Heart & Mind
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From Comfort Zone to Battle Zone
by Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel Lyn Brown
The apostle Peter needed time to collect his thoughts. God had been challenging him to practice his faith outside his comfort zone, and he longed to regroup emotionally and spiritually in a sacred place. So, we are told in Acts 3, he and fellow disciple John proceeded to the temple to pray. Little did Peter know that God was about to use him to turn one man’s life upside down and serve as an instrument of grace in dramatic ways among thousands of people in locales quite unfamiliar to him.
In the winter of 2002, I was taken from my comfortable life as library director for Bethel Seminary of the East to become chaplain for a civil affairs command with the United States Army in Baghdad. Instead of living in a suburban home outside of Philadelphia, I lived in World War II-era barracks with my bunk bed adjacent to a refrigerator. I shared a shower with 20 other men and stood in long lines to eat food foreign to my usual diet. I no longer worried about coordinating the colors of my clothing, because I wore a uniform just like the one all the other soldiers wore. My hair was cut short, I was told what to do every moment of the day by someone who was not related to me, and the lights were turned off at 11 p.m. and on again at 6 a.m. without my approval or disapproval!
Living the truth
As Peter and John approached the temple, they saw a crippled man begging at the gate. Most people entering the temple courtyard ignored the man, but the beggar persisted in hopes that someone would feel sorry for him and drop a few coins into his hand. Peter saw a man who was unable to work, who was considered a burden to society. But Peter also saw a man who was loved by God so much that His Son died for him. The disciple stopped in front of the beggar and looked directly into his face. He had no money, he told the man, but he would share what he did have. In the power of the name of Jesus Christ, he commanded the beggar to walk, and then helped him to his feet. Leaping and shouting, this man who had been lame from birth now gave Peter an opportunity to share the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with thousands of curious onlookers in the temple courtyard, and to hundreds of religious and political leaders of Israel.
I, too, have enjoyed incredible opportunities to live as an imitator of Jesus Christ before the many soldiers who surrounded me while I have served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. I constantly rubbed shoulders with men and women whose lives had been dramatically disrupted by the global war on terror. People reacted in different ways to the challenges of Army life, but they looked to me for comfort, for encouragement, and for an example of how to cope in trying times. But I could not do it on my own strength. Daily I drew upon the power of the name of Jesus Christ as I allowed Him to speak through me in ways that were both exciting and frightening.
Make me an instrument
Lyn Brown and Sadam
Hussein in Baghdad
The apostle Peter became a giant voice for God in the early church because
he decided to be used of God no matter where he was or where he had to
go. He saw people in need and was moved by God to perform miracles, speak
truth to thousands, and lead a movement that shook the civilized Roman
world to its core.
I never dreamed I would travel to Baghdad to minister to the 125 members of my Army unit and to civilians from around the world. I never thought I would become the financial advisor for the new Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport and the new Iraqi Olympic Committee. I never imagined I would so often play my keyboard during memorial services for American, South African, British, and Iraqi soldiers and civilians, or that I would baptize a man in the swimming pool behind the Republican Palace before a curious crowd of sunbathers and other onlookers. Each Sunday I spoke and played the keyboard at three chapel services filled with Christians and seekers from all over the globe. What an incredible experience it was to hear testimonies from Iraqis and members of the Coalition, and to sing praises to God in a marble edifice previously occupied by Saddam Hussein.
But the most amazing thing is that I was constantly led to stop and talk with Iraqis working at the Coalition Provisional Authority. I learned their names, became a part of their lives, and shared Jesus Christ by distributing DVDs and Arabic Bibles. Muslim Iraqis wondered why I cared about them, why I spoke to them in Arabic, why I was concerned about their safety.
Outside the comfort zone
In my continuing duties as library director for Bethel Seminary of the East, I travel to four different areas along our nation’s East Coast. In New York City, I walk down the street from the church where our New York Center meets and hear more than a dozen different languages spoken. I frequent a local deli that employs workers from India. The staff at a nearby Chinese restaurant always makes a point of finding the manager’s wife to speak to me in English. Do I ignore these people who surround me, or avoid looking them in the eye because they are different? Not a chance!
In my duties as a reserve chaplain in the United States Army, I have walked down streets in many other parts of the world. God has stretched my wife Kathy and me to do and say things that we would not naturally do. I often have been physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted, but God has never let me be overwhelmed.
I continue to speak with my Iraqi and Coalition friends in other lands by email and telephone. Our smiles, our friendly touches, and our sincere greetings are just a small part of the joy we continue to experience as we serve our loving God in the power of the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ. •
Lt. Col. Lyn Brown Lyn Brown is library director
for Bethel Seminary of the East and a Reserve chaplain for the U.S.
Army. Currently in metro Washington D.C. under orders to study the
Arabic language, Lyn expects to ship back to Baghdad in 2006. In the
meantime, his wife Kathy serves as library assistant for Bethel Seminary
of the East and watches over the couple’s
Philadelphia home front. Their son Chris teaches high school math in
mainland China, and daughter Deanna is a junior at the Bethel University
College of Arts & Sciences.