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.

Chinese pioneers of the Swedish Free Mission: Eugene Sieux and John Lee (Spring/Summer 2015)

Eugene Sieux (Yu Chi Siu) and John (Yuen) Lee were early pioneers of the Swedish Free Mission to South China. While working in Chicago in the 1880s, they met Hans Jensen von Qualen who, being proficient in English, served as their language tutor. The three men soon became friends. While von Qualen is commonly known as the first foreign missionary of the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission, commissioned to China in 1887, he actually followed Eugene Sieux, who had returned to his homeland three months earlier. John Lee soon followed them both.

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.