What Men Intended for Evil, God Meant for Good

Edward Dima President of BCoSS

What Men Intended for Evil, God Meant for Good

Our on-the-field partner in our CRM related ministry is the young, but growing, Baptist Convention of South Sudan.  The president of this coalition of Baptist churches since 2011 is Edward Dima.  The picture to the left is of him holding some MP3 players we provided back in August of 2018.  Edward and his wife, Rose, have provided outstanding leadership for the convention, and having the privilege of working with him since 2011 has been a major encouragement in my life and ministry. His commitment to seeing that all Sudanese have an opportunity to hear the Gospel has inspired and challenged many.

However, like many of history's other outstanding Christian leaders, the character and qualities displayed through Edward and Rose's lives were forged on the anvil of hardship.  The main cause of their toughest hardships has been fighting and war within Sudan and Uganda.

Several years ago, Edward and Rose both told me stories connected with their growing up years which involved living in refugee camps.  Edward's own grandfather moved his family to a refugee camp in the mid-1950s after war broke out in Sudan in 1956.  Later on his father had to move him and his siblings into a refugee camp because of renewed fighting within Sudan.  Edward and Rose are currently on refugee status in Uganda, which means their children are fourth generation refugees.  What a sad and regrettable set of circumstances!  Rose and her family have actually lived on refugee status in both Uganda and S. Sudan.

However, all of those hardships did not lead them to be embittered.  Instead, God used what people intended for evil to produce within them a firm commitment and resolve to be used of Him to serve the suffering communities of both northern Uganda and Sudan.  As a result of living on both sides of the Uganda-Sudan border, they established a wide relationship network in both places.  Because of their commitment to the vision given to the Apostle John in Revelation 5:9-10, they have utilized that network to help both Sudanese and Ugandans do evangelism, plant churches, train disciples and start Bible schools.

While doing a mobilization ministry for the IMB, I studied factors which have impacted the willingness and ability of the American church to give money and personnel for taking the Gospel to the world's remaining least reached peoples.  One study I read had convincing proof that Americans gave more during the Great Depression than in the economic boom years of the 1990s.  This in terms of the percentage of both personal and church income.

God forbid that it require circumstances such have transpired in northern Uganda and Sudan over the last 6 decades to wake up His church in the USA.

Whatever happens here or anywhere in the world, God be praised for the hope inspired by the words of Joseph spoken in Genesis 50:20 "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."   (NIV)

David