✈️ Soldier Who Helped Capture Saddam Hussein Leads Aviation Ministry 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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EDMOND, Okla. — U.S. Army soldier.
Republican congressman.
Southern Baptist pastor.
That was the career path of former U.S. Rep. Steve Russell.
But then Russell was recruited in 2022 to lead a North Carolina-based international ministry known as JAARS — which stands for Jungle Aviation and Relay Service.
At first, the retired lieutenant colonel — who wrote a memoir about his role in the 2003 capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — brushed aside the idea.
“I thought it was absolutely absurd,” said Russell, 62, an Oklahoma native who previously served as executive pastor for First Southern Baptist Church of Del City, where he developed his faith as a teen.
“I had jungle stories, but they weren’t jungle missionary stories,” he explained. “I had my pilot license, but they didn’t need my flying skill. And so we didn’t think it would happen.”
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Russell serves as president and CEO of Jungle Aviation and Relay Service, an international ministry based in North Carolina. (Photo provided by Steve Russell)
Still, Russell showed his wife, Cindy — whom he met as a student at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and married in 1985 — the email from the head of the search committee.
“She could have said, ‘Are you nuts? … We’re finally home,’” he recalled, referring to the family’s frequent military moves before returning to Oklahoma, where their children and grandchildren and his parents lived.
Instead, she said, “It might be exciting.”
Cindy Russell nodded affirmatively while listening to her husband tell the story.
“What’s more exciting than to see the hand of God working?” she interjected. “I feel like, what an honor.”
Steve Russell’s journey to serving as president and CEO of JAARS began when he formed a faith-based nonprofit called the Redeemed Flying Corps in 2020.
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Russell, pictured with his wife, Cindy, has a pilot’s license but was surprised by the opportunity to lead an international aviation ministry. (Photo provided by Steve Russell)
That humble effort put him on the radar of JAARS, founded 78 years ago. In October 2022, Steve and Cindy relocated to the Charlotte area, where the aviation ministry’s Waxhaw, North Carolina, headquarters covers 630 acres and boasts 525 staff members and four airstrips.
JAARS — as its website describes it — “covers the last mile of missions, using special-purpose aircrafts, boats and off-road vehicles so that unreached people can experience God’s Word and His love.”
I caught up with the Russells recently while they were back in Oklahoma meeting with potential ministry supporters and visiting with family members.
I talked with Steve about his life, his faith and his work with JAARS. These highlights from our interview have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity:
On why he chose to attend Ouachita Baptist University on an ROTC scholarship
“God had always wired me to be a soldier. I was always interested in military things. So I thought, ‘How do you reconcile soldiering with gospel ministry?’ So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll be a chaplain.’
“But I later learned that they don’t recruit chaplains off of four-year Army scholarships. They recruited them right out of seminary. So I became an infantryman instead.
“But I really looked at the military as a ministry. I had access, as an infantryman, to people that no chaplain would really ever have a strong bond with.”
Pilatus Porters of YAJASI, a member of the JAARS Alliance serving Papua, Indonesia, are shown at a remote location. A Cessna Caravan can be seen in the back. (Photo provided by Steve Russell)
On how the capture of Saddam Hussein impacted his life and faith
“Those events altered the course of my life. I commanded one of the units that was heavily involved in the hunting and the capture. That was not the only unit, but I commanded one of them.
“And we were involved in the hunt literally from May 2003 until we got him on Dec. 13, 2003. I remember the night after he was captured, just after everything had kind of settled down. It was very, very early on the morning of the 14th.
“I just looked up at the stars and said, ‘Lord, I don’t know why I was involved in any of this, but please use it for good.’ And he has.”
Steve Russell, left, president and CEO of Jungle Aviation and Relay Service, flies on a faith-based mission. (Photo provided by Bobby Ross Jr.)
On his four years in Congress, which ended with his upset defeat in the 2018 midterms
“I did a lot of national security work and traveled all over the world. I would go to dangerous places because of my background and met with a lot of foreign ministers and defense ministers. So I loved the work. But I hated the nonsense.
“What do I mean by that? I never really looked at Congress as anything other than a continued service to the country. God had given me a great gift as a young man in participating in something very historical and major.
“I was never a good fundraiser. I was terrible at it. It was everything your mama told you not to do — to go ask people for money.
“I mean, it’s one thing to say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this ministry or this project, would you support that?’ … But politics, it’s like, ‘Yeah, give your money to me so I can go represent you.’ That’s a tough sale, and it’s not a fun sale.”
Steve Russell poses with a security guard on a Jungle Aviation and Relay Service trip to the village of Biri, in Papua, Indonesia. The nonprofit was unloading supplies and delivering a translator to the village. (Photo provided by Steve Russell)
On JAARS’ work to take the Christian gospel to places where the people often have no Bible in their native language
“We’re not the translators, but we can get the translators where they need to go.
“We get linguists in there. They will learn the language. They develop the alphabet for that language. They phoneticize the language. They teach literacy of their own language to people.
“Then they begin to translate the four Gospels. Then they build out from there until they have a New Testament. And then they build out from there until they have a full Bible.
“Now, the 30 seconds that it took to say that literally could take 30 years. It’s a relational gospel, and it’s not quick. All this fuss about AI taking everybody’s job. Not these. It’s not going to happen.
“I mean, AI can help in the linguistic unraveling. But AI is not going to land in a remote jungle mountain strip and live among dark animist beliefs and very dark places.
“AI’s not going to do anything for that. Human beings still need each other. Christ died for all of us. He commands us to go after the one out of the 99, and that’s what we do at JAARS.”
Bobby Ross Jr., right, interviews Steve and Cindy Russell at a coffee shop in Edmond, Oklahoma. (Photo provided by Bobby Ross Jr.)
On how tariffs are affecting mission work around the work
“With tariffs, if you go around poking people in the eye, they’re going to poke back. So, if you’re thinking, ‘We’re going to slap a 25% to 50% tariff on all your goods,’ they’re going to be like, ‘So are we.’
“We were two weeks out from deploying a Cessna Caravan (an aircraft known for its ‘rugged utility and flexibility,’ according to the manufacturer) to a very needed remote outpost in Indonesia. And when the tariffs hit with that country, they were like, ‘Yeah, you can bring it here for a million dollars.’
“Well, we don’t have a million dollars to pay a tax or a fine or whatever. And then really, Indonesia would not be paying that tariff. We would. So that is just an example of how that has worked on missions.
“I’m not making any judgments on economies or politics. I’m healed of that. But I can tell you how it has affected our ability to move assets and aircraft and people.
“Visas? I mean, you go around banning people — and a whole bunch in Africa just got shortlisted. You know, ‘we’re not going to allow your people in here.’ We’re doing mission work in those countries. Well, guess what they’ve done?
“So people don’t think about those secondary and tertiary effects on good works, be it humanitarian work or our work, which is much more important because it’s about eternal life and how to have redemption through Jesus Christ.
“You always have some geopolitical impact on the work. That’s not changed, all the way back to the apostle Paul or Christ himself. So it is just the environment that you learn to maneuver around.”
Steve Russell, president and CEO of JAARS, is pictured in Peru this week, visiting with the Quechuan people. (Photo provided by Steve Russell)
Inside The Godbeat
At last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump characterized House Speaker Mike Johnson as “a very religious person.”
“He does not hide it,” Trump said of Johnson, who has deep roots in the Southern Baptist Convention. “He’ll say to me sometimes at lunch, ‘Sir, may we pray?’ I’ll say, ‘Excuse me? We’re having lunch. It’s OK with me.’”
The president’s remarks reminded me of a column I wrote in 2001: Not long after I became religion editor for The Oklahoman, I confessed my repeated faux pas biting into my lunch before a friend or source would say, “Shall we bless the food?”
Oops.
The Final Plug
I’d never met or interviewed Steve Russell until I connected with him for this week’s column.
I did write a news story for Religion News Service on an interfaith service held to bless Democrat Kendra Horn, who unseated Russell in the 2018 midterms.
Looking back on his loss, Russell cited a funding disadvantage and a lack of attention by the national GOP to a seat that Republicans had held for 44 years. (Rep. Stephanie Bice, now in her third term, returned Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District to GOP control two years later.)
“It was hard after that loss,” Russell told me. “You’re still human, even though you’re a member of Congress.”
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.