We all have dreams, we all have passions and we all want to make a difference in life. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18).
As a young teenager I read the book “Ministry of healing” by Ellen G. White and can still recall my first impressions of this book. I remember thinking that I too some day in the future would like to work with health and helping people to live a more abundant life. This book inspired me years later to commit to the calling I felt God impressed on me to health ministry and medical missionary work.
After graduating from physiotherapy in my early twenties, I felt I wanted something more in life than an average full-time job. I knew I wanted to use my work in God`s plan to save people, I just didn’t know how. While visiting Matteson mission school in Norway for a weekend of inspiration with the theme “Finishing the work”, inspiration is what I experienced. I was inspired to give my whole life to God, not just 1 day/week on sabbath, but every day, my profession, all my talents in God’s work. This inspired me to apply for a mission school named Wildwood College of Health Evangelism in Georgia, USA. Here I received an education in becoming a medical missionary. The training included courses in health, bible, agriculture and missionwork with an emphasis on health. I had a clear goal of going to Wildwood – I wanted to learn how to start and run a health ministry and adapt the concept to fit a health ministry practice back home in Sweden. The 1,5 years in Wildwood was an amazing experience, gaining new mission minded friendships from all over the world and seeing ministries in action like Wildwood lifestyle center and Uchee pines lifestyle center inspired me to start the process of how health ministry in Sweden could look like.
This process and experience led me together with health interested friends in Sweden to develop a 7 day portable health week which we call “Steps4life”. These health weeks started in 2013 and are still running in both Sweden, Norway and Denmark almost every summer. The concept is based on similar programs from other health centers yet mobile. A team of us rents facilities where we conduct a health focused week for 7 days, based on our 8 health laws. In the program we educate people to live a healthier lifestyle. We have lectures on wholistic health including physical, mental, social and spiritual health. Each health guest is guided by one health coach throughout the week. We also give plantbased cooking demonstrations, massage, physiotherapy treatments, hydrotherapy, exercise sessions and digestive walks after each meal. We give personalized counseling in nutrition, exercise and spiritual health. A blood sample is taken on the first and last day of the week. It has truly been a tremendous blessing to be a part of these health weeks with Steps4life. Yet as this was volunteer based, it meant that I and my team could only do this 1-3 weeks/year and I still felt that I wanted to be able to use my day to day work more directly in medical missionary work.
In 2016, together with my wife Julia, my cousin and his wife, we took over the fruit orchard Alekarr – a beautiful place that has been owned by Adventists for many years.
It has been an apple orchard for many years, and when we took over, it had around 250 old fruit trees, mostly apples, but also pear, plum and cherries.
During the years we have had it, we have planted more fruit trees, so it now has around 800 fruit trees, berry bushes and a vegetable garden.
Recently in 2022, we started building and expanding our ministry. We have built a brand new 350 square meters building which includes both a farm shop, café and apple juicing facility which my cousin and his wife will be responsible for.
My wife and I will then be running the new health clinic with 3 treatment rooms for physiotherapy, nutrition counseling, massage, a small gym and a hydrotherapy room. I am excited to write that we are right now in the start-up process. The health clinic started in September this year and the hydrotherapy department will be ready for use in December this year, as well as the farm store.
Our plan with the health clinic is to offer services of regular physiotherapy treatments with a wholistic emphasis. We will offer massage treatments, hydrotherapy (water treatments), plantbased cooking classes, detox and fasting courses as well as various other lifestyle courses on health. This is becoming a dream come true for us. Sweden is a very secular country and we have seen that health and agriculture are an amazing way to build confidence and friendships with people.
Just a few weeks ago I came in contact with a woman in her fifties, during my physiotherapy work that has struggled with sleeping disorders for more than 20 years. She had heard from a friend that I was working wholistically and could maybe find help with her sleep disorder. After listening to her story and hearing what she had tried before in combination with analyzing her lifestyle we came up with a treatment plan. The plan was primarily focused on our Adventist health message and I gave her a list of 10 things to practice. The list included restraining from caffeine, theine, eating late in the evening, and screens during hours before retiring. And also included eating a plantbased diet, early daylight exposure, and always rising at the same time, to mention a few of the points we focused on. She adhered to the plan very faithfully and it was amazing to hear already only a few weeks into the plan how she experienced better sleep than she’d ever had in over 20 years. I praise God for how He could use simple health principles to improve people’s life quality. She has spread the word amongst her friends, so I now see numerous people who have heard about Alekarr Health Clinic through her testimony.
I would like to encourage you as a reader to take a few moments to reflect and ask God the question: “What has God called me to do?” Ask God: “How can I use my work and all of my time to be a blessing to others?”
I hope this example of how God is fulfilling my life dream of many years could inspire you to also ask God to fulfill yours. I encourage you all to use your talents for God to help people, as Jesus told in Matthew 25:40: “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Our ministry at Alekarr in Sweden is merely the beginning of our ministry for God. Please pray that God will continue to bless and guide us all on the farm to be able to make this beautiful place a light in a very dark world.
Simon Karlsson was born in the north of Sweden. He is married to Julia and they have 3 daughters: Ellionor (6 years old), Hannah (3 years old) and Josefin (9 months old). He is the leader of Steps4life and works in Alekarr Health Clinic as physiotherapist and health coach.
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