It is such a hard situation, to sleep while the weapon is in your hand, and next to you lies your wife with a cleaver in her hand, but this represented our daily reality, and there was a single solution for our situation, which brought family peace and brought me success.
My wife is my dilemma:
My name is Servino Osic Modisto, I have a military background; I was a first lieutenant, and a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, in which a whole area was under my supervision, but what happened in this area was very painful to me.
At that time, my wife and I haven’t experienced the Lord Jesus yet, and my wife drank alcohol with some of the military women, and she was singing while she walked in the streets, and of course I wasn’t satisfied by this situation. I said to her: “Don’t you know that I’m the officer in charge of the area? Can you show me some respect? ”
My wife was angry with me for blaming her, the soldiers who were with her got angry as well. As for me, I tried to forget the whole subject; I went to the dining and meetings hall and buried myself there.
Attempt Of Murder:
Suddenly, during the time I spent in the hall, one of the soldiers entered carrying a loaded gun, he said:” Hey man, I’ll kill you”. Then he lifted the weapon and aimed it directly at me, and I was just about to get shot.
We were alone in the room, and the rest of the officers were outside. When they noticed the weapon in the soldier’s hand, they shouted at him saying: “O man, what do you want to do to this officer?” But I said to him, “Shoot me if you wish, I’m a military soldier who is destined to die, but I want to know the reason first”.
“You insulted us while we were drunk”, he replied.
“I didn’t insult you, but I was upset with my wife.” I explained.
Then the other officers came into the room and surrounded us. One of the captains threatened the soldier saying: “If you kill this officer, we will also shoot you.” Then he pulled him into the room and took the weapon from him. Afterwards, the other officers entered and took him out of the room, and they beat him so hard that I felt sorry for him, and he was put in jail for a week.
The Only Solution:
Right after this incident, I began to think of the kind of life I lived, and how my wife was almost the cause of my death, and how the problems persist between us every day; she carries a cleaver in her hand, and I carry my weapon!! This situation lasted for two years, until my wife and I were convinced that this tragedy would end only with the death of one of us; either my death or hers.
At those days, a pastor lived near us, and he noticed the persistent problems between me and my wife, he even saw her once with a cleaver in her hand, and in a drunken state; she wanted to kill me. The pastor advised me:” If this is the form of your life, you need to resolve it, the only solution is to accept the Lord Jesus in your life, and you and your wife should quit drinking wine, because that is the cause of all your problems. Peace will not enter your home unless you accept the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ; The Genuine King of Peace”.
It is true; I remember once, I drank wine with a fellow officer for a whole night. In the morning I didn’t feel myself, and I was carried into the room without being aware of it, and if they hadn’t put a drink into my mouth to wake me up, I wouldn’t have survived another moment.
A New Page:
I began to think of the priest’s words, and I felt that God is giving me many opportunities to return to him; as I survived death because of wine, getting killed by bullets, and being slaughtered using the cleaver. So, I brought my wife to the priest and he preached us the gospel. We accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour in 1997, and then the priest began to teach us how to read and study the Bible.
Our lives; my wife and mine, were completely changed and altered, from problems and using alcohol, to peace and joy. So we stopped quarrelling, and I stopped beating her, she also began to respect me. In 1998, I decided to leave the military life, and went to Uganda, where I studied theology, and I was graduated in 2003. After that, I was handed the pastoral care of the church that I serve now.
Great peace:
In 2006, after becoming a priest, the church chose me to be a representative for Eastern Equatorial for five years, and then I worked as a representative of the Bishop for ten years. My life became useful to others, especially to those who knew me and knew my wife. They were amazed and said: “This man was different from that, what happened to him?”
“This change is not from me, but it’s the result of the new life that I have received from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In 2010, I was chosen as the Bishop of the Internal Church of Africa in South Sudan, and I cannot recount all the wonders and miracles that God has done in my life, and how He took care of my family and me in all the years of war and peace, and I finally understood that God wanted to let happiness and peace into my home first, and end the problems between me and my wife, and then use me to preach people in different societies with peace. Nowadays, I do my service, supported by God`s strength and grace, which preceded and worked in me first.