Dear Friends,
We are very happy to learn that so many are still hanging in there. Some, sad to say have abandoned the race, but our joy is with those who remain in the truth even if circumstances don’t allow them to be in full-time service. Carina and I have returned home after very close to thirty years in Africa. Carina’s parents are approaching 90 and need a little attention and time is wearing on us too. We continue here back home as Special Pioneers and are serving in a newly-formed French group. There are a lot of Africans in Sweden now a days so it is pretty easy to adapt to Sweden again. We feel at home that way. Now we have moved in to our own flat and been connected again. To get going after so long a time outside Sweden was more complicated than we thought. But now we are up and running.

Here is our story in short:  After Gilead we served as missionaries in Senegal. At first we lived in Dakar to learn French. After a year or so we were assigned to the south part, Casamance, which we enjoyed very much. There we came in touch with the real Africa. We were free to move everywhere until the civil ware broke out in 1984. We had to stay indoors a couple of days until there was less shooting in town at least. 

Then we were sent to the Gambia with 16 publishers. We took up after Ed and Linda Finch. They had laid the foundation to a Kingdom Hall and we had the privilege to finish it. Today there are three congregations in the Gambia, two French and one English, using the same hall although expanded.

Thereafter we served three years in Cameroon. Cameroon is a beautiful country but infected by spiritism. There we served in an English-speaking congregation with brave brothers who served during the ban. There we experienced our first volcano eruption. We were very close and were able to carry away red-hot stones.   

In year 2000 we were invited to serve at Bethel in Congo Kinshasa. That was an unexpected change. Carina worked the purchasing department which she enjoyed very much. I worked in maintenance. It was a time of great expansion which is still going on. In the year 2002 I was invited to serve in the branch committee while becoming assistant to the factory overseer.

Then 2008 we returned to the field. We served in a beautiful missionary home in Kinshasa. Congo is a very productive field and a very good missionary assignment. 

It has been many years of blessings and interesting things. Years we don't regret. But since April this year we are back home serving in a newly set-up French group. We have a very vast territory and can already see some good results in the service.

We surely appreciated the 69th class of Gilead and that we had the privilege to get to know you folks.

Much love Uno and Carina