Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
THE MEN WHO COULDN’T COMPROMISE.
 |
| Google creative commons |
Daniel Berg was a Swedish Pentecostal missionary. He was born in Vargon, Sweden, on April 19,1884. When he was about fifteen, he was saved and baptized in water through the influence of his parents who were members of the Swedish Baptist movement.
Berg's route to the mission field where he pioneered the move of the Holy Spirit in Brazil and South America was another of the Lord's involved "maneuvers" to get someone in the right place at the right time.
Born in Sweden and converted there, Berg immigrated to the United States at a time of economic depression in his home country. However, he did not receive the baptism of the Spirit in the United States. He had to return to Sweden for that.
While on a visit to his native country in 1909, Berg was introduced to the Pentecostal movement by a friend. As a result, he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit that same year. Upon his coming back to live in the United States, he met the man with whom he would minister on the mission field for some twenty years.
 |
| Google creative commons |
Adolf Gunnar Vingren was introduced to Berg during a Pentecostal conference sponsored by the First Swedish Baptist Church in Chicago. Berg had started attending several independent Pentecostal churches in the Chicago area after returning from Sweden.
He worked in a fruit shop in Chicago for one year. During that time, he received a prophecy to go to "Para" as a missionary. He did not know where Para was. Berg joined Vingren a year later in South Bend, Indiana, where Vingren pastored a Swedish Baptist Church. While Berg was there, Vingren had a prophetic dream that he and Berg were to go to "Para." However, like Berg, he had no idea where Para was.
Vingren and Berg then returned to Chicago together, where they obtained all sorts of dictionaries and atlases and learned that Para was a state in Brazil. Para also was the capital city of that state.
So they said, "Well, that is where we have to go to do missionary work."
In Chicago, they attended the North Avenue Mission where they were dedicated as Pentecostal missionaries to Brazil by William H. Durham. The fare from America to Brazil was $90 for both of them, but they had to earn the money. Because of a revelation they had received on giving, they gave the first $90 they earned to a Pentecostal newspaper. In a very short time, the Lord returned the money, and they had what was needed for the fare.
 |
| Google creative commons |
In 1910, the two men were able to travel to Brazil where Berg found a job as a foundryman. He used part of his salary to finance lessons in Portuguese (the language of Brazil) for Vingren.
Berg and Vingren did not have much success at first with their missionary work among the Baptist congregation which they had found. However, they held prayer meetings in the cellar of the Baptist chapel, where they also lived, and waited for revival.
Within a short time, a number of the Baptists began to speak in tongues. This encouraged the fledging missionaries, and they began to carry out their work with fire and zeal. However, the Baptist pastor stopped them, accusing them of being separatists and sowing doubt and unrest among the people. The pastor told Berg and Vingren to put away their "dreams and false teachings," or he would warn other missionary organizations about them.
Berg and Vingren refused to compromise. When they could no longer live and meet on the Baptist premises, they established Brazil's first Pentecostal church. This was officially registered on June 11,1918, as the "Assembly of God." Brazil's largest Protestant body, the Assemblies of God, grew out of this church.
~ Daniel Berg and Adolf Vingren: Men Who Would Not Compromise (1884-1963, 1879-1943 )
- 📕 The Pioneers Of Faith
No comments:
Post a Comment