Wonderful conference in Russia

Church Word of Life Moscow

I am now in my hotel room, getting ready to hit the sack after a great day. Blessed and tired after ministering in the Saturday night service in Word of Life's Euro Asian Faith Conference. It is so good to meet old friends since many years, see that friendship remains as well as the work grows and develops.


Almost 2000 delegates from 200 cities in 14 countries showed up in WOL Moscow's church.
Speakers were hosting pastor MatsOla Ishoel, Artur Simonyan, Oleg Popov, Vasily Vitjuk, all powerful Russian speaking preachers, pastors and leaders within the Word of Life network.

Nicky Cruz

Legendary Nicky Cruz, known from "The Cross and the Switchblade" and evangelist with a big heart for the lost, came to reignite evangelistic zeal. He also shared a very powerful message on forgiveness. It was such a blessing to hear and also spend time with him hearing him sharing from his life.


There is just something with men and women of God that lived a long and full life with a strong focus to serve the Lord. Let us be like that!




I shared a message on Times of refreshing and renewal. I sense so strong that God wants to reinvigorate the work. Renewed focus and vision, renewed strength and love for the Lord, renewed power for breakthrough. The churches are well established, but sometimes we need a new surge and that is what I sense was released on the service tonight.

Isaiah 40:30-31
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint

Glory to God in the Land of Fire!

Azerbaijan is known as the Land of Fire. It comes from ancient travellers passing through, seeing the ground literally on fire. They thought it was supernatural and worshiped it, but its source is enormous amounts of gas beneath the ground leaking through the earth’s surface.

Quite amazing to see, actually, especially at night. Even more fascinating to see another kind of fire lighten up in this land - the fire of revival.

1994 we arrived to a war weary nation. They had just come out of a prolonged armed conflict with Armenia with much suffering on both sides. One million Azerbaijanis were internally displaced and found shelter in railway wagons, sports halls, sheds or big refugee camps across the nation. Poverty, dark streets and a broken people.

We held an evangelistic campaign, “God loves Azerbaijan”, in a sports stadium in Baku. Carl-Gustaf Severin was preaching and we had a big team in place to minister to people’s needs. Lame walked, deaf heard and there was a great joyous tumult.

One Ukrainian girl on the team was so happy and as she spoke in tongues, an local resident asked how she could speak his language. She told him she didn’t. But he persisted and told her that she had said in Azerbaijani – ”God loves Azerbaijan, He will raise up a big church here and He will perform many miracles.” She was in awe when she heard the translation!

There was a great harvest to take care of.  Missionaries moved in to work long term and have since done an incredible work to raise this church up. One year later we had the great joy to baptise 300 people in the Caspian Sea.

20 years have now passed. The church has grown and is nothing short of a miracle. A one thousand-member church, among a people that 1990 was considered one of the least reached and hardest to reach peoples in the world, is quite unique. This weekend we celebrate 20 years, looking back in thankfulness but also forward with great expectation.

Glory to God in the Land of Fire.

Vietnam - Fertile ground for the gospel!

I just returned from a fantastic visit in Vietnam! It was amazing to see how the work has grown over the years. Word of Life is now active across the entire nation that is growing. Over 2000 people in 45 of 58 provinces of Vietnam. The goal is to have planted churches in the remaining provinces as well before end of 2015.

MatsOla Ishoel, pastor Pham and his wife Phuong and myself

 It all started 1995 in Moscow where we early came into contact with Vietnamese believers and started to minister to them every week, 5-10 in the beginning. I felt that I literally preached to thousands and understood that something big will come out of this. The small can be great, when God is in it!

2004 I visited Hanoi for the first time and met with our friends there. We had meetings where the Holy Spirit was so powerfully present and I was led to give a word of prophecy about how they will reach all of Vietnam and further into Indochina. They now tell me how this word has been their guiding light as they have formed a strategy to see a fulfillment of this.

Together with MatsOla Ishoel, pastor of Word of Life Moscow, we had three wonderful things happening; Dedication of a church building, Celebration of 10 years as a church and Pastors- and leader-day for 280 partakers from across the country.

Dedication of the new Church building

It is very special to dedicate a church building in a country as Vietnam, where Christians have not been free to work freely. This church is still an underground church, even if they are not unknown.

The fact that they can now have a church, we were told the only underground church in the country, shows the trend toward more openness and freedom for Christians to work today.

Word of Life Vietnam 10 year jubilee!

 For the 10 year Celebration 1200 people were bussed in to a beautiful resort in the mountains. Feast, food, praise, preaching and much rejoicing of what the Lord has done. Much more is ahead.

Pastors and leaders conference

For two days we ministered to 280 pastors and leaders. Exciting to see the fruit, but also see much potential future fruit. The Holy Spirit very present during the sessions. These are the heroes that work across the country, some tins meeting big challenges. But there is faith for a good future and expectations of how this will reach across the border, further into Indochina.




Much to be happy for so long, and even more to expect for the future!

Sights and sounds of Vietnam

I am writing you a few lines while in the beautiful land of Vietnam. I find it easy to feel like home here. Southeast Asia does that to you. The people are kind and hospitable. One shouldn’t confuse that with weakness, though. The Vietnamese are very strong and tough as well. They are hard working and you rarely see any over weight people here. No idling around, always activity.

You don’t experience stress here. There is a some what slow but still efficient pace. The traffic is not aggressive, even if you have cars and hordes of mopeds coming from every direction seemingly on collision course with you. And yet, things move on smoothly.

During the heat of day, they have siesta. It wonderful to see people spread across a floor for a midday nap. And then they carry on late into the evening, when they might end the day with a dinner on a sidewalk.

The warm and humid weather, sometimes abrupted with intense rain torrents, thunders and lightning, wraps itself around you like a wet blanket. Once you give up the idea of staying dry, it is actually quite nice. No dry skin here!

During rainy season as now, everything is extremely green. A trip to the mountains dazzles all your senses. Palm trees, banana trees, water buffalos, exotic birds singing and ”dancing” butterflies of all colors capture you.

It is hard not to fall in love with Vietnam, and especially with the precious brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are from different cultures, have different histories, speak different languages, but have so much in common in our shared faith!

I am rich! I have many friends in Vietnam!