But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. Phil. 3:7-8

My name is Malath Yousif; I was born in 1977 in Iraq , Baghdad in a nominal Christian family. My family is still in Iraq ; my parents, two sisters and one brother. Only my sister and my brother are believers. In my childhood, I went to the church only on Christmas and Easter. I had no relationship with Jesus. I called myself Christian, but I had never met him. Growing up in this way, I always felt that I was missing something, but I did not realize what it was. I tried to make myself perfect, in the school, with my friends, in business, with my family and also with myself, but I failed. I kept committing sin, but nobody told me, “This is a sin.” When I was 21 years old and studying in college, one of my professors invited me with my friend to her office, and she started talking about Jesus as if he was he friend or family. She talked about him, how much he loves us and did so many things for us. She said that he is still caring for us, but I did not accept her message immediately. I wanted to read the Bible to check if she was right. When I secretly started to read the Bible, it was the first time in my life that the Word of God was alive. Something abnormal happened in my life. I mean to say that every thing changed. Day by day I read the Bible and prayed very simply. No one had taught me how to pray. Finally, his love rushed into me. Through the Bible, Jesus became my friend, Savior, and Lord. After that I started attending an evangelical church in Baghdad . In 2000 I became involved in a group of discipleship in the church and in the youth ministry. Gradually, I became one of the leaders in youth ministry. God gave us the vision that Iraq will be changed for him. Iraq will receive a visitation from the Lord. In Iraq we had only heard about the churches in America and Korea and other countries. When Saddam's regime was over in 2003, my church the Christian Missionary Alliance started officially. Previously, it was under ground from 1999. Almost simultaneously, another 10 evangelical churches started in Baghdad . At that time, I was serving God as assistant Pastor. I was involved in many services in the church. From 2003 to 2004 many groups of missionaries came to Iraq . One of them was the Korean group led by Pastor Samuel. However, within about a year most of the missionaries left Iraq because of the unstable security situation. The church in Iraq is young and needs missionaries. Keep on praying for Iraq and for the Iraqi people that the Lord may change this country by a special visit from the Holy Spirit. Anticipating this change, my church sent me to study theology in Korea in Torch Trinity and to come back to Iraq , my church, and my people better equipped to help them. Even though many families, including Christians, are leaving Iraq every day, we trust in God to fulfill the vision that He has given to the church in Iraq