CEDAR FALLS - It's a part of Iraq the American public rarely sees - where the vast majority or inhabitants are grateful to America, and confident and positive about their future

It's Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. Cedar Falls real estate developer Fred Rose saw it first-hand in April, on a church conference. The trip was given to him by the members of Heartland Vineyard Church, in gratitude for Rose helping to developing and locate their new church on Greenhill Road.

Rose was impressed with what he saw - a hopeful, industrious, friendly and grateful people.

"It changed my view completely," he said. "I actually knew nothing. I'm quite impressed with the possibilities for this part of the world, especially Kurdistan. The people we met and got to engage with, they have a strong desire to advance, to improve, to do better. I think they get it, as far as the need to have stability.

"They realize opening their society helps them to trade," Rose said. He saw major economic development, ranging from large-scale housing projects to a major airport expansion.

"They like Americans," Rose said. In a meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nerchivan Barzani, the leader "hung his head in humbleness and said 'Thank you.' "

"I was really impressed with the resources," Rose said. Kurdistan is a little more than half the size of Iowa, but has a substantial portion of Iraq's oil and other natural resources.

"Anybody who thinks we're evil as a nation should start thinking. We've gone in, our soldiers are dying. Have we taken any of that oil for ourselves?" Rose said. "If someone says we have, then prove it."

Though submachine guns were openly brandished by some of the Kurdish peshmerga guerrillas as a defensive measure, and Kurd motorists frequently drove aggressively, at high speeds and veering frequently as a learned hedge against attacks, Rose felt safe and noted several Kurd provinces have the lowest incidence of insurgent attacks across Iraq.

The people still have memories of the hard times, including the genocidal gassing of thousands of Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war in the late 1980s. He met a lady whose legs were still scarred from the gas attack.

Another lady "sat there and stared at me for a half hour across the dinner table. She finally got someone (an interpreter) to talk to me. Her husband and her son had been killed by Saddam (Hussein). She wanted me to know that. You looked at her eyes and you saw these deep, patient eyes. You could see the hurt."

Despite those memories, "There wasn't a lot of living in that," he said. "I would say they're looking forward."

"I was pretty amazed," he said. "I see a definite need for speaking English. They really want to learn English. Most everyone speaks a couple of languages anyway. They'll speak Arabic and then they'll speak Kurdish.

"We took cabs and got along famously with the cab driver. He didn't charge us. We gave money anyway. The last thing we wanted was the appearance of, 'all you Americans are takers.' We are guests in their country.

"They love Americans there," Rose said. "This kid walked out of this jewelry store, he was just 14, and he just brought out a bracelet, put it on my arm. They don't have a lot there, and I wanted to give him money, but people around him made it real clear he would be offended if you gave him money. It would be dishonoring to him. He just wanted to give me a gift."

Rose also was presented with the trip as a gift by the Heartland congregation because of his support for World Compassion - Terry Law Ministries, a nonprofit faith-based organization which helps indigenous people spread the Christian Gospel in disadvantaged parts of the world which are hard to access for Westerners. It is the same organization which brought retired Iraqi Gen. Georges Sada, a Christian since 1986, to speak at Heartland last year.

While Kurdistan is mostly Muslim, Rose said Christianity can trace its history there back to St. Thomas the Apostle, with an established Catholic and Assyrian Christian presence in addition to relatively newer evangelical denominations.

On Rose's trip, he heard religious conversion testimonies from a former smuggler and a former terrorist. He also met Fox News journalist Anita McNaught, who was covering the conference he attended.

Rose also noted that, while the Kurdish flag is prominent, the Iraqi national flag is not.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.