Taking God's love abroad from Jackson to Iraq

Area soldiers serving in Iraq aren't just spreading lessons about freedom, but also friendship and faith to the Iraqi people they meet.

One Jackson soldier's desire to help change the lives of the Iraqis he meets has helped his church learn more about missions and ministry.

Chad Craft, a master sergeant with the 1140th Engineer Battalion, helped develop Operation Crossroads, a project that distributes sandals and soccer balls to Iraqi children in the southern part of the country.

Craft is a member of CrossRoads Fellowship, a contemporary Baptist church in Jackson. Since he's been deployed to Iraq, he regularly keeps his family and church friends informed about his activities through messages posted to a members-only Web site.

Those messages helped spur this project, which takes its name from the church.

Craft's e-mails started simply as updates on how the troops were doing. Four men with connections to the church are serving with the 1140th. And as he shared more about his work and what life was like in Iraq, the idea for Operation Crossroads developed.

The plan is simple. Church members donate items like harmonicas, soccer balls, needles and air pumps, bubble gum and flip-flops that are sent to Iraq. Craft and his unit then distribute the items to the Iraqi children, many of whom didn't have shoes and were walking barefoot through the streets and in raw sewage.

Just before Easter, Craft had received 618 soccer balls, three packages each of gum and balloons, and 15 pairs of sandals. His wife, Missy, takes the collections from church each week and ships them to Iraq in small quantities. The shipping requirements are fairly strict so she tries to send several smaller boxes instead of one giant box. She estimated that about 250 sandals have been collected so far.

A human side to the warThe first packages were shared with Bedouin tribes, nomadic people who had set up camps near the American troops' base. In his message posted May 24 to the CrossRoads site, Craft wrote about the first distribution.

"It was a short day, and we only managed to hand out about 40 to 50 pairs of shoes, some sunglasses and about 20 soccer balls. We had a short day because we had to work around our interpreter's schedule, and he has a tight timeline to meet in order to catch a form of public transportation back to his hometown. We did brighten the days of numerous Iraqi families. ..."

Operation Crossroads helps put a human side to the war and unrest in Iraq, Missy Craft said. "You can lose sight of the fact that these kids are just like our kids but they live without or with so much less."

The project has grown so quickly since its beginning, as people share it with co-workers, neighbors and friends. Donations have come from schoolchildren in Jackson, businesses and even from a group in Perryville, Mo.

"This is something Chad wants to try to continue throughout his deployment," Missy Craft said. "It's not just something we did for Easter or a couple of weeks. We're here to do good and are making a difference in these people's lives, even if it's with one pair of sandals."

Many church members have been excited about the project and its impact, both at home and in Iraq. Missy Craft said she's heard from people who like seeing a different side of Iraq compared to what they see on TV.

Operation Crossroads shows people a little bit about the "daily normal lifestyle that takes place over there," she said.

In a message posted June 9, Chad Craft wrote, "Every day things get just a little better for the Iraqi people ... every day they understand a little more about freedom."

And perhaps one Jackson church has learned more about faith and friendship in the process.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126