Sam came to Australia as an Assyrian refugee from Iraq. He was born into the Church of the East tradition, and finished high school in Baghdad. He studied a Bachelor of Technology (Electrical, Electronics) at UWS Nepean (now Western Sydney University), graduating in 2003. During Study and after graduation, he worked with global software companies for 17 years primarily as a Sales Engineer at companies like IBM. Along the way, he completed half of a graduate Diploma in Divinity at SMBC. It was after his graduation from UWS that he came to faith, or in his words, ‘faith’ came to him:
“I didn’t make a commitment to Christ, rather he came to my rescue in a hotel room in Manila (Philippines) in August of 2005 at the lowest point of my life. He rescued my life and opened my eyes to the Bible to see how he loved before I even was. How can I not love a God like that?”
He has been married to his “godly wife Tania” since 2000 and they’ve been blessed with three children, Grace, Marcus and Matthew.
“Financially, God our Heavenly Father, provided for my fulltime study and the needs of our family through many generous people and God’s miraculous provision in varied ways. We’ve made some decisions including selling our properties, paying off our debts, cancelling our credit cards and not buying anything with debt money. This is how we now live as people who have put on the shoes of readiness to serve God wherever He sends us.”
“There have been many highlights at College, but the fellowship with the students and faculty at Moore has been wonderful, which I expect will continue into eternity. I have also learned a lot in languages, philosophy, ethics, and history. My time here has refined and confirmed the theology that leads me daily to doxology.”
“In parallel to College, I was blessed with solid teaching at Hoxton Park Anglican under Rev. David Clarke since 2011, and at St. Thomas’ Anglican with the ministry team under Simon Manchester. I had numerous opportunities for ministry involvement at Church, Moore College and elsewhere.”
“I am currently serving as the Multicultural Assistant Minister at St. Barnabas Church in Fairfield and Bossley Park. We have since started two additional church gatherings, one in Assyrian and the other in Arabic and I assist in both. We do a lot of work using social media for evangelism with a variety of programs targeting Middle Eastern people who speak Assyrian or Arabic with a global reach.”
