Safest Place in Iraq
Date
2016-01-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
While deployed to a small coalition-led Forward Operating Base as a chaplain in the
spring and summer of 2007, Chaplain Paul Linzey experienced the danger of war, the
loneliness of being away from home, and the exhilaration of watching up close as God
answered prayer, changed lives, and performed miracles. After asking to go to Iraq, he
was assigned to Camp Echo, just outside the city of Ad Diwaniyah. There hadn’t been a
chaplain there during three years of war. The author and his Chaplain Assistant had to
start from scratch and lay a foundation for ministry. Heat, danger, dust, and death formed
the context for the ministry the 52-year-old was sent to do. His job was to establish a
religious program. There was no chapel, no office, no phone, and no internet connection
designated for a Religious Support Team. There were no Bibles, literature, or supplies.
Operating from his philosophy that “ministry follows friendship,” Linzey built
relationships among the men and women, military and civilian, American and Coalition.
This allowed him to be there when people were at their best and at their worst, in their
strongest and weakest moments. This is the story of what happened in his life and theirs.
Drawing on personal experience, he creates a narrative of war that is different than
you’ve ever heard or read.
Description
item.page.type
Thesis
item.page.format
Keywords
Novel, War, Iraq