Bengt Wedemalm
In Service of the Great King
Pferdemarkt 1
D – 31737 Rinteln Germany phone +49 5751 7019 229 info@king2come.org www.king2come.org
1st print run, February 2023
ISBN 978-3-98602-058-3
Copyright © 2023 – Vivianne Wedemalm
The right of Bengt Wedemalm to be identified as the Author of this work is asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal use or group study is permitted.
20 France and Switzerland
21 Persecution for His Name’s sake
22 Spiritual Fathers
Tributes to Bengt
Foreword by Tor Holmgren
I met Bengt Wedemalm for the first time at the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base in Sweden. He was a young guy with long hair and a leather jacket! He was newly saved, but had a strong determination to serve God in the mission field, that was very impressive!
We met again in Uppsala at Word of Life some years later and served together in the Word of Life Mission Ministry. I remember many things that happened on the mission field, but one thing that stands out is what happened in Albania! In a few months and in the coming years the change in that country was remarkable. God opened a door for the Gospel to be preached and Bengt was used in opening it all up, when he went to a minister of the government and was given permission to have an evangelistic festival in the middle of the capital in the most closed nation in the world and to have a live broadcast on state television for the first time in the nation’s history. Many others were of course involved in getting this done from Word of Life in Uppsala. A miracle took place, with all glory to God, and it changed the nation in the coming months. It happened; it was real; we saw what faith can do to open a whole nation.
A unique quality that Bengt had was his simple and strong faith combined with care for the people he met. He lived out his faith; it was not something that he only spoke about, or just by giving a nice powerpoint presentation. It was happening in real life. The Spirit of Faith that broke all barriers and made the impossible possible was working through his life.
When you walk with God, He sometimes comes with a challenge for you, to seek Him more than ever. I had a time
like that in 2011, when God spoke to me of the future and the changes I had to make to be able to pursue His plan.
I got a phone call from my good friend Bengt a couple of months later. He asked me if I wanted to follow him on a trip to Europe. He had something he wanted to share. I accepted because I was praying “for the doors to open” and I liked to travel with Bengt! We reconnected very strongly, and worked together ever since.
I have seen from my perspective the power of the Holy Spirit working in this ministry to help people, changing their lives, healing their bodies and setting them free. All glory to God!
We went to Albania in the fall of 2020 to be a part of a celebration of thirty years since the Gospel came to the country. Bengt was ministering in the church at the conference. We were broadcast online and Bengt was also invited on to the biggest secular TV channel, on their most popular show, to share why “somebody from Sweden would go to Albania in the communist time to preach the Gospel”.
Something special happened in the conference with all the leaders from all over Albania and the church in Tirana. They wanted to show their gratitude towards God by honoring His servant for his obedience in being a part of bringing the Gospel to the country. They gave him the title, “Athlete of Faith’’, on a crystal plaque and thanked him for coming to Albania with the Gospel of Christ. This was of course a great honour, but also a reminder of what God can do through any of us if we are obedient to His Word and do what He tells us to do.
I hope that this book will encourage you and challenge you to pursue what God has for your life and what He wants you to do. That will need your cooperation; without us pursuing the will of God; it will not happen.
It will take some effort and discipline to find and to connect to His plan, but anyone can do it in Christ! In the Spirit of Faith!
Tor Holmgren, Associate Minister, Bengt Wedemalm Ministries
Foreword by Damir Šićko Alić
I have known Bengt since 1986. We met for the first time in Dubrovnik. We travelled together around former Yugoslavia, preaching the gospel in the streets and also in some churches. We slept in the same tent and he tried to learn some Croatian and at the same time he was teaching me some English.
I still think of him almost every day and I miss him very much. He was a very good friend and minister of the gospel. He was involved in starting our church in Zagreb and he also helped us to start churches around Croatia.
Bengt made us laugh by telling us stories from his trips around Europe and further. He always encouraged us by telling us how God helped him to accomplish something. That’s why I am so happy that he was able to put those stories in the book and now we can read them, laugh again and be encouraged.
One thing is on my mind when I think of him and I am thinking this more and more as time passes by. He really loved the Lord and served him from a pure heart. He was not in church ministry for the material gain and you could not direct him or buy him with anything. He stood for his convictions. When I was starting in ministry, I did not have money, but he organized help and support for me, so I could travel together with him and his team to minister. Later, after I started the church, he never showed any interest in getting some money from us. He never put any financial demand upon us. He was serving God not for worldly riches but for the heavenly reward. In his mind, he was always focused on the gospel and the church and on what and how we can do more or better.
I knew Bengt for more than 30 years and my perception of him is that he was a lover of God, ministering from a pure heart for heavenly reward. The church needs more people like him. I am sure many of us miss him here but he is enjoying his heavenly reward. There are many people that we are waiting to see again, and we will see them in heaven. He is the one I am looking forward to meeting again.
Damir Šićko Alić
President of Word of Life Network of Churches, Croatia
Foreword
by Pastor Juan Cano
It was the year 2000 and I had to pick up one preacher from the airport who was coming to our church. As I didn’t know who he was nor what he looked like, I wrote a sign saying, “Welcome to the harvest.” The gates opened and this tall man approached me. “I’m Bengt,” he said with a big smile on his face. Something happened in the Spirit at that precise moment. Starting from then we were connected.
The whole time in Germany and later here in Spain, and every time he was visiting us, we as family, and the entire church, felt that he was part of Passion for Christ/Pasion por Cristo. He saw our growth; he was the one who told me, when I was still in Germany and hadn’t come to Spain yet, “Go to Spain because your ministry will experience an explosion there in Spain.” He was completely right. He could see us from the beginning, when we started modestly until the moment the Lord, in His
Grace, had blessed us with a great multitude of people whom we baptised. He saw the church growing, the radio starting… Bengt was part of it all the time. He was a man of faith, completely a man of faith. He had that exact same anointing, the same Spirit, that accompanied Lester Sumrall and, before him, Smith Wigglesworth. We always felt that we were like-minded, in the same Spirit. We were walking in the same anointing. Every time we talked on the phone, before we even started talking, we were firstly speaking in tongues for 20-30 seconds. Why? Because we had always felt that fellowship and union in the Spirit. He was part of Passion for Christ Church; all the church loved and respected him. Up until this day, he was the only one who had the gift of working of miracles, just as is described in 1 Corinthians 12:10, and many other pastors have confirmed it. Bengt Wedemalm was the only one who had the gift of healing, not only the faith, but the gift. He prayed for people at church, for children with head tumours and they were healed. The mothers, under their own responsibility, took the children from hospital, as they had very little time left to live, and brought them to church. They were coming as they were, still connected to life support, all cables, in their mothers’ arms, and Bengt Wedemalm prayed for them and they were healed instantly. I was there and I saw how a blind woman was healed. Her eyes received their colour back and she could see again. I saw it with my own eyes. Impressive! God, the Father, used Bengt in a way we hadn’t seen up until then. We hadn’t seen the power, the authority and the faith that Bengt Wedemalm had. We will always have him in our hearts. We regret so much that he has left to be with the Lord. Bengt set very high standards when it came to integrity, a man who absolutely lived in the fear and the holiness of the Lord. Such an amazing love for The Word of God! He had remarkable revelations.
My wife, Victoria, and I loved Bengt. Every time he visited us, we loved spending time as a family, talking about the Lord and the ministry. I give thanks to the Lord for Bengt’s life, an absolutely loyal and upright man, kind and humble, but full of the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is a real privilege for me to be able to say these words as he was truly one of those generals of God, one whom we need now more than ever. Having known Bengt as a friend, as an example and as a man of God, for me, is a treasure and I give thanks to the Lord for it. He awakened in me the desire to go to Israel and to honour the people of Israel. If Pasion for Christ Church travels to Israel nowadays, it is because Bengt aroused in us that understanding about Israel. We have made several trips to Israel together with Bengt and we are extremely grateful for it. God bless all his family and friends. He was a man who has left his mark on all of us.
Pastor Juan Cano
Passion for Christ Church / Iglesia Pasion Por Cristo Madrid
I hope and pray that you will find this book to be a blessing to your life. I pray that the Spirit of faith will be stirred up in your life and that you may be one of those who will continue the work and do even greater things to His glory!
Bengt
1 Romania
“Brothers, I believe the Lord is telling us to leave Romania as soon as possible!” I said to my two friends.
Michael Lundin, Bo Sander and I had spent the previous week travelling around in Romania, ministering and making video-productions, with the focus on the ongoing revival in the underground churches and the severe persecution from the authorities. It had been a positive time in spite of numerous attempts from the Securitate, the Romanian secret police, to stop and arrest us. We had to escape via the back door of churches and hotels because Securitate members were waiting for us by the front door or in the lobby!
This was at the end of November 1989, just two weeks before the revolution started in Timisoara which resulted in the overthrow of the Communist dictatorship and the execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.
We followed what we believed was the guidance of God and drove our rented car at high speed towards the border between Romania and Hungary. After many hours of interrogation, the customs officers allowed us to go through. They were very upset about Bo Sander’s video productions and unfortunately confiscated some of them. I was used to all of this; so it was ‘business as usual’.
We learned one hour later that we were among the last exiting Romania before they shut down all the borders for almost a month due to the unrest in the nation!
Approximately six weeks later, I came back to one of the churches where I had been speaking during our last trip in Bistrita. I was received like a prophet and it seemed as if the entire city had come to the church.
The pastor told me, “Last time you spoke about how God is going to save Romania and you even taught us a song ‘Romania shall be saved’. This was a prophetic word and song. It happened just a few days after you left! Romania is saved!”
We had some awesome days in Bistrita with multitudes of people coming to know the Lord Jesus!
There were some really exciting “times of change” starting in the fall of 1989.
I continued to visit Romania during the years to come and later it was a great joy to be able to speak in larger venues in the open air. The days of the underground churches had come to an end.
I remember especially an event that I had in a city Marghita in the north-west part of Romania. I received an invitation by letter to conduct an evangelistic crusade in the football stadium of the city. The church promised to take care of all the advertisement and practicalities around the event. Usually, I would double-check with someone before going to a place and also talk with pastors and organisers before agreeing to come. This time I did not.
I travelled there along with a journalist friend of mine, Thomas Arnroth, in the late spring of 1990. I was very surprised not to find any posters or banners in the city advertising our event. The festival was scheduled to start the day after our arrival.
We met the pastors in charge and they said in very broken English that they believed that God would send the people to the meetings without us intervening!
I asked them who would be the translator, and the main pastor smiled and said, “You are Charismatic? You speak in tongues and it will be Romanian! Very easy!”
I regretted not sending someone beforehand to check things. I strongly requested a translator and they started to look for one the evening before the event!
I am a Charismatic minister, yes. I also speak in other tongues the way the Bible teaches. And, yes, I have experienced how the Holy Spirit has given me the special gift of tongues where I speak and give a message in another language that I had not mastered at all. One time that this happened was in Hamburg a few years ago. I was speaking in one of our ‘then regular’ meetings in the Tanzhalle in the Alster area. It had come to the end of the meeting and I felt the urge to pray aloud in tongues and I noticed how the prayer suddenly turned into a beautiful language. I spoke for about five minutes and a lady came running towards the front, kneeling down, weeping, and asking me in English, “How do you know my language?”
I looked at her and asked, “What language?”
She replied, “Persian! I am from Teheran. I was standing outside the hall a few minutes ago praying, ‘God, if you are the Christian God, then please speak to me in a language that I understand!’ I then walked into the hall and sat down and, a few minutes later, I heard you speaking a personal message to me in Persian, even with the accent that we speak in the part of Teheran where I originate from! Now I know that Jesus is God and I want to follow Him!”
What an experience! I am a Swedish man, living in England, going to Germany and speaking a message in Persian! Everything is possible and can happen when I walk with Jesus! Pastor Guntha in Marghita, Romania, was able to find an English-speaking man in the area to act as my interpreter on that occasion in the football stadium. He was a professor working in a college. He was an expert in the English language. He was, however, not a Christian and had zero knowledge of the Bible. Despite that, I agreed to work with him and we met
up a few minutes before the first evening. The football stadium was in reality a field beside the church building...
The professor was dressed up for the evening and was nervously smoking a cigarette when we met. I greeted him and gave a few instructions. “Don’t think,” I said. “Just speak and look happy!”
Many people came in spite of the lack of advertisement and it was a joy to see that happening. I started to speak and for the first few minutes the professor struggled but after some time he loosened up. It was encouraging to see many respond to the call for salvation and to hear the professor translate and lead them together with me in the prayer!
When people started to get healed, the professor seemed shocked.
The first night was a success and the following evening more people came and the entire front row was filled with the family of the professor. This night he was freer and even followed me on the stage when I moved. I had a few words of knowledge and suddenly I saw the professor run down from the stage. He was standing waving, shouting together with some of his family. He shouted to me, “My sister got healed! Totally healed! She has been suffering for years! Bengt, it’s fantastic!”
He was so excited! It was even difficult to get him back on the stage again. We saw some powerful miracles and more and more people attended the meetings. The last night when we had finished the meeting, the professor wanted to have a private talk with me.
He said, “I have heard many wonderful words this week but I have also seen how the words are real! I am sure that Jesus is alive! Can you please now lead me in that prayer of salvation?”
One year later, I was back again in Marghita. The professor and his family were now members of the church and he was waiting to translate for me again!
