In Sweden by Guy Dail

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 20, 1912

In Sweden

By Guy Dail

This is the closing day of the thirty-first annual session of the Swedish conference, which has been held here in Westeras, May 14-19. The local workers have been assisted by Brethren J. T. Boettcher, J. C. Raft, and C. C. Jensen. About two hundred of our people were in attendance. There was a fair outside interest in the public lectures held. God graced our meetings with the presence of his Holy Spirit. Sabbath forenoon there was a hearty response to the appeals made in behalf of those who had lost ground in their religious experience, as well as a turning to the Lord by some who had never publicly taken their stand for the message; and the whole congregation rededicated themselves to the Saviour.

In the afternoon Brother Oscar Carlsson was ordained to the ministry. The occasion was one of solemnity; and in the social meeting that followed, many heartfelt testimonies of praise were offered to God.

Here, as well as in Denmark and Norway, a proposition to divide the territory of the conference met with favor. Accordingly, Skane, Halland, Blekinge, Smaland, and Oland were cut off from the Swedish Conference, and placed under the charge of the Scandinavian Union, as the South Sweden Mission. For the present, there will be four workers located in this field. As fast as suitable laborers can be supplied from the Swedish Missionary School, at Nyhyttan, it is planned that they be put to work here or in one of the other Swedish fields.

Brother S. F. Svensson was again elected conference president. He has eleven workers to assist him in the building up of the work under his care.

One of the most beneficial parts of the daily program was the early morning prayer-meeting. We were glad to see the interest taken in these meetings by the brethren and sisters, and we think they proved a great blessing to the people.

We were pleased with the singing of the Nyhyttan school choir, just as we had been gratified with the music rendered by the Danish and Norwegian choirs at the conferences in Copenhagen and Bergen.

The Sabbath-school was well organized into classes, and the 193 members gave a donation of 125.70 kroner, while the First-day offering amounted to 527.45 kroner, 352.45 kroner of which was cash. We believe this to be an encouraging sign of the interest our brethren feel in the regions beyond.

Our institutional work in Sweden is prospering. The publishing department at Stockholm has done well, and so have the health food factory at Westeras, and the school and summer sanitarium in Nyhyttan. There were thirty students in the school last year, and it is expected that a goodly number of these will return this autumn. Many will be in the canvassing field this summer, and several have been engaged as Bible workers. The buildings at Nyhyttan are utilized during the summer months by the sanitarium work, which did well last year, and promises better the present season. The conference gave about fifty canvassers permission to engage in the sale of our literature.

I start for Hamburg this afternoon, to meet Brother L. R. Conradi, and to prepare for the trip to the Siberian field, and possibly to Persia. Elders Boettcher and Raft, accompanied by Elder E. J. Ahren, will attend the Finnish meeting this week.

We believe that our dear friends in Sweden have felt fully repaid for the time and means required to attend the conference, and that workers and people begin the season's labors with renewed strength and courage and faith in God, feeling constrained to press on until the message shall have been faithfully proclaimed among all these beautiful Swedish cities, towns, and villages, and we may all be called to enter upon the overcomer's reward. Guy Dail.