by Bashar Mouchi

Growing Up in Iraq

My name is Bashar Mouchi, and I want to share how God’s grace forever changed my life.

I was born in 1990 in Baghdad, Iraq, and raised in an Assyrian Catholic home. When I was a child, my dad was serving in the army under Saddam Hussein’s regime, while my mom, my younger brother, and I lived with my grandparents in the city.

In 1996, my dad managed to escape from the army. He crossed the heavily guarded borders and mountains — that’s a story in itself! He made it safely to Lebanon, hoping to get us out of Iraq because of the war. We sold everything we had and paid all our money to a smuggler who brought us out of Iraq into Syria, and from there to Lebanon, where we were finally reunited with my dad. We stayed in Lebanon for three years before immigrating to Canada — to Vancouver, British Columbia — in the year 2000 for a better life. I was about ten years old.

Escaping War and Finding a New Life in Canada

My parents struggled in their marriage. Despite the love they had for me and my brother, things were not working out between them. They divorced about a year after we arrived in Canada. My brother and I were placed in foster care for six months until my mom won custody of us. My dad eventually remarried and started a new family in Ontario, while my mom remained single and raised us.

I went to school in Vancouver and quickly made friends. Making friends wasn’t hard, but choosing the right ones was my problem.

Trouble at Home and in School

In high school (Vancouver Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School), my friends and I started skipping classes. Then we started smoking marijuana, and soon I was addicted. Later came the house parties, drinking, and experimenting with harder drugs — prescription pills and cocaine.

Because I didn’t take school seriously, I gained nothing from it. My careless lifestyle kept me far from schoolwork and anything good. I started selling drugs to make money to support my heavy party lifestyle — first marijuana, then trafficked in harder drugs like crack and heroin from the “dope house” we ran.

I’ll be honest — I made a lot of money for a time. I had a nice car, fancy clothes, and expensive jewelry. I thought I was living the good life. I started doubting that there was even a God because I was doing everything I wanted to in living my life of sin, and everything was going fine without God. I told myself, “I don’t need God — my life is fine without Him.” But really, I was saying, “There’s no God for me.”

Down the Road of Addiction and Crime

After years of heavy drug use and wild parties at nightclubs and everything that went along with that lifestyle, I got addicted to heroin through opioid pills. I went from selling drugs for money to selling them just to feed my own addiction.

Then one day, the police raided our dope house. The whole operation was taken down. And then came the inevitable day when I found myself standing in front of a judge for the crime of drug trafficking. I was sentenced to 16 months at the Fraser Regional Correctional prison.

Behind Bars and Broken Inside

I still remember my first night in that prison cell. My body was going through horrible withdrawals — what we called being “dope sick.” It felt like the flu, but ten times worse than any flu. Lying there, sick and broken, I started thinking about God — but I was angry at Him. I felt like shaking my fist at Him, saying, “Why would You put me here?” I thought of all the times my father took my brother and me to church when we were young, where we kneeled and prayed the rosary. But now I felt God had completely forgotten me.

Little did I know, God was actually working in my life and breaking me down — showing me how much I needed Him.

God Working in My Heart

Months went by. I got healthier, no longer going through withdrawals. I found out I was eligible for parole and applied. Seven months into my prison time, I was accepted for parole with certain conditions: I’d have to live in a halfway house, attend rehab programs, and take job training.

After my parole interview, I went back to my cell and told my cellmate I was getting out soon. He looked at me and said something I’ll never forget:

“Mouchi, there are two types of people who come to jail — those who keep coming back, and those who never come back.”

That stuck in my head. I had seen guys get out and come back a month later because they had committed another crime. I didn’t want that to be me. But I didn’t know how I was going to change. I planned to stay out of trouble just long enough to finish parole — and then return to my old group of friends and perhaps do things a little differently — “do things smarter.” The reality was — I was so deep into the lifestyle of “living in the fast lane” and partying with the people I was always with, that I couldn’t imagine another life.

A Second Chance After Prison

In 2018, I got out of jail and started working at Cascadia Metals through the parole program as a warehouse employee in the ‘shipping and receiving’ department. It was my first real job. Before that, I’d only ever made money through crime.

One day at work, I met an older man named Earl Ritchie and later found out he was the owner of the company. He was friendly and down-to-earth. I learned he was a Christian who would often walk around the warehouse talking to the workers and inviting them to gospel meetings at West Richmond Gospel Hall. One day he invited me too. I didn’t really want to go, but I didn’t want to be rude either, so I said, “I’ll try.”

An Invitation That Changed Everything

Eventually, I went to one of the meetings. I don’t remember everything that was preached that night, but the preacher — a man named Brody Thibodeau — kept talking about a place called Calvary. I didn’t know what Calvary meant, but I could tell it was important. He mentioned the word over and over again. I would later learn just how important Calvary was.

What really stood out to me that night wasn’t just the preaching, but the people. The believers there had peace and joy — something I didn’t have. My friends from the streets were always full of problems, anger, and trouble. Some were facing jail sentences, and others were involved in gang wars and violent crimes. But these Christians were different. There was peace among them, and that’s what I really wanted. They were so kind and welcoming. That’s what kept me coming back.

I started attending regularly, but I was too ashamed to tell them about my past and the crimes that landed me in jail.

As I kept attending meetings, I noticed everyone brought a Bible and actually read and studied it. I had never seen that before. The more I listened, the more I learned. From the Bible, I learned that every person, regardless of their lifestyle, had the problem of sin, and if never forgiven, the consequences would be Hell and the Lake of Fire. I realized that’s where I was heading if I didn’t take my sin seriously.

But I also heard that Jesus Christ was the only One who could mediate between man and God — not saints, not Mary, not anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus Himself said:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Trying to Be a Better Person

Even though I was learning many things from the Bible, I still thought I had to earn salvation by being good, following the Ten Commandments, going to meetings, reading the Bible, and doing good things. I did all of this, but no matter how hard I tried, I failed.

The Christians didn’t know about my dark past. They just saw a young man trying to be a really good person. A Christian told me that keeping God’s commandments would not get me to Heaven, and I was in disbelief when he told me that. How could a God who’s so Holy and righteous not require people to live up to His standard as a condition for making it to Heaven?

Despite the many self-improvements I tried to make, I still failed. I became depressed and hopeless. I would listen to others tell how they were saved, and some of them were much younger than I was. I was thirty and had done time in jail, and I thought — really, I will never be able to make it to Heaven. I was trying so hard, but I failed to live up to God’s law, the Ten Commandments. I hated myself for failing to live up to God’s standards. I cried many nights, feeling like there was no way out.

Discovering Grace at Calvary

I was so miserable that I thought there was no point in ever going back to listen to the Word of God being discussed and preached. I was just going to end up in Hell. I had absolutely no peace — just the heavy burden of my sins.

Then one night, at a Bible Study, I heard this verse:

“For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God—not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

That word grace hit me hard. I began to understand what it meant. God’s grace was what happened at Calvary — when Jesus Christ died for my sins. He knew everything I had done — doing drugs all those nights, ripping off people for their money, my crimes, my lies — and yet He was willing to hang on the cross and die for me.

Grace is something that I could never imagine! Why would God ever extend grace to me, living as an enemy of God, and loving me despite my sinful life and yet be willing to die to save me from the burden of sin that I was unable to get rid of myself?

On February 3rd, 2022, I finally put my full trust and faith in what Jesus did on the cross. I believed that His finished work was enough to save me from my sins. I broke into tears that night in bed and thanked God for His mercy and the love He had for me. No longer was I depending on my own failed efforts to work my way to Heaven. I depended on the work Christ finished at Calvary for me.

For the first time in my life, I had peace — real peace, and I knew that because of Christ I would be in Heaven. I was set free from sin and the shame I had carried for so many years.

A New Life Worth Living

The next morning, driving to work, I felt a peace and joy I had never known before. I loved the Lord for what He did for me, and I wanted to live to honour Him — not to earn Heaven, but because He had already saved me. Out of gratitude, my desire now was to please Him.

I quit drinking and smoking completely. Later, I learned that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I didn’t want to defile that temple where Christ now lives. I was a new person because Christ lives in my heart.

God’s grace changed my life completely. I wasn’t ashamed anymore of my past because Jesus took all my shame and nailed it to the cross. I told the believers at West Richmond everything, and they rejoiced because they had been praying for me.

Not Ashamed to be Identified with Christ

Soon after, I was baptized to show publicly that my old life was buried with Christ and that I now walk in newness of life. My mom and family came to see it. My mom, being Catholic, asked why I wanted to be baptized again. I told her, “Because I now know what Jesus did for me — He died for me even when I didn’t deserve it.”

It was a wonderful day — to have my family and the believers there, rejoicing together. God’s grace truly changed my life.

And now, my desire is to always tell others about the amazing grace that saved me. I want others to know that the same grace can save them, too. I look forward to that glad day when I will see my Saviour, Jesus Christ, face to face — because that’s where I’ll be.