In early 2010, I joined Shane Claiborne, journalist Greg Barrett, and others on a return trip to Rutbah, Iraq. Barrett later published his account as The Gospel of Rutba: War, Peace and the Good Samaritan Story in Iraq.

These are my contemporaneous journals from that trip. The Christian God is a public God—read these as primary sources and draw your own conclusions about what happened and who (or what) I am.