Faith of the Family--by Linden Malki

Sven Kristian Nilsson was born on an island in the strait between Sweden and Norway in 1812, one of four sons of Per Nilsson, a wealthy shipowner, but an alcoholic. He and a brother left home and  became merchant seamen; during a storm at sea his brother was rescued from a storm in the Atlantic, which brought him to the Lord and changed his life. The brothers were involved with the Mariners Temple in New York, an outreach to seamen, and Sven convinced his brother that they needed to return to Sweden and share their good news.  The problem was that the Swedish government did not allow any public religious activity outside of the state church, which was Lutheran. However, Sven's brother F.O Nilsson, had been baptised by a Baptist missionary in Germany, and back in Sweden, organized a believers' baptism in the ocean at midnight in September 1848, of his wife, brother Sven, and three others. F.O. Nilsson was arrested, tried, jailed for six months and banished from Sweden. The persecution also drove Sven and his family to emigrate to the United States, where he founded a house church in a Minnesota farmhouse shared with his ten children, and they were joined by a third brother and his ten children.  Sven became known as the "Happy Christian", and his children and grandchildren became active in churches not only in Minnesota, but in many parts of the US and the world. His daughter Hilma married another Swedish immigrant, who had been forced out of his home in Sweden when he became a member of a Baptist house church.  They moved to the Seattle area, where they were founding members of a Baptist church, and then western Oregon, where they organized another Baptist  church. All of their children, including my father, were active in churches and raised their kids in churches, and one of their sons became a missionary to China--and his son became a missionary in Jordan, a daughter in Hong Kong and Macau, and another daughter became a pastor's wife and two of their sons are pastors, including Mark Lambert, who was pastor at Judson Baptist and also a member of Calvary/Northpoint at one time. One of Sven's sons, Fred Oliver Nelson, came West, and founded a number of churches between Washington and northern California; their children and grandchildren became missionaries in Puerto Rico, Burma, Japan, Nicaragua, Alaska. One of the daughters met a young man whose family were founding members of Calvary Baptist Church in San Bernardino, and who became a pastor, missionary, and seminary professor. Another one of Sven's granddaughters and her family were missionaries in Hawaii.

I've probably missed a few, but the number of ministers, missionaries,  active church members and church plants that came from this one family is an amazing illustration of the power of God in the lives of families. We are created to live in families, and to be taught about God and His plans for us in our families. The difference between Godly parents and children; and others, even though they may know about God but not live it,  has always been significant. We are called to honor our parents and their faith, which can bring awesome ministry through our families.