Living On Mission for Jesus

I recently read the story of David and Svea Flood. Swedish missionaries sent to minister in the Congo in the early 1900’s. They teamed with another couple Joel and Bertha Erickson. They made their way through the jungles of Africa, eventually establishing a small mission in a tiny village.

They didn’t see a single convert to Christ the first year. The village people were resistant to the gospel. Yet, Svea would share Jesus with a 5-year-old village boy that would deliver eggs at her back door each day.

Later that year, Svea and David conceived, but the joy was short lived. She contracted Malaria and became bedridden for much of the pregnancy. On April 13, 1923 Aina was born to the Floods. 17 days later Svea would die. Her husband distraught, his faith shaken, gave Aina to the Ericksons and left the Congo a broken man.

The Erickson’s would raise Aina for a short time, however. Tragically, they too would suddenly die. They were poisoned by local villagers. Aina was left to American missionaries, Arthur and Anna Berg. The Berg’s soon departed back to the United States along with their new daughter Aina whom they’d rename Agnes. Agnes grew up in South Dakota, attended Bible College, and married a young Pastor, who would later become president of Northwest Bible College. His name was Dr. Dewey Hurst.

The Hurst’s attended a Global Christian Conference in London, England. One of the first speakers was the superintendent of the Pentecostal Church in Zaire. His name was Ruhigita Ndagora. He caught the attention of Agnes as he was from the region in the Congo where she was born. She approached him after his talk and asked if he knew the village she was born in. To her surprise, he too was born in that village. She asked if he knew of a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood? His reply was startling. ‘As a young boy of 5, I would deliver eggs to the Floods and Svea would share Jesus with me’! In shock, the two embraced. Ruhigita thanked Svea on behalf of the hundreds of churches and thousands of Jesus followers in Zaire for allowing your mother to die, so that we may live.

This is such a cool story, but more than that, a tremendous lesson. There are no insignificant moments for us as missionaries for Christ. Make no mistake about it, wherever you are, God has placed you there as HIS missionary:

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (Acts 17:26-27)