By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
My mind reels when I think of the fact that two decades have passed since I was in what I have affectionately come to call The Great Sandbox, none other than Iraq. The gratitude in my heart for soldiers has become what I hope is a true personal force multiplier, and the unlikely life lessons learned there while in the midst of indescribable acts of inward and outward sacrifice continue to both strike and guide me to this day.
My mind also reels when I consider that it has been two millennia since the Captain of my salvation died an unspeakable death, and by it defied and then defeated the ultimate enemy. And let me tell you, one of the things that still shakes me to my core is to have served amongst soldiers who first kept me safe so I could do my job, which was to boost their morale by bringing to them a touch of home, and then would gather with me in Saddam’s fishing lodge to sing praises to the One who could say, as no one else ever could, “It is finished.”
On Easter Sunday of 2005, I was able to show The Passion of the Christ to the newly formed Iraqi Special Forces in what had been Uday Hussein’s hunting lodge. Effectively, they heard the gospel in Aramaic, and they got it. I think the brutality of Christ’s passion as depicted in the film spoke to them, if for no other reason than they had been under the brutal boots of Saddam, Uday, and Qusay, and now they were not only free, but they needed to prepare to make and keep Iraq free, which is clearly an ongoing and highly-resisted process. They understood perhaps for the first time that there had been One who had a mission to complete, and had won the day against death for all time and eternity. And, His only weapon was love.
What the ISOF forces that saw the film that day did not know was that those whom they had been taught to think of as enemies were all around them and had in fact come to help them. And, I am not talking about Americans, I am talking about Israelis. Because Israel allows dual-citizenship, there were citizens of Israel who were also citizens of Australia, the UK, the US and other countries who could bring their history and expertise with desert operations that had been supernaturally successful to help a fledgling nation crawl toward representative government that was protected by military force. And, the great irony was that the Iraqis could not know it or they would have rejected the very help that was crucial on several occasions in battling Al-Qaeda. That “crawl” toward freedom has been incremental at best, but if we trust the Scriptures to be true, then we know that Iraq will be the builder of “the highway of holiness.” And, at some point I hope they understand that it was the wisdom and sacrifice of their “enemies” that helped them.
In a couple of days, we will celebrate what the Iraqis saw on Easter Sunday 20 years ago — a mission of love and the ultimate PSYOP strategy that was successfully completed against the worst that hell has to offer. And let us take time to honor and give thanks for the troops who shed their blood for our freedom, the families of the fallen who will only be comforted when heaven becomes home, and the One who said with His last breath, “It is finished.” Misson complete.
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
April 18, 2025
