the Gospel. “When there is unrest like this, people are open to different kinds of ideas-those things that they found in the past to be so steady, are now gone…and, some of the things that they were praying to before-all of the sudden, they’re seeing that that hasn’t worked too much, so they’re open to the Gospel and they’re open to the hope that Jesus Christ can bring.”