We thank God that in 2015 we received a donation from

BWA. That support came in at the right time when lots of people were fleeing. As a result we were able to support some of the IDPs including some of our Baptist ministers in the IDP camps and refugees in Kakuma in Kenya and a refugee camp in Uganda. What the BWA did helped us a lot. Especially in a time of desperation it gave us hope. The amount of people helped was about 12,000.

The only hope for South Sudan, the only way peace will come, is when there’s genuine repentance.

The civil war that brought independence started from 1955 and

went until 1972. There was a break of 10 years but the struggle for liberation started again, which brought independence in 1983 and then it went way back into 2005. The reason for the political fight at the time was because the

people of South Sudan were marginalized by the north. That’s one. Two, there was also something to do with the religious practices because in the north Christians were not permitted to worship God freely. We knew that what was happening in the north would one day engulf the entire nation so people of South Sudan began to resist. That’s what gave birth to a new nation.

Baptist Beginnings in South Sudan

Baptists came to South Sudan in three ways. In 1995 some Baptists came through Ethiopia, crossed over to Gambella and went to Nasir. They started some work there and then pulled back. Another Baptist work was started by South Sudanese in Rumbek in 1995. These South Sudanese were sent by Kenyan Baptists in collaboration with the IMB (International Mission Board) of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The third set of Baptists came via Uganda. I am from the Ugandan

side. We were South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. We encountered a Baptist, somebody from among the Southern Baptists, who had a theological school in Jinja, Uganda. I, along with a brother named David Kaya, enrolled in the school in January 1999. From there we came through Kajo Keji to start churches, and then we moved on to Nimule.

Churches from the three groups now make up the Baptist Convention of South Sudan. There are now 176 churches in the convention with 12 from the Ethiopian side and 10 from the Kenyan side. Most of the churches comprise refugees. I am a church planter. I planted multiple churches. Even though I am the convention president and pastor of a local church, I go out to the villages to plant churches.

What the BWA did helped us a lot. Especially in a time of desperation it gave us hope. The convention was formed in 2007 at the first assembly in

Rumbek. I was elected vice president at that first assembly and president at the second assembly in 2011. We also have a general secretary. None of these positions are paid. We are all church pastors. The 176 pastors in our convention were trained at the discipleship

center in Kajo Keji, some in the local language. We send some pastors to study in Uganda at the Uganda Baptist Seminary and the Global Theological Seminary. Others are trained at the Kenya Baptist Theological Seminary. We have wonderful disciples in the south who are from the north.

These people are planting churches among the Muslims. There is a church planter in Juba who works among the Darfurians and the Nuba. There are Baptist churches in the refugee camps in South Sudan for Sudanese from the Arab north who fled to the south for their lives.

My hope and prayer is to see South Sudan become peaceful. I hope

that the people of South Sudan will turn to God, that hopelessness will end, that they will recover from all the trauma from the massive killings, that they will look to and focus on God, looking onto God alone. That is the only hope for South Sudan.

Edward Dima is president of the Baptist Convention of South Sudan. This article contains excerpts of an interview by Eron Henry.

26 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE