In 1996, Pastor Ulf Ekman saw a vision for a change in the church’s mission work.
He saw the map of Russia – the map was gray and you could see the lines of the roads and cities. Then from the Balkans came an orange arrow that went red on both sides. It went steadily through Russia and Ukraine. As it passed Ukraine, it turned and split into three, while maintaining unity, heading due south. When the three went south, it turned and started west.
One of the arrows went between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The next one between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea and the third one between the Aral Sea and the Chinese border. And they went straight down and into Afghanistan and there it turned and started going towards the Middle East and Israel. Somewhere along the way there they stopped.
This is what the Lord said to Ulf. The words were ‘New fields’.
His vision changed and he saw shadows of mountains and different plateaus, one higher than the other and on each plateau stood a man in darkness, standing there proudly. Some wore headdresses – turbans – oriental. Over and over, light streamed in over the last plateau and there was written Afghanistan.
Ulf then received a prophetic word.
“Leave the fields you have worked in and move on to new fields. There are others who can take responsibility where you have plowed, sown and harvested. Workers have grown up and you can move on. Enter the great door that I open to you and go to the mountain people. The mountain people – the people of shadow, of darkness, of twilight land. They will listen, they will receive and they will carry my word forward”.
Through all these years, we have seen God do mighty things among the mountain people.
The vision we were given with the arrows was based on working with friends from our previous fields to reach the mountain people, which has been a great blessing.
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Iraq and Azerbaijan are some of the countries the Lord has opened to us and that we have been able to reach with the Gospel over the years.
We are so grateful to God for his goodness and for the harvest we have helped to bring in!
