(1892) God's Prophet

The church in Fredrikshald was not a large one, but large enough for a young pastor. Things seem to go well. In his own words Johan said that the Lord was with them. In the Spring of 1892 more than fifty were baptized and admitted into the church. Adding fifty people at one time for any size church is a major accomplishment.

The year 1892 was a milestone in Johan's life as he writes.1 On Saturday, October 8, 1892, 2 pastor Johan Alfred and ex-school teacher Hedvig Jansson marry in Fredrikshald, Norway. She was only four days away from her twenty-fifth birthday. Johan was almost twenty-six. Hedvig writes, "The church was very pleased with their pastor. They gave us beautiful gifts and many nice speeches. Hedvig's Memoirs, page 12 of the translated pages.

Hedvig's brother, Erk, had traveled from Sweden to be at the wedding. "He had found a lady who could be his wife and a mother to his two boys." Hedvig's Memoirs, page 12 of the translated pages.

And how is it to be a pastor's wife? Much house work, many dinners, often guests, many meetings and visiting the sick, etc. The wish to be in a foreign land was still there.Was it the Lord's wish or our own 'wants' that we had come up with? God makes us to calm down. Hedvig's Memoirs, page 12 of the translated pages.

Johan Alfred and Hedvig made friends and began feeling a part of the church family. Fredrikshald was beginning to feel like home.

If the Lord was with Johan Alfred the first year, he certainly did not leave during the beginning months of their second year. Many 'sinners' came to God and were admitted into the church.3

In December of 1892 just two months after their wedding a committee Baptist Committee for Foreign Missions met in Stockholm to decide who were to become missionaries . One December 9th Johan and Hedvig got a letter.

This morning was the same as any morning. We had been to a late evening at Tistadalen and were very tired. As usual I was up first, cooked coffee and looked through the mailbox. First the daily newspaper as usual and a letter that was mailed from Stockholm. Fast into our bedroom where my husband barely had his eyes open. The letter said, 'Are you willing to go to China under our mission?' It was almost like we danced to the kitchen to rescue or coffee pot that was still on the stove. Could there be more questions to this question? A big yes from both of us." Hedvig's Memoirs, page 13 of the translated pages. The letter was signed by W. Lindblom.

[The above does not jive with is written below. Check source of info below.]

First they were surprised. As youngsters both Johan and Hedvig wanted to be missionaries and tell people about the true God. Johan had talked about it with Rector K. O. Brody and Pastor Lindblom before leaving school, but nothing came of it. And now, they had not expected it. They were settlling down nicely in Norway. They had such a cute little home. Everyone in the church loved them. They were being successful. They wondered if they should uproot themselves from their home and community now. What is more they felt that the future of their church was in their hands. Besides what would their dear old parents say? They would be traveling to the other side of the world and would not see their parents for years, if ever again. Would not they be sending them with gray hair to an early grave? And what in the end would be their fate also in this distant and strange land? These and many other questions weighed on them.

They thought, talked, prayed and struggled with the decision. In the end they reminded themselves that they were now both able to follow their dream to work for God among the heathen in a far off land, bringing them knowledge of the one true God. They still had their concerns and fears, but praying they handed these to their God to take care of. Echoing the prophet Isaiah they both felt "Here I am Lord. Send me."7