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Editor’s Note: Together, Ps Dianna and Ps Tim Edwards have given their lives to share the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ across Australia and the world for over 40 years. Tim and his family need to raise money for two funeral celebrations, interstate travel costs, and many other costs as well. Our goal is to raise $30,000. The final funeral celebration will be held at 10 a.m., 19 September at St Paul’s Anglican Church, 18 Church St, Tamworth. Please donate here.

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This is the eulogy I presented at the Cairns Memorial Service on 6 September 2025 in memory of my wife Dianna Edwards.

Dianna Dawn Edwards, née Briggs, was born on 9 June 1960 in Guyra, New South Wales, to her parents Victor and Christina Briggs, née Connors (both parents deceased). Dianna was the youngest of five siblings.

Watch this video below by my friend Warwick Marsh promoting the Dianna Edwards Memorial Fund, for which I am very grateful.

She has two daughters, Melissa and Makita, whom she loved deeply along with their husbands Stephen and Nathan.

Between Melissa and Makita, Di has nine grandchildren. Melissa and Stephen have Zipporah Timmarra, Jahziel Dawn, Isaiah Stephen, and Josiah David (deceased). Makita and Nathan have Timothy James, Ladakul Pearl, Pauline Christina Makita, Nathan Samuel (Jr), and James Terrence.

Dianna loved her older brothers, Michael and Rodney (deceased). She adored her older sisters, Priscilla and Shirley (both deceased).

Dianna’s parents also raised a young Lyle Kennedy. In his teenage years, Lyle discovered Bruce Lee and often practised his kung fu moves on Di and her sisters, but he was affectionately loved by Di and all the family.

Dianna’s Childhood 

Growing up in Guyra, she would reminisce about playing in the snow during winter. She talked about her elders and families living at The One Mile Aboriginal Reserve and also the South Guyra Mission.

Even to this day, when visiting this area, she would still point out the various blocks where families had lived before. But what was really important was the old church site where her grandparents, Frank and Pearl Connors, pastored, and many other Aboriginal church ministers began their ministries.

Di often talked about families working on farms, especially potato farms; going bush with families, camping and fossicking in special places for sapphires and rubies, as well as other gems.

As a child, this sounded like a fun life, but it taught her how to work hard, learning from her grandparents, her parents Victor and Christina, plus her older brothers and sisters, her extended family and the Indigenous communities across the New South Wales New England Tablelands.

Grafton

In Dianna’s early primary school years, her family moved to Grafton. These young years in Grafton produced fond memories of the mighty Clarence River and kids’ activities like swimming in the river and riding bicycles all day.

Dianna loved playing in the flooded drains in the rain. She would reminisce about the big floods, and joining the Marching Girls along with her sisters and cousins, then marching through the streets of Grafton in the Jacaranda Festival.

Two things she always did on visits to Grafton 

1. When we drove past her childhood home, 84 Bacon Street, she was always proud that her parents owned that house. It must have been a joy living there. It didn’t matter how many times we drove past that address; she would tell me stories that you could tell were very close to Dianna’s heart.
2. We would often drive past or stop at the park known as Grafton Town Square. This is where her Dad and Mum, plus other Indigenous Christian leaders and families, held church gatherings called open-air outreach services. Even to this day, in Dianna’s mind and spirit, she could still see her brothers Michael and Rodney playing guitars alongside her dad and Uncle Peter Briggs, and also other Indigenous Christians ministering the Gospel. These were the seeds for ministry, planted in Dianna for her future years, that lasted over 40 years.

Armidale

Dianna’s parents and family moved from Grafton to Armidale, where she started high school, but didn’t get to complete any formal education. Dianna started labouring work with her Dad and her brother Rodney on farms or anywhere else they could find work.

Nemhinga Farm 

Somehow, her dad and mum acquired a small farm that backed onto the Peel River at Nemhinga near Tamworth, and the family worked this land growing crops and vegetables and raising cattle. These were long days because they also picked produce on other farms. But it was at Tamworth that her family circle was broken when her dad had a major heart attack and died.

Tamworth

Before Pop Briggs passed away, both he and Nanny Briggs, Di’s parents, helped Pastor Colin Crago and his wife Kim establish their ministry in Kabel Avenue, Tamworth.

Later, as a teenager, Di helped her Mum with children’s ministry in the Tamworth Aboriginal Inland Fellowship Church. Her Mum taught Di a lot about Sunday School, and she developed a love for children. Di then had a child of her own, Melissa.

Robinvale, Victoria: picking fruit

Dianna, as a young single mother with a hard labouring background, needed work and accompanied some friends who were going to Robinvale, Victoria, to pick grapes.

But before going fruit-picking, she attended an Intensive Short Bible School in an old tent on the edge of a cow paddock, run by Indigenous Pastors Gordon and Dixie Nagas at Old Grevillea, situated between Kyogle and Woodenbong, Northern NSW.

Love Bloomed

This is where she saw and met her future husband (Tim Edwards). Her version of the story is: “Tim was clueless,” but Tim says, “No, I was playing it cool.”

A couple of years later, they married. Di’s Mum, now widowed, said, “Di, are you sure about this fella? He looks too ‘wild’,” but she gave Di and Tim her blessing, along with the brothers and sisters, because Di was still the youngest in the family.

Di had her second daughter, Makita. The baby was only three weeks old when Di and Tim were desperate for finance, and so they went back to picking grapes. In the heat of the day, it was 40 degrees celsius. They lived in a tin shack with a dirt floor, which was maybe 50 degrees inside, so at night they would all sleep out on the grass. Dianna’s Mum was there babysitting the babies and also a young nephew, Jason.

Raising the Dead — A Miracle Of Prayer

Tim recalls: One day, it must have been 40° or more when we took our two-year-old daughter Melissa out in the hot sun. We instructed the little girl to retrieve the bottle of water not far away. When she didn’t return, we found Melissa on the hot ground, her little tongue hanging out, unconscious from sunstroke, just lying there lifeless.

We poured all the water over her little body, crying out to God to give life back to our little girl. We made an oath and promise to God that day, and our pledge was, “God, You give us back our baby, and whatever You want to do with our lives and wherever You lead us, we will go.”

After we poured that water over Melissa, she began to cry and come back to life. Today, she is 46 years old, and God has taken us on mission to many places across Australia and many nations around the world. Di travelled twice to the USA by herself without me for weeks, and she just kept making herself available to serve the Kingdom of God.

Watch below the video of the Dianna Edwards Cairns Memorial Service held on 6 September 2025.

Miracle of Answered Prayer — Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra

Following the miracle prayer for Melissa, Dianna also prayed that God would get her, Tim and their family out of the scorching heat and hard labour into an indoor job. This would need to be a miracle.

To cut a long story short, Dianna and Tim were accepted to work at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra: Di in the library, cataloguing photos from remote Australian Indigenous Communities, and Tim in the audiovisual archive section.

Looking back, this opened the door to the treasures of our beautiful Australian Indigenous Peoples.

In the very early 1980s, Di and Tim researched Aboriginal Gospel Music coming from Christian revival in urban and regional Aboriginal communities. They were given a small Government Grant for a mobile sound recording pilot project.

They recorded 120-plus gospel songs from Indigenous Christian Music Artists in four separate Northern NSW Communities. These grassroots recordings were deposited in the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies National Sound Recording Archives since 1983, just over 40 years ago.

Back to Tamworth and Teaching 

After Canberra, Dianna and Tim moved to Tamworth so their daughters could commence primary school with their cousins. This is where Di became a Scripture Teacher and influenced many children by teaching Christian Studies.

One of the highlights was leading a choir of students from her primary school scripture classes, accompanied by the church band, which got a standing ovation at the annual primary school Eisteddfod held in a packed Tamworth Town Hall.

Di continued to establish Sunday Schools in the housing commission areas for children who didn’t have transport to local churches. Her community service work didn’t go unnoticed, and she was approached and employed by the Uniting Church Childcare Centre, which opened doors for a career in various childcare centres and primary schools.

Babinda and Emmanuel Christian College, Cairns 

After Tamworth, Diana and Tim moved with their children to Babinda, North Queensland, to pastor a church. There again, she became involved with the local community. She later moved to Cairns and joined Emmanuel College in 1994 – 2001, where she worked as a teacher’s aide in the primary school. She was excited to be working with children again.

Perth, WA, and beyond

In 2005, Tim and Dianna moved to Perth in Western Australia and co-pastored Eagle Rock Community Church until 2018. This was a Community Church and had a heart for missions.

Dianna was the mission director for the church. She was very creative in building teams to help the needy in the local community. These mission teams serviced the hospitals, jails, schools and provided a weekly food programme for the community.

Dianna had the vision to go beyond the local community and got the church involved in outreach to remote Aboriginal communities across WA. The vision for mission grew greater, and she reached out to other nations, including China, going to underground churches and helping leaders in other nations.

Dianna travelled extensively around the world, but was always seeking to serve and work in missions that reached needy peoples.

• This mission interest in opportunities started at home in Australia with her own indigenous peoples.
• Underground Church movement in China.
• Human trafficking involving children not only in Asia but also in other parts of the world.
• Families and children’s welfare were always dear to her heart.

During the last four years in Perth, Dianna and Tim did emergency foster care for at-risk children. During this time, they cared for over 140 children. It was very difficult work, but exceedingly rewarding at times.

Family and the Power of God’s Love

Dianna always loved her children, grandchildren and extended family. Even though she gave her life to serve the church and community, she was always excited to see any of her family after living away from them for most of her life.

From her hard-working days as a young woman and her love with Tim that lasted just over 45 years, she was a person who always stayed true to her word and true to her friends. Dianna loved her family and then shared that love with many others besides. She lived and breathed the power of God’s love. We will miss you, Di.