The Detroit metropolitan area has five counties with a population pool of five-million people, and the entire state of Iowa has only three-million! That in itself may create the neighborliness I've found. But it does take some getting used to having so much country around. I'm still a city boy at heart.

My brother helped me move. He was driving my car and we were taking a tour of the town. I noticed he was waving at everybody. I asked what he was doing and he said, "You're in a small town. You've got to wave at everybody. That is what they do." I said, "Okay." When driving in the Detroit area, if people wave at you, it is in a different way. After he left and I was driving around town by myself, I noticed this is what people did. They'd wave. Sometimes I feel bad because I am focusing on my driving, maybe thinking about my next appointment, and by the time I get my hand up they've gone past. But I am learning.

After an evening meeting, when I leave any of those county seat towns, I feel as though I am pretty much driving out into the middle of nowhere. It's pitch black out there. I'm still trying to get used to all the deer. I'm driving with my high beams on to avoid hitting them.

And I have been introduced to snow of the likes of which I hadn't seen, but apparently you haven't either. I've heard this is the third or fourth most snowy and the coldest winter there has been for many years. I have read that if we get a couple more snowfalls we will break snow records that have been set since 1880, when they started keeping them. Cold temperatures, warm hearts is my assessment of Iowa.

I am coming to know who you are. Here is who I am, and how I came to be here: I was born in Detroit in 1975, so I am 35 years old. I am a first generation born American. My parents are from the Middle East, from Iraq. They came to America in the early 70s. My dad was born in Baghdad and my mom was born either in or just outside Kirkuk, which is on the news now and again. It is one of the bigger cities in northern Iraq.

We lived in the city of Detroit the first eight years of my life, then my family moved to the suburbs. Dad owned his own business. He was a graphic artist, doing publications for the Chaldean or the Middle Eastern community in Detroit. I have a brother about 1 1/2 years younger than I, and a sister about 9 1/2 years younger. I had a pretty normal childhood. I used to beat up my younger brother all the time, which older brothers normally do. That was until he got bigger than I was, and I stopped doing that. He's the closest person to me, but our entire family is very close.

In spite of the larger population of Muslims in Iraq, my parents are Christian, which makes up 3-5% of the Iraqi population, and we children are Christian, but I was a nominal Christian. Maybe I went to church on Christmas and Easter, but that was about it. Three of my grandparents had died before I came to know them, so my mom's mom was the only grandparent I ever knew. She taught me about Christ as best she could considering she did not speak English. She would tell me about Jesus in Aramaic. I speak Arabic and two dialects of Aramaic — not perfectly. When I go home for family get-togethers, my family makes fun of my broken Arabic and I make fun of their broken English so we have a little give and take. I know enough that if I were to visit Iraq, I could get by fairly well. I just can't read or write it, other than my name. However, Grandmother did quite well in telling me what she knew about Jesus.

I went to a suburban high school, then on to Central Michigan University to obtain a business degree. I have a bachelor of science degree in business administration and a degree in logistics management (i.e.supply chain management) with a minor in accounting. I was just a normal young man who enjoyed certain life styles most teenage young men enjoyed until —. And the "until" is a story in itself. It occurred when I attended some Bible presentations being held in a local church. Suddenly I recognized I was hearing Biblical truth and knew "I need to follow this; this is it!" I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior at those meetings.

Looking back, I realize God has been putting people in my life all the way along. I remember when I was 15 or 16 people would come up to me asking, "Do you know Jesus?" They weren't hitting me over the head with the Bible, but there were times when I wish they had gone about it a little differently. I didn't make a commitment, but I remember those times and perhaps they had a bearing on my decision. However it came about, when I really met Christ, he changed me. I'm not perfect by any means, but God has helped me to grow over the last 15 years — I was almost 22 when I encountered Biblical truth and made a decision for Christ with everything I have. The Lord has been working on me ever since and I think he'll continue to work on me. Philippians 1:6 says, "He will continue to do the work on me until the day of Jesus Christ." Before the Lord returns we have a lot of work to do whether we are 35 of 95. Biblical language is universal and timeless.

I spent six years in college, which means I am not a smart guy by any means. I graduated in 1999, almost 11 years ago — seems like yesterday. It took me awhile to get my first job but I know the Lord was leading there as well. Some of the jobs I refused to take because they weren't compatible with my personal convictions, so I didn't want to follow through. I said, "Lord, you're leading. I've got to do what your word says," but I was getting down my last few pennies when a couple calls finally came in. I had my last interviews, and ended up getting a job later that summer in logistics management. I worked for a company that became Fed Ex logistics, one arm of which is the trucks you see around town. I worked on the Chrysler Mopar account and was a site liaison there. I was working with all the Chrysler people but still working for Fed Ex. I worked there for almost four years and later got a job with Ryder logistics. Their trucks are also visible on the roads. I worked there for almost six years in the business office at the regional level, until I received a call to become a pastor.

During the previous eight or nine years of employment, I had been taking some leadership in church — doing Bible studies and preaching. I was holding my own prophecy or Bible seminars, helping people know more about the Bible, hopefully leading people to follow Jesus. I was really active in church and the community and those types of things, but then the call came to be a pastor. As I prayed through it, I knew I was to do this. I had never married, so there were no wife or children to consider in relocating. I quit my job in favor of full time ministry and the call led me here to Iowa. I was 33 — almost 34 years old, when I moved here in January of '09. I am 625 miles away from home but this is becoming home to me. I've met a lot of great people so it has been a blessing! I've enjoyed my time up to this point and look forward to years to come.

I pastor three churches in Osceola, Winterset, and Creston for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. I enjoy my congregations, I enjoy what the Lord has called me to do. I tell people I still don't consider myself a pastor even though people call me that. I consider myself a normal guy like I always have been. I just love Jesus and want to do His will no matter what that is. I want to follow His word and lead people to do the same.

Church

I serve the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is a world-wide church. We are in more countries than almost any other church in the world. We have a presence everywhere. We have one of the largest schooling and hospital systems in the world. Our beliefs are specific: We believe in the Bible as the standard rule of faith. We believe that the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, testify of Christ. He says in John 5:39, speaking to the religious leaders of that day, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life but it is they that testify of me." At the time Christ said that, the only Scriptures they had were the Old Testament, and study of the Old Testament reveals several prophecies that point to Christ's first and second coming.

We are also a church that believes in Bible prophecy and the historical fulfillment of Bible prophecy in every age of human history. We study the book of Revelation, have seminars on the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel. I hope to do something like that in the community one of these days, this year or next — putting something together and invite the community to come and be a part of it. As the name "Seventh Day Adventist" states, we believe in keeping the seventh day Sabbath as the 4th commandment says to do. "Keep that day holy" (Exo. 20:8).

Part of that involves worship but additionally helping one another in need. Christ on the Sabbath healed people. It includes spending time in contemplation and study of God's word, and in corporate worship of God. The word "Adventist" means we look forward to the second coming of Christ. We don't believe in Christ as just a prophet or teacher, we believe in him as the Bible says, the Messiah, chosen of God, Son of God, God in the flesh. He is fully divine and fully human. Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, "In him were all thing in heaven and on earth created — things visible and invisible; and John chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 tell us it was Christ who created the world, "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."

He is the creator, but we also believe in the Triune God or the tri-unity of God or the God-head.— Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three co-equal persons making up the one true God. Those are the gist of our beliefs. We believe in the Bible, both Testaments, as God's inspired word as Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 3:16-17, "All scripture is inspired by God... " I heard a preacher once say, "The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed." Those are the important parts of our understanding of who God is and His plans for us on this planet.

Iraq

Although I haven't been there, I would like to go and see where my family has come from. I have plenty of family still over there — tons of cousins — first cousins, second cousins and all, but traveling is so expensive, I haven't had an opportunity to go. I'll go when the Lord decides it is a good time, and I'd love to have Mom go with me. When I was home for the holidays I said, "Mom, if I ever go there visiting or doing any kind of mission work, I want you come with me." She said, "No, it's not a good time to go." I know I would benefit from her point of view as she would revisit where she lived for the first 26 years of her life, even though she's been here for almost 36 years.

When we lived in Detroit, we were as close as we could come to Middle Eastern customs. It has the highest population of Middle Eastern people outside of the Middle East. The influx could be due to a wide variety of reasons — political situations and issues, people wanting to escape some of the turmoil in the Middle Eastern countries. Lebanon, Syria and Israel had a lot of wars there in the 60s and 70s. Iraq had some similar situations in the middle to late 70s, and people wanted to come to this awesome country to provide a better life for their families. It would be what the Irish and Italians did in the late 19th century, or the English, Dutch, and French did in the 18th century, or the Pilgrims whom we call Puritans, did for religious freedoms, because they wanted to worship according to their conscience as God was leading them.

As for grouping together, obviously, when you are traveling a long distance from a known place to an unknown, you tend to congregate with people with whom you are compatible. In Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Boston — there are pockets of nationalities. In California there are a lot of Asian communities. Chicago has a large Polish area. They also have huge Irish settlements. St. Patrick's Day celebrations are humongous. I think they dye the river green.

But a true lure for me is that Iraq has been called by historians and archaeologists the cradle of civilization. There is a lot of history there. After Israel, under various names, Iraq is the most mentioned country in the Bible. In the creation story, Genesis 2, a river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides into four branches: Pishon, Gihon, and the name of the third and fourth are Tigris and Euphrates, respectively— the two major rivers in Iraq. The Bible talks about a time when "the earth had one language and the same words" (Gen. 11:1). This was in the Plain of Shinar, which is modern day Iraq. Archaeologists think they have found the Tower of Babel, from which word we get Babylon.

Bible scholars consider Iraq the "Fertile Crescent," where everything began. Not everything in that area is desert, which people often suppose. The ancient city of Ur (in southern Iraq) is from where the Lord called Abram (Abraham - Gen. 12). The book of II Kings refers to the great ruling empires of a later time — Babylonia and Assyria, now Iraq. My mom is actually Assyrian, my dad is Chaldean (Babylonian). The Assyrians ruled from about 934 B.C. to 612 B.C., when King Nebuchadnezzar, who was to be the ruling prince of Babylon, attacked and destroyed Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Nineveh was the city in which Jonah, in the book of Jonah, was to preach. It is now a modern city in Iraq. The Babylonians ruled from about 605 B.C., until about 539 B.C., when they were conquered by the Medo-Persians, whose origins are found in modern day Iran.

Our tendency in a day when technology may sweep us into a smugness in which, if we give any thought of the centuries B.C., might lead us to consider people somewhat barbaric, until we face the fact that we have accepted what they contributed and built on it. The Assyrians invented aqueducts and Babylon had "hanging gardens," which were one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Assyrians are credited with using iron for armor and iron weapons. . . they had copper for metalworking. . . the Internet credits them with concocting beer with Egypt making an adjustment to it. . . making lens, and possibly mirrors. Each age has built upon the previous ones.

The Aramaic language became the common language of the Jews of Palestine after their exile in Babylon. It was the language Jesus spoke. When I saw "The Passion of Christ" in the theaters, with characters speaking in Aramaic, Latin, or Greek, I could understand some of the Aramaic language that was spoken. I had to read some of the sub-titles but when Mom went to see it, she knew it a lot better than I did. It has changed some over the 2000 year period, but Aramaic has remained a fairly pure language, maybe for even 4000 years, back to the ancient Babylonian times, back to Hammurabi, who was a contemporary of Abraham as well. I am not an historian, so some of my facts may not be completely accurate without reviewing my research.

I love ancient history, which is one reason I love studying the Bible and discovering some of these things as well. Which written language came first? It could be Aramaic, Arabic — it could even have been Hebrew. These are called Semitic languages. The script of Aramaic and Hebrew are very similar, as is the terminology. Hebrew was pretty much a dead language by the time of Jesus. Greek was the written language.

It will be my great joy if I am privileged to share all this and more in the communities assigned to me and perhaps even beyond.

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Last Revised December 11, 2014