Ministering in Iraq

CollegePlus! Student Stephen Constable reaches out to spiritually-hungry Iraq

by Shawn Cohen

 

Before the United States invaded the nation of Iraq in March of 2003, it would have been difficult to envision that the Iraqi people would someday have full access to the gospel. Yet missionaries have poured into the country over the past several years, serving God by bringing spiritual refreshment and practical know-how to the post-Saddam Iraqi culture.

 

Off to Iraq

Beginning 2004, CollegePlus! student Stephen Constable joined the ranks of Iraq-bound missionaries leaving the United States, serving in the country for about a year. “I worked with an ‘NGO’ [nongovernmental organization] that provides humanitarian relief development,” Stephen said in a phone interview from his home in southern California.

 

Stephen with an Iraqi friend

 

 

Preparing for Service

According to Stephen, however, he wasn’t always open to serving the Lord overseas. In fact, it was a four-year progression of being made willing, beginning in 1998. “I had a lot of plans and dreams of my own,” he said. “It was a gradual process of God, really just Him making me willing to submit to what he wanted me to do.” In 2002, Stephen surrendered to the Lord and became willing to do anything—“even to serve on the mission field,” he said.
“When [the attacks of] September 11 happened, I knew America was going to war and I wanted to sign up,” Stephen said. “One dream I had for a long time was to join the military. I was talking to recruiters and was a couple weeks away from signing up with the Army” in 2001.

Gaining God's Perspective on Missions

In 2003, Stephen’s attended a sixteen-week course called “Perspectives” that lays out the biblical basis for missions, the history of missions, as well as its present reality in Christianity, among other topics. “During the Perspectives course I learned about the 10/40 window where [in many places] there is no gospel witness,” Stephen said. “It’s not that they have rejected the gospel—they have never heard it.” He also added that Perspectives played an integral role in God’s leading him to Iraq. “It was key to my spiritual development in missions,” he noted.

Connecting with Frontiers

After the Perspectives course, according to Stephen, he kept getting letters from Frontiers, the evangelistic and relief organization he eventually served with in Iraq. One day, Stephen received an information piece in the mail from Frontiers regarding the need in Iraq. He quickly became convinced that God was calling him to serve the Iraqi people. “In May of 2004 I sent in my application,” he said.
His training began with a month-long stay in a community of Kurdish expatriates who gained political asylum in the United States a decade ago. “I spent probably six to eight hours a day with Kurdish people, learning the language and culture,” he noted. After his introduction to Kurdish society, Stephen and the rest of the team trained in Houston for the humanitarian work they would engage in once they arrived in northern Iraq.

Humanitarian Aid

“You can’t go to Iraq as a missionary,” he explained, “you have to have a [secularly] legitimate reason for being there.” Before going to Iraq, Stephen was already an electrician, having attained a journeyman’s certification before the training. When they arrived in the country, they were assigned to a northern Iraqi city that needed its water purification system updated.
Stephen is not able to share the name of the cities he served in for security reasons. However, he did say that first city they worked in was extremely dangerous—the team members hardly left their house for an entire month. “There were bombings down the street, a lot of gunfire and fighting going on.” He also noted that with “10 of us stuck in a single house, it got kind of chaotic.”

Ministry to the People

Stephen and the others only stayed in the first city for a month because of the fighting that raged in and around it. However, they spent the remaining ten months in a different, safer city. Their focus quickly changed from humanitarian relief to sharing the love of Jesus Christ. “I spent a lot of time learning the language to reach out to friends I made,” Stephen said. “I ended up working three days [a week] and had four days off. I did a lot of distribution: heaters, blankets, and clothing.”
After five months in that city, Stephen said that he was able to communicate fairly well in Kurdish with the residents there. “When I would go to the market, the people were really friendly. I talked with some people in a shop for a couple hours the first day we met,” he said.
“I shared a lot with them,” Stephen said, noting that they were usually receptive to the gospel. “Their openness depends—some were open and some weren’t. A couple friends were really interested, though.” One man became a believer through Stephen’s and another team member’s faithful witness.

CollegePlus! and Missions

Stephen and his teammates plan to return to the Middle East, probably late in 2008. At this time, however, CollegePlus! is helping Stephen complete a bachelor’s degree in international business so that he can potentially be a businessman and missionary wherever the Lord may call him. “I want to learn how to run an office and conduct business, especially in a cross-cultural location,” he said.

 

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The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the interviewee and not necessarily those of Global Learning Strategies.