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Georges Hormis Sada was an air vice marshal in Saddam Hussein's military. By any standard, he was a success. His son became a doctor in the United Kingdom. His daughter is a teacher in Jordan. With a monthly salary of 1,000 Iraqi dinars—worth $3,300—he had a bank account worth over $3 million. "It was a great life," he says.

In a country that is 96 percent Muslim, Sada is a Presbyterian. Now retired, he is the president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches in Iraq.

Nearly two decades of war, crushing United Nations sanctions, and a regime willing to let its people suffer rather than comply with U.N. resolutions about its weapons programs have all contributed to the deaths of at least 1 million Iraqis. During this time, currency devaluation has shriveled Sada's bank account to the equivalent of $500.

Yet Sada, 62, deflects talk of leaving the country (although about one-third of the country's Christians emigrated during the 1990s). "We are praying very hard," he told Christianity Today magazine. "We know that one day our Lord will make it better."

According to Christian tradition, in the first century the apostle Thomas evangelized the region we today call Iraq. An estimated 600,000 Christians live in this country of 22 million people. By far the largest group is the Chaldean Catholic Church, followed by the Assyrian Church of the East (called the Nestorians by some), the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Protestants make up Iraq's smallest Christian group, but they have deep roots. Presbyterian missionaries came to Iraq in 1836, and there are currently five Presbyterian churches in the country with an estimated 3,000 members.

Marilyn Borst, an Atlanta-based missions promoter, has made four visits to Iraq since 1998 in her role as a leader of Evangelicals for Middle East Under-standing. She notes that three Presbyterian churches are in or next to the northern and southern no-fly zones patrolled by American and British pilots.

"I've heard the fighters there. I've heard the antiaircraft responses on the ground from the Iraqis. I've heard the air-raid warnings," Borst said. "So there is a great deal of fear."

Saying they trust in God's providence, Iraq's Presbyterians are continuing with worship, Sunday school, and youth meetings inside their buildings. Christians say the Iraqi president makes inexpensive building materials available to churches, gives land, and has even provided pipe organs.

"Far from repressing Christianity, the government of Iraq supports a multiplicity of religious expression, seeing this as a way of providing balance," Borst said.

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