Meet Cosmas - Country Director of South Sudan!
Cosmas’ earliest lessons in leadership began in the village, long before he ever imagined the weightier responsibilities he would one day carry. At just seven years old, he was entrusted with his family’s flock—more than 200 goats and sheep. Shepherding was both joy and challenge. He remembers running barefoot through the fields, half-dressed and laughing as he chased after the animals. Yet it was also a role marked by hardship: waterborne diseases, cuts from thorns, punishment when stubborn goats strayed into neighbors’ crops, and the daily risks of protecting his flock.
Still, even as a child, Cosmas learned the reward of responsibility. Watching the goats grow strong and multiply, drinking fresh milk, and knowing he was safeguarding the family’s livelihood gave him a sense of pride and purpose. His mother had died when he was only six, and shepherding became not just his duty, but his first training ground in resilience, endurance, and the weight of leadership.
Years later, those same lessons would echo across his life and ministry.
South Sudan, the land he calls home, became the world’s youngest nation on July 9, 2011. But independence did not bring peace. Civil war, tribal violence, weak governance, and economic collapse have left deep scars. Millions are displaced, hunger is widespread, and even now, conflict and disease continue to ravage communities. Cosmas has seen this suffering firsthand.
He recalls meeting a widow with four children, her husband killed in the liberation struggles. With tears in her eyes, she asked him, “Where is God in our suffering and struggle?” Cosmas’s response was quiet but firm: God was with her—in the pain, in the uncertainty, in the very breath of her endurance.
Another time, a refugee in Uganda told him, “I am afraid we have lost our future and everything we worked so hard for. I just want peace… I don’t want my children to grow up like I did.” Again, Cosmas pointed her to the truth of Emmanuel—God with us—reminding her that faith sustains even in the bleakest places.
For Cosmas, leadership is not about escaping suffering but walking through it faithfully and showing others the way. He often reflects on Scripture: Paul’s reminder to rejoice in suffering (Romans 5:3; Colossians 1:24) and the promise that affliction prepares us for eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). These truths shape his leadership: suffering is not wasted—it refines, molds, and matures both leaders and their communities.
He sees this echoed in the story of his friend, Rev. Kato. Wrongfully imprisoned for three and a half years in Uganda, Kato endured injustice with faith. In that place of isolation, God prepared him for a ministry to inmates and prison officers—forgotten people who now hear the Gospel through his work. During Kato’s absence, leadership fell to his assistant pastor, Opi, a blind man who rose to the challenge. Against all odds, the church doubled in size. Suffering became the soil where new leadership took root.
Cosmas believes this is the paradox of leadership in South Sudan and beyond: hardship does not diminish true leaders—it shapes them. Just as his years as a barefoot shepherd prepared him for life’s trials, the suffering of today is forging leaders who can endure, inspire, and guide others.
“Leadership,” he often says, “is not measured by how easy the path is, but by how we endure the hardest roads with faith and joy. Even in weeping, we lead. Even in loss, we show the way forward. And in every season, God is with us.”