ALPHA EVANGELISM IN IRAQ

It was Thursday night here in Baghdad and time for the Alpha Course, the most wonderful and systematic introduction to the Christian faith that now takes place in well over 100 countries around the world. 100,000’s have come to faith through the course. I had the privilege of serving as an assistant minister in the Church of St Mark’s Battersea in London, an early daughter church of Holy Trinity Brompton in London, where the course was founded. When I started doing the course there were only three in the country; now it is an international phenomena and one of the greatest means of evangelism in the world today. There is therefore no surprise that the course also takes place here in Baghdad, in the former palace of Saddam Hussein.

We sit down to start our worship at the beginning of the session on the Holy Spirit, and I talk of how I have seen God’s Glory here in Baghdad. Bob, a US airman, tells me he wants to see God’s Glory. I immediately respond, "You have seen God’s glory". I do not even know why I said this. With his big gun and body armour on the floor beside him, he begins to tell his story.

It begins with his co-pilot telling him he will not return from this evening’s flight. He says that he is prepared to meet his maker; as Bob is not, he will return. By this stage Bob has tears rolling down his face. He tells of how he thought his co-pilot had gone mad. They took off, but it was not long before they ran into serious problems. Under fire they came down amongst the trees. Bob, though injured, manages to get out of the plane. It bursts into flames and he rushes to rescue his colleague. As he pulls him out of the wreckage, he opens his eyes, smiles and dies.
Bob, now in floods of tears, said he looked up to the sky and there amongst the trees he saw a large cross. The next day in hospital his commander visits him and shows him the pictures of the crashed plane and tells him he should not have survived. Then the commander pulls out the final picture and asks if he saw it- it was the cross in the sky. So Bob in tears acknowledges he has indeed seen the Glory of God, and that night he follows Jesus.

A powerful and true story in the midst of war. There are countless stories I could tell of how people have met Jesus in this conflict. In my last article I spoke of how we have to be so careful in the nature of evangelism with the Iraqi people and the terrible effect evangelism can have on the Iraqi Church; but here in Iraq we also have thousands upon thousands of other people not from Iraq, but from the Coalition countries. Here we must prepare these masses to meet their maker. For some of them this will be soon. I have never seen so much spiritual activity as here in this place of war. Here, any night of the week there are a large number of Bible Studies, prayer meetings, evangelistic activities- mostly led by the lay men and women who know and love Jesus and want others to as well.

When you are living at risk there is no alternative than to think seriously about what is to come. There are so many activities here but despite all of these we still have countless examples of how Jesus meets with people in similar ways to Bob. Here preparing for what is to come is not an option, it is a must. It is not something just for the Chaplains and clergy to be concerned about; this concern must also be on the agenda of the secular leaders; both military and diplomatic. They may not believe themselves but it is their duty to know where their staff can find out the answers to these issues.

In the midst of such conflict there is such hope and it is Jesus. We cannot do evangelism like in other places. Sometimes it happens very early in the morning. Other times late at night, and often person to person. It is difficult being here, it is not easy but the heavens truly do declare the Glory of God. So much so that I often tell people to just look into the sky. They do see God’s Glory, they do come to know Him and love Him. Once again it is evangelism like no other because the Lord is here and His Spirit is with us.

The Alpha Course has truly been strategic here. Everybody who has been has come to faith. Baptising in Saddam’s swimming pool is truly wonderful, but the fact is that here we see God doing all the work and we just comply.

Canon Andrew White
Baghdad, Iraq

For more info. on Canon White's ministry in Iraq visit: www.frrme.org