Email from Iraq

To: Heart & Mind magazine

From: Ryan Sarenpa

Hello from Baghdad! I received a note from a good friend. He writes: What do you do during a “regular” day (if there are any)? Good question…

Photo of Ruan Sarenpa What I don’t do is go outside Army secured areas, and certainly not into Baghdad. Soldiers stay in heavily armored vehicles; only soldiers on police patrols fully armed and armored get out and walk. It is extremely dangerous for them. Make no mistake, this is a war. If I get on my tippy toes, I can see over the wall into the city of Abu Ghraib. There is a Sunni mosque and a Shiite mosque within walking distance, and so Muslim worship is nearby. They blare the call to prayer five times a day.

I sleep in a nice two-bed room, about 23’ x 23’. I have a chapel with an office; not a fancy building by any means, but it is my own!

Sundays: 9 a.m. Sunday school, 10 a.m. my service, noon is the gospel service. We have a praise team and a gospel choir. All these are growing regularly. When I’m done, I take the rest of the day off!

Weekdays: Up at 6:30, exercise in the gym (recently updated), 9 a.m. in the office. I have a pastor’s schedule, which means variety. I always spend time reading and praying and journaling for an hour a day. I get seven-13 counselees a week (a growing ministry). Issues are varied: I have two premarital couples; I see several about personal or work issues; sometimes I have more serious issues. We have a mental health psychologist I refer to for cases of combat stress and anger management.

I sometimes walk around and visit people where they work and simply chat (like pastoral calls). People love to see the chaplain, and I talk to young soldiers when they are not busy. I ask questions like, “What do you think so far? Better or worse than you expected?” And they answer most of the time that it’s far better.

I eat at our dining facility three times a day. Eggs, hash browns, toast for breakfast. Coffee in my office. We can have pizza, hamburgers, egg rolls, and vegetables, a choice of four entrees, rice, potatoes, soda pop, non-alcoholic beer, juice, Kool-Aid®, milk, a full salad bar, and cake and ice cream for dessert. We’re very well fed. The dining facility is staffed by third-country nationals from India and the Philippines. Iraqis clean and do other work. We also have a laundry service.

Three times weekly I attend a one-hour commander’s meeting where everyone updates the boss on what they’re doing. As a chaplain, I have his ear over matters that he can personally address, such as stressed soldiers needing care, etc. I have an excellent rapport with my commander. Once a week I go nearby to a much larger camp to attend a chaplains meeting, to schmooze and be refreshed, to eat better food and get ideas and resources, and mostly to have fun. I go to a Bible study there once a week in the evenings as well.

Our chapel is a very busy place these days in the evenings. My greatest joy right now is working with my ministry leaders. There is a powerful movement of the Spirit happening in our community right now, and I am moved to tears daily by what God is doing.

So that’s my life right now. It’s pretty routine, and apart from being lonely for Clarissa

and the kids, I have a lot of fun.

Well, that’s enough.

In Christ,

Ryan

Ryan Sarenpa is a 1999 Bethel Seminary graduate and a Kansas Army National Guard Chaplain. He and his wife Clarissa have three children: Hannah, Anders, and Levi. Ryan was, until recently, pastor of Scranton Covenant Church, Scranton, Kansas, where he resigned in spring 2005 because he and his wife felt led to seek a greater challenge. “One thing being here [in Iraq] has taught me,” he says, “is that I am ready for that.”