Gustafson, David M.

Miss Modin: The Swedish lady missionary (Spring/Summer 2013)

When Ellen Modin gathered with forty teachers and seven preachers in Salt Lake City at the Congregational Church on April 2, 1885, a reporter from The Salt Lake Herald referred to her as “Miss Modin, the Swedish lady missionary”—a title descriptive of her whole life. After serving in Utah, she returned to Minneapolis where she founded a school for female evangelists and a rescue shelter for women and children. She lived a missional life.

Loving the prairie neighbor: Christian Orphans’ Home of Nebraska (Spring/Summer 2014)

The Christian Orphans’ Home of Phelps Center, Nebraska, began in 1888 in response to human need — a response prompted by love of God and neighbor. The orphanage was founded by Axel Nordin (1858-1912), pastor of the Swedish Free Mission at Phelps Center, now Holcomb Evangelical Free Church.

Rosenius at North Park (Spring/Summer 2016)

An event at North Park Theological Seminary in late February celebrated 200 years since the birth of Carl Olof Rosenius (1816–1868). In a lecture about the life and work of Rosenius, Mark Safstrom highlighted Rosenius’s impact on the Pietist movement in Sweden and America in the 19th century.

Seeing America from the seat of a bicycle (Spring/Summer 2019)

Last summer I checked off from my bucket list the goal of riding my bicycle across America.

Pentecostal evangelist Cenna Osterberg and the Azusa Street Mission (Fall/Winter 2020)

Ties between Swedish-Americans and the burgeoning modern Pentecostal movement are well-documented, including such stories of people like Andrew G. Johnson-Ek who carried the Azusa Street revival from Los Angeles to Skövde, Sweden. However, few people know about Cenna Osterberg (1854-1924), and her husband, Louis, and son, Arthur, who worked with William J. Seymour.