Thank you for responding to our YouTube appeal to pray for Jim’s healing and to contribute, especially for our beloved Ukrainian Christian family. We’re looking forward to blessing some very effective front-line ministries, even while Jim’s being treated. Here are six ways you can contribute to our and their joint relief efforts to wounded, war-weary Ukrainian citizens:

• Secure credit card donation here. INSTANT AUTO-RECEIPT FOR TAX DEDUCTION! Please consider covering the credit card processing fee.
• Via Zelle to our Zelle ID: “office@jamesgilbert.org” at Bank of America. (Learn more about Zelle here.)
• Venmo (@JGM-32)
• Apple Pay (352-316-1212)
• PayPal (Click HERE)
• Check payable to Jim Gilbert Ministries to PO Box 141928, Gainesville FL 32614. Write the word UKRAINE on the memo line.

Remember to include your email or physical address in order to receive a receipt for tax-deductible giving. This is important for anyone wanting to keep Uncle Sam from wasting more money. We won’t add you to yet another list!

Thank you for your interest, trust, and prayers, as together we help relieve the suffering of these Ukrainian people.

Deepest thanks,

I’m headed to Poland and Ukraine for 3 weeks, my 3rd mission in 13 months. Our targets: 1) continue helping Ukrainian widows and orphans; 2) aid Kherson flood victims of Putin’s dam bombing; 3) deliver relief where supply lines are cut off; 4) supply funds for life-saving bandages that our close contacts are delivering to wounded Ukrainian civilians, especially husbands and fathers trying to save their homes. Casualties can drop by 70% with proper bandages and tourniquets; 5) minister in 5 Polish cities, conducting worship symposiums and aiding more refugees.

We American Christians must remain tenderhearted. I’m still awed by what happened a year ago in Poland when our daughter Lexi and I met smiling, hopeful 5-year-old Ukrainian kids who didn’t know that their daddies, who had stayed home to fight, were dead. We had brought them food and blankets, so they made beautiful, personalized cards to thank us, and gave us big hugs because our help changed their lives. But Lexi’s life was changed too, by a hug from one innocent, utterly vulnerable little girl. She still often tells people about it if they ask her about Ukraine.

Lexi and I will never unsee those little ones’ innocent faces. Never. So I’m asking you: On October 5th, please send me back to Poland and UKRAINE. Join us here to change lives there. Here’s how:

• Donate via Zelle, a no–fee, instant, 100% secure money transfer from any participating bank to our ministry account. Our Bank of America Zelle ID is also our email: office@jamesgilbert.org. (More on Zelle here.) NOTE: To receive a tax receipt, you MUST send an email address to us. We won’t add you to more lists.
• Donate securely on this page via credit card. Just click here. You’ll receive an automated receipt for tax-deductible giving. Please consider covering the credit card processing fee.
• Give via Apple Pay (352-316-1212); Venmo (james@jamesgilbert.org); or PayPal (@jimgilbertministries).
• Mail your check payable to Jim Gilbert Ministries to PO Box 141928, Gainesville FL 32614. Write the word UKRAINE on the memo line.

You know Dolly and me. We’ll do as much as you make possible. My heart is full. Let’s make it my pockets too. I promise to empty them wisely.

(Wanna see Poland & Ukraine for yourself? Click the video below.)

Deepest thanks,

Welcome to the Ukraine Rapid Relief Fund and jamesgilbert.org. We asked you to give in 2022! You gave $130,397 towards Ukraine relief, and we actually SENT $133,000, directly into Ukraine and to refugee efforts in Poland. But Putin’s monstrous war isn’t over, as he bombs not just military targets, but homes, schools—anywhere he can kill innocents. Just yesterday, as I write, air raid sirens sounded over the entire nation. So, WE MUST KEEP FIGHTING BACK, not with bombs, but with life-saving aid sent in Jesus’ name. Look, the worst thing now would be to let compassion fatigue overtake us.

I leave for both Ukraine and Poland in October, and as I said in my most recent Facebook video, this year we’re targeting three relief ministries in particular. All three get relief to areas hardly reached by others. Find out more by clicking the photo below. Then come back here.

For now, let me be bold one more time: No tipping. No “latte” money. Please give AGAIN! Look, when I was in Poland last September, I met smiling 5-year old kids who don’t know that their daddies, who stayed behind to fight, are dead. No more hugs and nightly tuck-ins. They’re gone. Forever. So you can see why I’m saying once again that You and I need to act now!

There are four secure ways you can give, listed in order of efficiency. NOTE: If giving via Zelle, you MUST send your email address to office@jamesgilbert.org in order to receive a receipt for tax-deductible contribution.

• Donate via Zelle, a no–fee, immediate, 100% secure money transfer from your participating bank to our ministry’s Bank of America account. Check your online banking page to see if yours is one of the rapidly growing number of banks using Zelle. (You may need to type the word Zelle in your bank’s search box.) Our Bank of America Zelle ID is 352-316-1212. Click here for more Zelle info: https://www.zellepay.com/how-it-works
• Donate securely via credit card by clicking the blue Contribute button on the upper right of this page. (On a smartphone, it’s in the upper-right drop-down menu.) You will receive an immediate receipt for your tax-deductible donation via email. Please consider covering the credit card processing fee.
• Mail a check payable to Jim Gilbert Ministries to our office at PO Box 141928, Gainesville FL 32614. Write the word UKRAINE on the memo line.
• Give via an app like Apple Pay, Venmo or PayPal. (NOTE: The Cash app has changed their non-profit rules, so we request that you avoid that app.)

Ukrainian lives hang in the balance and YOU AND I need to act now. Thank you.

Grace and peace,

Jim Gilbert Ministries

I

apologize in advance for being cryptic with this post. On the one hand, I am part of a small team facing yet another historic opportunity—even as our work on the Kurdish Constitution “safe haven” project continues. However, making this second effort public is not my call. All I can tell you is that it is potentially just as far-reaching as the safe-haven project. Here’s the scoop…

In a few days, immediately following our Living Sound 50th-Anniversary celebration in Oklahoma, I will depart Tulsa for Erbil, Iraq ready to hit the ground running once more.

Always Ready

We have said several times that we must be ready to return to Iraq at any time, and once again that moment has arrived. However, flying overseas on such short notice to work in the halls of government, as well as the circles of influence in which our negotiations will take place, mean that this mission will be more expensive than usual. For that reason, I appeal to you in keeping with Romans 10: Please send me back to Kurdistan!

I also reluctantly mentioned previously that although we were able to conduct a successful mission to Iraq in May, we ourselves were not paid. This ministry has been our lives for half a century. We’ve operated modestly, avoided frequent appeals, and given every effort our all. 

Now, as we face our greatest opportunity in a half century, we truly need increased support. Your ongoing support of Jim Gilbert Ministries holds the promise of great kingdom impact for the future of Iraqi Kurdistan, and by extension the entire Middle East.

Additionally, ten days after I return home, I must leave again for ministry in Trinidad. After the Trinidad invitation came several months ago, that nation began burning in my heart for reasons I don’t yet understand. But I’m eager to find out!

To give, just click the blue box in the top right corner and please consider partnering with us on a monthly basis. Also, hundreds of banks now use Zelle for easy, instant fund transfers. Please email us at james@jamesgilbert.org for details

Deepest thanks.

As our previous eNews made clear, Iraq’s Kurds held elections in September 2018 and it’s taken since then to form a coalition government with power-sharing amongst two major parties and three minor ones. All we knew at flight time was that our friend, the Prime Minister, was becoming the new President (See photo below) and being replaced as PM by his cousin, whom we did not know.

We also didn’t know that our highest government contact in Kurdistan thought we had abandoned our mission since the US State Department had issued a red do-not-travel warning to Erbil, our very destination. Hence, we arrived to discover no appointments and no accommodations. Not only that, but the new President was out of the country.

But, the Bible says “the heart of the king is in God’s hands,” so we chose to believe for the best anyway, which was exactly what we got.

First, we needed to meet the new Prime Minister-designate but had no idea how to do so. Then one of our party, after a television news interview, told a producer about our wish, only to discover that the producer was also a public relations officer with the new PM! One day later, we were sitting in the lavish headquarters of the new Prime Minister-to-be, hearing him reaffirm his commitment to writing true religious freedom into the Kurdistan Region’s new Constitution.

One down—one to go, but as far as we knew the incoming President was still out of the country. Now it was Monday evening and our window for a meeting was Tuesday. Finally, the call came during dinner. Incoming President Barzani had arrived home and immediately agreed to meet us the next morning at 10 am!

The next day, my mentor, Dr. Terry Law, sat next to his Excellency in the chair of honor, and once again broached the subject of the Kurds’ new Constitution, mentioning that Vice President Pence knows of the project and has expressed his enthusiasm to Terry face-to-face. 

Then it was time to introduce an initiative I don’t yet have clearance to talk about, and one of the most gratifying moments of my life took place. “I want to talk with Vice President Pence about this as well,” Terry began, but our host held out a hand to stop him in mid-sentence.

“That’s fine if you want to do so,” the new President said, “but if Dr. Terry Law says it’s good then it’s done!” And just like that, a new plan took a giant first step forward.

Finally, please accept our deepest thanks for your generosity in sending me on this wonderful mission to Iraq. But, as can happen following an exciting project, June was our leanest month financially in several years. Bills were paid but we were not.

With upcoming missions to Trinidad and a return to Iraq that could take place almost anytime, we are asking you to step beyond designated projects and become a monthly partner with Jim Gilbert Ministries. In all honesty, our work (with more in the wings) cannot continue without regular support.

Please pause, pray, and then click the big blue button on the top right. And please, seriously consider making it a recurring donation. Iraqi Kurdistan really is the most promising place in the Muslim World for the gospel in 1,400 years.

Deepest thanks.

The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq has finally formed their coalition government, paving the way for Dr. Terry Law and me to return and resume our input for making the region a true safe haven for Christians and other religious minorities.

As you read this, I’m flying from Orlando through Dubai, and onward to a Saturday-afternoon landing in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. Yes, on Wednesday the State Department warned Americans to avoid Erbil and announced the evacuation of all non-essential personnel from the consulate there. However, yesterday one of our party of five (who lives in D.C.) spoke with a highly-placed friend in the State Department and he was privately assured that we’re good to go.

What a way to celebrate 50 years in ministry!

This is great news because our opportunities in Kurdistan have suddenly grown, especially with regard to future influence.

As you read this, I’m flying from Orlando through Dubai, and onward to a Saturday-afternoon landing in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq. Yes, on Wednesday the State Department warned Americans to avoid Erbil and announced the evacuation of all non-essential personnel from the consulate there. However, yesterday one of our party of five (who lives in D.C.) spoke with a highly-placed friend in the State Department and he was privately assured that we’re good to go

This is great news because our opportunities in Kurdistan have suddenly grown, especially with regard to future influence.

Besides meeting with government officials and the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul, we quite likely will meet with the Kurdish Prime Minister (who will soon become President) as well as the incoming Prime Minister, to discuss implementing articles of true religious freedom in the Kurdistan Region’s upcoming new constitution. 

Please pray not only for our protection but also that these two appointments are confirmed by the time I land. Thanks to your generosity in our recent appeal, we’ll be able to significantly invest in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Kurdistan. We’re also conducting this mission jointly with historian and best-selling author Stephen Mansfield (The Faith of George W. Bush and many others). In that regard, there’s an additional aspect of this mission that holds tremendous potential for the future. Sadly, we’re not yet free to share any details, but I want you to know that…

Your ongoing support of this mission holds the promise of great Gospel impact for the future, not merely in Kurdistan, but for the entire Middle East. Thank you!

This ministry has been our lives for five decades. We’ve operated modestly and given every effort our all, but as we face our greatest opportunity in 50 years, we need increased ongoing support.

As your heart and conscience dictate, please click the blue contribute button in the top right corner. We’re still running the race! Please consider making a regular monthly commitment.

Last year the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region asked for our help. Please interview Christian leaders, they requested. What religious rights would they want to be specified in a new Kurdish Constitution? Would we then write recommendations spelling out these rights?

                                                Proud to be named honorary Peshmerga

I landed in Erbil on August 20, 2017. The very next day an armed Iranian militia—yes, Iranian—ambushed and detained our team near Mosul. For the next hour, some 100 militants surrounded us with AK-47 rifles, shouting and firing dozens of rounds into the air. We tried to turn around, but machine guns and a huge rocket launcher blocked us in. Thank the Lord, Iraq’s Prime Minister himself intervened and effected our release.

After interviewing Orthodox, Chaldean Catholic and Protestant leaders for four days, it was time to gather our notes and make recommendations.

Dr. Terry Law and I drafted seven articles focused on making Iraqi Kurdistan a safe haven for Christians. After an American constitutional expert signed off on the document, we submitted it. The Kurds’ response was wonderful. “We will do all this and more,” said the senior government official with a smile.

Last month that official asked us to return. It’s time to compose their new Constitution and they want our help in implementing the articles composed last year. I’m ready.

Will you send me back to Iraq?

Even Washington is taking notice, despite the imminent midterm elections. A few days ago, Dr. Law met with Vice President Pence about this mission. Since then we conference-called with a leading Congressman who wants to help. Please pray. Our goal is a particular letter of endorsement. (You’re welcome to read between the lines.) Such a letter would ease the process for the Kurds should Iran, Syria or some other neighbor object to this historic first.

Whether summoned to D.C. or heading off to Iraqi Kurdistan, I have to be ready to travel at a moment’s notice. But the costs of last-minute travel to Iraq are high.

Think about it:

How often do you and I have an opportunity to make a historic impact on the Middle East?

For 1,400 years Christians have suffered persecution throughout the Islamic world. Now, here they stand—your family in Christ, with real freedom of worship at their fingertips.

Thirty-one years ago a pastor and complete stranger prophesied to me. “I see you advising a Muslim government someday,” he said. I thought it absurd and put it out of mind for 30 years. Then last year “someday” came. Now it’s time to complete what last year’s mission started.

Will you send me back to Iraq? Regardless of whatever lies ahead, I’m ready to go.

Here am I. Send me.

Please click the blue contribute button at the top of this page to give via our secure online portal. Or you can mail a check payable to Jim Gilbert Ministries, PO Box 141928, Gainesville FL 32614. And more than anything else, please pray for us—especially our daughter, Lexi.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Last month when Terry Law invited me to join his delegation to Kurdistan, northern Iraq, (Read Part I here.) I leapt at the opportunity. The carrot? The Kurds are preparing to declare their independence from Iraq—now Iran’s puppet—and asked for our help in guaranteeing true religious freedom for Christians and other religious minorities in their prospective new constitution. What Muslim government has ever asked Christians for help in writing a constitution? What majority Islamic nation has ever wanted to establish a true safe haven for Christians and other religious minorities? The answer, until now: Zero.

The Kurds are generally Sunni Muslims, but unlike most Sunnis they are not Arabs. “Kurd first, Sunni second,” they say. A remarkable people, they are descended from the ancient Medes, and like their famed king Cyrus (see Isaiah 45), they have historically looked kindly on Israel. Over the past hundred years, they have also been unfailingly pro-America, despite our nation’s betrayals of their trust, both after World War I and the first Gulf War.

A century ago, when the Ottoman Empire was carved up by oil-thirsty France and England and arbitrarily turned into new nations called Iraq, Saudi Arabia, et al, millions of Kurds were denied nationhood, and instead left strewn across Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Why? Because the (in)famous T.E. “Lawrence of Arabia” told his superiors that keeping the region internally fractured would prevent the reconstitution of the Ottoman Empire and hence, keep those new nations from attacking the rest of the world. Lawrence’s plan succeeded, of course, but caused justifiable Muslim rage to build for a century until Al Qaeda and ISIS erupted onto the scene, and also resulted in untold suffering for the Kurdish people. Today, 101 years after the secret, dastardly Sykes/Picot pact that denied them a homeland, 40 million Kurds remain the world’s largest people group without their own nation.

But no more, say the Kurds.

For a full century, this historic people have been told time and time again to “wait a little longer, and you’ll have your freedom.” Now, knowing that tomorrow never comes, they’re making their move, and hoping like crazy that President Trump will support them. “America’s One-Iraq Policy,” one diplomat told me, “could be shafted by a single tweet.” He’s right. One short sentence from President Trump would cause both Iran and Turkey to think twice about actively opposing a sovereign Kurdistan.

On Sunday, August 20th (the day before our near-death adventure detailed in Part I of this report) our team began interviewing the leaders of the various Christian denominations who represent Iraq’s remaining 200,000+ Christians (down from 1.6 million only a few years ago). Most of these leaders are from the Nineveh Plain, a region that adjoins Kurdistan, from Qaraqosh and Mosul to the west to the border of Turkey up north, but is not part of the Kurdish province. “Do you want your towns to be part of a new Kurdistan, or to remain part of Iraq?” we asked them, amongst several other questions.

From Syriac Orthodox to Assyrian Catholic to Presbyterian and non-denominational evangelicals, every leader said essentially the same thing: “We want to live free and as first-class citizens,” they pled, often adding in subdued tones that they know the Kurds have been their protectors and liberators and would welcome any result necessary to keep that relationship.

After four days, the interviews were finished.

“Jim, I need you to gather everyone’s notes and write the document,” said Dr. Law. “Then we’ll go over it together and also run it by [constitutional scholar] Stephen Mansfield.”

I went to work, skipping a day trip up to Dohuk in the north to write. First article:

“This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the nation of Kurdistan, not superseded or nullified by any other law.”

The constitutions of Muslim countries typically acknowledge the authority of Islamic “Sharia” law. But that provision renders any document that contains it utterly worthless, because of Sharia’s, uh, elasticity.

I kept writing, and somewhere around the fourth of what became seven articles, the curtains of my tenth-floor hotel room began to sway gently back and forth. Then, after a few seconds, I realized my iPad and mattress had joined the ballet. An earthquake? Couldn’t be, I thought. This area isn’t that active. But the swaying continued for a good 30-45 seconds. (Turned out to be a 5.6 about 35 miles away, but very deep in the earth. It was the only quake for hundreds of miles around that day.)

Dear Lord, I prayed—or laughed or both—is this document that important? Then I felt embarrassed and arrogant to have engaged in such puffery and started back to writing. But…what if?…nah.

At the appointed time, on Thursday, August 24th, our delegation walked into the gilded office of Kurdistan’s Interior Minister (aka assistant Prime Minister in most countries) and took our seats, the Minister and Dr. Terry Law front and center, the rest of us on fancy couches flanking both sides.

Pleasantries were exchanged, and then Terry presented our document—the one I had written, which listed seven articles, and which Mansfield had given a hearty thumbs up—to the Minister, while holding his own copy aloft to read.

I think I was fine until the moment Terry began reading the seven articles that I had worded to sound more like Thomas Jefferson than James Gilbert.

Dear Lord, that sounds so stark and demanding, I thought suddenly. If this referendum goes south and Iran winds up in charge, I could be a marked man. My heart was pounding as hard as it had three days earlier when that militia outside Qaraqosh were firing their guns into the air. Maybe I can pin it on Terry, I joked to myself, but it didn’t help. My heart galloped on.

Terry Law finished reading and for a moment the room fell silent.

“What is your response to these specific points, sir?” Terry asked our host. I knew they had become good friends, and I was surprised at such a blunt query. Then again, this had to be official…and quotable. Definitely, publicly quotable. Both men knew that.

The Interior Minister held the paper in front of himself and peered intently at it for a moment, before lowering it to his lap. “We will do all of this and more,” he said, breaking into a smile. Terry nodded and grinned, while the rest of us breathed out in unison, so deeply, I thought, we could have launched a small sailboat.

It was only after I’d been home for three days that a long-buried memory came flooding back to me with such force that I leaned against the shower door to keep my balance. (Yes, that’s where God often gets through to yours truly).

It was August, 1987, 30 years and a week removed from this mission, that I had received the most unusual—no, absurd—prophetic word of my life.

“I see a day coming when you’re going to be advising Muslim governments,” said a pastor named Ernest Gentile. “They’re going to need your help.”

I had never met Pastor Gentile, although all my friends spoke highly of him. And for the record, I’ve never spoken to him since. The sum total of our interaction consisted of that one minute when he stood behind me, his hands on my shoulders, and uttered those outlandish words.

Besides, I’m sort of, uh, skeptical when it comes to “words” from people I don’t really, really know and trust. There are just too many weirdos around who think that being in the Spirit means acting like you’re out of your mind. Of course, I have to admit that Pastor Gentile didn’t strike me that way. In fact, he was quiet and dignified the whole time, and today I’m grateful to him beyond words. But at that moment—it was just, just bizarre.

What Muslim government would ever ask Christians for advice? And even if they did, how would my “internationally unknown” self make the cut? Besides, this was 1987, and all any of us knew about the Islamic world was that Iran had held a group of Americans hostages for 444 days, and that there was some convoluted scandal called Iran-Contra. Why would that world ever ask for advice from the Great Satan?

Yet…here we are. The Kurds of Iraq, denied a homeland of their own for the past century, now stand on the brink of nationhood. And standing with them: the freedom and safety of not only 200,000 Christians (and perhaps as many Yazidis), but also multitudes more across the Middle East who all their lives have suffered persecution for their faith, and who would likely run to a true safe haven if one existed.

Let me turn activist for a moment. You, YOU, can do something to help establish a safe haven for Christians in the Middle East. You can write to President Donald Trump and ask him to ignore the bureaucratic path of least resistance that his advisors and State Department bureaucrats are likely to advocate, the path of betrayal that our nation has taken time and again ever since Woodrow Wilson turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Kurds a century ago.

You can write or call the White House here, and you can pass this blog along to everyone you know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and church.

You can join me and help a see a nation born. You, YOU, can make history.

P.S. We can only volunteer for missions like this one because someone supports our efforts. If you believe in our efforts and wish to contribute to James Gilbert Ministries, please click this link. Thank you!

I was in Iraq for eight remarkable days last month, and in Part II of this report I’ll tell you how I was privileged to help make Middle-East history. But there was one day, August 21, 2017, our second day on the job, that has since taken on a life of its own. In fact, it was a drama that nearly took several of our lives. And for that reason, it forms a fiery preamble to our historic mission.

We were in Kurdistan, Iraq’s largely autonomous northern province, at the invitation of the regional government. Their Interior Minister/Defense Minister had invited us to interview Christian leaders in Kurdistan and the adjoining Nineveh Plain, and based upon those leaders’ desires, to help the Kurdish government compose clear constitutional guarantees and protections for Christians and other religious minorities, should Kurdistan declare independence from Iraq.

Although our assignment to interview the Christian leaders began on Sunday, August 20th (see Part II), all 13 of our delegation were eager for our Monday day trip to Qaraqosh, a predominantly Christian town on the Nineveh Plain, just across the provincial border from Kurdistan, and thus under Baghdad’s military control. We had originally planned to go to Mosul, recently liberated from ISIS and just 15 miles further on, but due to a recent rash of kidnappings, were advised to stop at Qaraqosh, once a city of 70,000 Christians, but now home to only about 10,000 souls brave enough to return and start rebuilding.

We left the Kurdish capital of Erbil on Monday morning in a diplomatic convoy of four black Land Cruisers, flanked front and back by camouflaged trucks carrying a total of 20 Peshmerga soldiers, members of Kurdistan’s famed army who, outside of Israel, constitute perhaps the finest military force in the Middle East. In fact, although Iran is trying to claim credit, it was the courageous Peshmerga who this summer liberated Mosul and routed ISIS from the area.

An hour after leaving our hotel, and having passed through a couple of checkpoints, we pulled up to the Nineveh Plain border and stopped at the last guard booth to show our papers. Everything seemed routine and I pulled out my oversized iPhone to capture the moment from my backseat perch in the convoy’s lead SUV.

We hadn’t been stopped more than a minute when the Iraqi police, in their blue-tinted fatigues, failed to notice a young man in civilian clothing slipping past them and heading for the lead Peshmerga truck. Only after he ripped open a tan door and grabbed at a soldier did they move into action. And suddenly the whole world seemed to shift into high gear. Within 30 seconds the troublemaker was surrounded by armed Peshmerga and Iraqi police who shoved him away from the truck and began subduing him. But the scuffle had not gone unnoticed. In fact, it apparently had followed someone’s plan.

“They are a militia armed by Iraq,” our government host in the passenger seat in front of me would tell us a few minutes later. “But they are loyal to the Ayatollah of Iran. They hate our soldiers and someone has tipped them off that we were coming.”

I stopped videoing and lowered my phone as another man in civilian clothing—then another and another—ran past us toting automatic rifles. All at once, armed civilians were everywhere, screaming and waving weapons they didn’t look qualified to carry. Then, not more than 40 feet in front of us, someone raised a rifle skyward and—bapbap bapbapbap—fired off a volley of what sounded like a dozen rapid shots straight into the air. Another rifle—bap bap—more shots.

Now armed men were running from everywhere and surrounding our convoy. I started counting. There were easily a hundred of them, and although some wore no shoes, they all bore guns. A small Toyota pickup pulled near the booth and stopped about 30 feet in front of us and to our right. Within half a minute, a 50-caliber machine gun sat, perched and ready, on the roof of its cab. Punches were thrown at the Peshmerga, but in accordance with their orders from our hosts, none fought back. More shouting. More shots fired into the air.

“Keep them calm, Father. Keep them calm,” I prayed as I crouched down in the seat and our driver began following the troops’ lead to inch into a super-slow U-turn. My backseat partner, Pastor Mark Borrows from western Canada, and I would repeat that prayer for the next 45 minutes. “Keep them calm.”

You always wondered if you’d be brave, I told myself, as I looked through dark tinted glass at a militiaman standing no more than three feet from me with his gun at the ready. Ever since you were a kid, you’ve wondered if you’d have the courage to die for the name of Jesus. Well…what’s it going to be?

The U-turn complete, I looked up from praying and saw another pickup truck with a mounted machine gun, then just past him a huge black vehicle sporting a rocket launcher with a barrel that looked to be the size of a hurricane’s eye.

“Keep them calm.”

More volleys. More screaming. A rifle butt to the eye socket of one of our soldiers, but he sat, stoic. He and his Peshmerga brothers were under orders to hold both fists and fire unless one of our SUVs became a target.

In the passenger seat in front of me, our government guide was on the phone with the Defense Minister. “Help is on the way,” he assured us. Then I noticed the stubby Uzi submachine gun he had pulled out of his satchel. It was resting on the drink holder between the front seats, its barrel pointed back at me.

“Uh, would you point that forward, please?” I whispered, and then resumed my one-line petition. “Keep them calm, Father. Keep them calm.”

More shots, probably a hundred or more, and more screaming and shoving and rifle-butting.

40 minutes that felt like 40 days in this wilderness had passed now, and suddenly we were creeping forward and being waved past the rocket launcher by a man who, for the moment at least, appeared to have some authority. A few seconds later, we were picking up speed and barreling back towards Erbil.

“I feel so stupid,” said Mark, my Canadian comrade. “All I could think the whole time we were praying was, how is my wife going to get my body bag all the way back to Alberta?“.

“If they’d started firing, about 500 letter-sized envelopes would’ve sufficed,” I tried to joke, but we were both too amped up to laugh.

An hour later, we were back in Erbil and headed for the hotel cafe. My closest brush with death in 49 years of ministry was over, but my pulse hadn’t gotten the memo. I looked at my Apple Watch, which had registered a range from 100-133 beats per minute for the past hour, and still showed no sign of slowing.

“The normal reaction would be to try and forget the trauma of this, right?” I asked Mark, who nodded in agreement as we took a table. “But let’s not do that. Let’s make ourselves remember, because this is what our brothers in Christ here have to live with every day of their lives. We can’t forget. We mustn’t forget”

It was about then that I realized the answer to my earlier self-examination. Would I really, after all these decades of professing Christ, have the courage to face a bullet for the name of Jesus?

“I know now, Mark,” I said. “I was ready to do it. If that guy with the rifle had ripped open my door and shoved me against the side of our SUV, I knew Jesus’ name would be the last word I spoke on this earth.”

My heart still pounds when I remember, but I don’t mind. Because now I know. I know.

You’ve probably seen the news that Mosul, Iraq (aka Nineveh) has finally been liberated from ISIS. Well, here’s more news: I’ll be on the ground in Mosul in just a few days!

Here’s what’s happening:

Last week, Dr. Terry Law, my Unmasking ISIS co-author, asked me to return to Iraq’s Kurdistan Region with him from August 18-26. The Kurds are set to hold a September referendum on independence, and passage is a sure thing. As the only Muslim people in the entire Middle East who don’t persecute Christians, the Kurds want their new nation to guarantee religious freedom for Christians and other religious minorities in their pending new constitution.

Recently, their Defense Minister called to ask Terry to gather the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant leaders of Kurdistan, Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, to specify what protections they would want written into a new Kurdish Constitution. An independent Kurdistan would become a safe haven for non-Muslims (who include 10 million Orthodox Christians).

This would be an historic first in 1,400 years of Islam!

True Freedom

Two years ago, our friends and some very enthusiastic students of The Rock School here in Gainesville, jointly gave $25,000 in three short weeks, enabling us to pay shipping for two full cargo containers of excellent food and clothing worth many times more to Christian refugees who had fled Mosul and the Nineveh Plains when ISIS invaded.

This trip is immeasurably MORE important!

From 2000 until the 2014 rise of ISIS, Kurdistan boomed economically and welcomed both Christians and Jews. No other place in the Muslim world can make that boast. Now, rather than temporarily feeding thousands, we can go to the very cities ISIS invaded and help secure lasting freedom from persecution (and reliance on humanitarian aid) for the hundreds of thousands of Christians who remain, and no doubt also for an influx of émigrés from all across the Middle East.

In addition to meeting with bishops, pastors and government officials in the Kurdish capital, we’ll make day trips (under heavy guard) to Mosul and nearby liberated Christian towns in the Nineveh Plains. This is our golden opportunity to contribute significantly to both Middle East history and church history.

We’re All In

My longtime friend, Don Moen, often says, “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead!” Don’s talking about laying up treasures in heaven, of course, and he’s right.

You can lay up treasures in heaven by sending guys like me, who go to hard places like Iraq and Cuba. Just click the Contribute button at the top of this page, and you can give once, or easily initiate “set it and forget it” monthly giving. (Soon, you’ll be able to give via text message and directly from bank to bank.)

This is us. We go where we’re sent. I’m turning 67 today, and what an honor to still be on the front lines, literally, at such a critical time in history. It would also be an honor to represent you regularly, in Iraq and beyond, in this, my 50^th year in missions.