Serving in the oldest inhabited city in the world

by Joe Carroll

My name is Joe. My wife’s name is Andie. We have two sons: Peter (4) and Noah (1). I grew up in a strong Christian home where my parents were faithful to lead family devotions each evening and ensure we were involved in the life of the church. By God’s grace, he caused me to be born again at a young age. When people ask me how I discerned my call, it starts with my family’s faithful teaching of the Word in the home and their love for the church. I remember my family supported many different missionaries, and we would host missionaries when they were on their stateside visits. So from a young age, learning God’s Word in the home, being a part of a church that was active in mission work, and having parents that actively supported and prayed for missionaries taught me the importance of spreading the gospel.

I went to LeTourneau University and studied mechanical engineering. There I had several Christian professors who invested in me spiritually and discipled me. After benefiting from their investment, I wanted to be like them and teach at a university level, as I saw it as a great mentorship opportunity with students. So, I moved to Starkvegas in 2010 to start my Ph.D. studies in mechanical engineering. I had one friend at MSU who was attending First Baptist Starkville, and he invited me to come to church with him. Soon after I started attending First Baptist Starkville, Jody Ray and Scott Edwards started a graduate school Sunday school class, which became a family for me. Their hospitality and investment in that class helped me love First Baptist Starkville.

Around this same time, my friend and I began getting to know international students on campus with the intention of sharing the gospel with them. We would invite our international friends to church, and many of them loved coming, at first just for a cultural experience, but then later they loved to hear the gospel of Christ and see the love of Christ among his people. As we developed friendships, we started an evangelistic Bible study with a group of students, many of whom, by God’s grace, came to believe in Christ.

In 2012, halfway through my Ph.D. studies, I married my wife, Andie. She and I intentionally chose to live in an apartment complex with many international students with the hope of evangelism among them. We found another believing family who lived in that complex, and with them, we hosted a Bible study for people in the complex every Friday night. It was a ministry of hospitality and the Word. Through these evangelistic Bible studies and the church’s ministry, we learned more about the power of God’s word to change people’s lives.

During these years of ministry among international students, we realized that most international students had never known a believing friend who could explain the glories of the gospel to them before they moved to the United States. We also grew in our love for the church. Anything the church would offer, we would go to. We became connected with people of all ages in the church and experienced being sharpened and spurred on by older saints in the church. From this experience, coupled with the fact that the scriptures clearly call believers to make disciples of all nations, my wife and I decided to seek to use my degree to get a job in a part of the world where the gospel was less accessible. But was that something that we should actually do? If so, where should we go? And how?

We talked with Nathan Taylor about our interest in moving overseas, and he connected us with Jay and Melissa Reed, who had served for many years in the Middle East. They graciously met with us many times and shared about the realities, trials, and joys of ministry overseas. Our time with them gave us a more realistic view of the tasks and hardships of moving across cultures for the gospel, but it also gave us a greater sense of urgency to work where the gospel is less known.

We didn’t know where to go, but I remember Jay telling us, “You could go to a lot of places, but if you’re willing to live in the Middle East, you should go there because not many people are willing or able to live there long term.” That comment convinced us to go to the Middle East. But how would we get there? I began searching online and applying for mechanical engineering assistant professor job postings. I was shortlisted for a job at a university in Iraq, interviewed via Skype, was offered the job, accepted it, and moved to Iraq in 2014.

As I look back on that time, it’s amazing that we moved. We didn’t know anybody in the city we were going to. We were going by ourselves, and it was also the time that ISIS had just taken over much of Iraq. Despite this, the Lord took great care of us.

When we went to Iraq, we didn’t have a long-term mindset, but we were open handed. I had a three-year contract at the university, so we planned to work for three years and see what the Lord had next. Our plan was to find a local church, join it, and seek to minister to students as much as we could. I was going to be working full-time at an English-speaking university, so I was only able to devote a little bit of time to language learning at the beginning. However, we did commit to doing our best at language learning because of a conversation we had with Jay Reed at our little apartment in Starkville before moving to Iraq. Jay had asked me if we planned to learn the local language. I said, “No, I’ll be working full-time at an English-speaking university.” Jay said, “That’s the wrong answer. You must learn the language as much as you can.” I’m so thankful he told me that; more on that later.

By God’s grace, there was another believing professor at my university, and he invited us to church with him. It was the only English-speaking church in our city. It was a small congregation, about 50 people, but very diverse. There were about 20 nationalities represented in that small congregation. The church was young, needed help, and had many rough spots. It wasn’t as organized as First Baptist Starkville, but it was full of God’s people. We committed ourselves to loving and serving that church.

After two years in Iraq, the pastor of the church moved away, and the church asked me to serve as the interim pastor. Honestly, when they asked me, I was terrified, and I didn’t know much about what to do as an interim pastor. But prayerfully, I agreed to take the interim pastor position as I saw the greatest and most lasting thing I could give my life to in Iraq was building a church that could proclaim the gospel beyond my lifetime. The Lord was gracious to provide other faithful saints in that church who helped carry the preaching and ministry load. I continued working full-time at the university through this time and served in the interim role for a year before calling another head pastor.

What was a short three-year plan has grown. I worked for six years at the university, and eventually, the church asked me to serve on staff as an associate pastor to seek to plant a church in the local language. In 2020 I left my job at the university, came on staff at our church, and have worked more specifically in learning the local language since then. We didn’t move to Iraq to go into pastoral ministry or seek to plant a church in the local language.

But the Lord had other plans.