A Mission-field Tragedy Turned to the Glory of God

Sometimes what seems like a failure is actually the seed of God’s work. As Mark Batterson tells the story, it started with David and Svea Flood. Sent to the Congo by a church in Sweden, they helped establish a mission station in a remote village. Things didn’t seem to be going well at first. The local villagers were not receptive to the gospel—though “that didn’t keep Svea from sharing the love of Jesus with a five-year-old boy who delivered fresh eggs to their back door every day.” [1] Things took a turn for the worse when Svea came down with malaria while pregnant in 1923, dying shortly…