BIBLE, PRAYER & MISSION CENTER

On Monday, March 9, 2015, just under four months after we had moved to Paris, I came home after driving the children to school. Missionary life in Paris was still new, and I did everything I could to have good routines for pioneering the work, studying the Bible, and learning French. This was also important to me in case someone from Norway, among those who were skeptical about whether we were actually doing anything at all, should call. I wanted to be able to give them good and honest explanations of what I spent my days doing.

​

But that morning I was really tired, so I thought a little ten-minute nap might help. I quickly fell asleep, and those ten minutes turned into several hours, because I did not wake up until four in the afternoon, six and a half hours after I had actually intended to wake up. May-Linn was also out that day, so there was no one at home to wake me. Dazed, I sat up and felt the guilt take hold. “A missionary, and you sleep the whole day away like this…” I thought.

​

It was then that I suddenly felt the Holy Spirit begin to speak within me. I quickly understood that I needed to write this down, so I found a pen and paper and sat down. In a short time, I had written four densely written A4 pages, where dreams and visions for the ministry were born. A Bible, prayer, and mission center was one of the points, and French Christian TV was another. The name Jesus2Europe also came, but I myself struggled with that name: “Little us in a small apartment in Paris… How could we possibly fill such big shoes as that name implied?”

​

Ever since then, I have experienced God telling me that we are to have properties. They are not for our own sake, but so that the Kingdom of God can be built and expanded quickly.

​

In 2017, there was also a number that would not leave me. I thought about it annoyingly often. The number was 34 million. But… 34 million what? Is it the number of people who will be saved? Is it money? Or what am I supposed to use this number for? I thought I was crazy and tried to forget the number, but it just kept repeating itself over and over for at least a year. I wrote it down, and I shared it with someone I trusted, someone I knew also believed God for the impossible. After a long time, I “finally” forgot about this number.

​

In May 2023, when we were given notice on our apartment in Paris, we understood that this was God wanting to lead us forward and into something new. But where, and what? The search began again, and there were several prophetic words and confirmations. One prophetic word was: “It is a much bigger place you should be looking for.” Another was: “Now one book is closing, and a completely new book is opening.” Eventually, a third word came that gave us some practical direction: “Look in the opposite direction from where you are searching now.”

​

Until then, we had only looked west and a little north of Paris. The very first property on the west side had nine bedrooms and two decares of land. This felt like a big step of faith, and we began looking for supporting partners and investors who could help us with this property. At the same time, I felt within me that this was not big enough, and that it would limit God’s work rather than expand it.

​

As we expanded our search eastward, we were led to larger and larger properties. Suddenly, there was a property with 60 bedrooms that could have been suitable, but it felt too big. The price of two million euros was also higher than my faith could stretch.

​

An investor from the Netherlands suddenly contacted us and said that he was interested in helping us acquire a property. They would buy and renovate the property and then rent it to us. This was an incredibly good offer, almost too good to be true. Could this be the miracle we had been waiting for? At the same time, I repeatedly felt within me that we were to be “masters in our own house.” I said to God, “If this is my own thought and not Yours, then that thought must go.”

​

The investor from the Netherlands came and visited the property with me. He concluded that half of the buildings would have to be demolished and rebuilt. He estimated that this would cost more than 30 million euros. He did not seem unwilling to do this, but it would take at least four years to renovate. When he mentioned a price of 30 million euros, I asked whether it would not be better to look at properties closer to Paris in that price range that did not need renovation. I went on to tell him that I had seen a property that was a dream scenario, but that it was priced far beyond what my financial faith could stretch to.

​

I sent him the prospectus for a property priced at 34 million euros, only 20 minutes from Paris. This was a property I had happened to see online in June 2023 while searching for properties. At the time, I sent it to my wife, May-Linn, and said, “This is the dream.” We both looked at the property, laughed a little together, and agreed that this was a dream, but that it was far beyond what we could have faith for.

​

I had set a maximum price of 2.5 million euros in all the searches I made, but time after time, a pop-up box appeared in the middle of the screen with this listing. Since the price showed 34 million, I closed it… until the day the temptation became too great not to see what it actually was. That was when I also sent it to May-Linn.

​

The investor from the Netherlands did not seem overwhelmed, but said that he would consider this property as well. Still, the thought kept working within me: “Master in our own house…” But how in the world could we ever afford to buy such a property ourselves?

​

On Monday, October 16, 2023, when I woke up and had my prayer time, I felt that God reminded me to go to Massy-Palaiseau to find the property. Online, it was stated that it was located there, but here in France, real estate agents do not disclose the address of expensive properties until you have an appointment for a viewing. For this property, there was also a requirement to provide proof of financing showing that we were capable of purchasing it. Of course, we did not have that.

​

On Tuesday morning, my son Emil and I went to Massy to look for the property. In one of the pictures, I could see that the room had some kind of view, so we assumed that the property had to be situated on a hill. We started on a small hill northwest of Massy-Palaiseau, an area with around 90,000 inhabitants. We parked the car and began walking around the streets and up a small hill there, but we could not see anything that looked like it. In fact, we could hardly see anything because of all the trees surrounding the hill.

​

Even though no one knew what we were doing, it still felt a little embarrassing to walk around there. We then decided to drive around the hill and search on the other side. Four kilometers down into the valley, on our way around the hill, the car suddenly stopped and the battery warning light came on, something that had never happened with the car before. We experienced this as an attack and an attempt to stop us.

​

An hour and a half later, we had installed a new battery and drove down to the center of Massy to have some lunch.

When we had finished lunch, we only had 30 minutes left before we had to drive home. Emil had school at 4 p.m., and he could not miss the lesson. We were disappointed that we had not been able to search as much as we had wanted, so I asked Emil if we could make one final attempt before returning home. He agreed, as long as he made it to school on time.

Completely at random, I placed my finger on Google Maps on my phone, without even looking at the screen when I pressed it. “That’s where we’re going,” I said with a smile.

​

It turned out to be 10.1 kilometers to where the pin on the map now pointed, a 15-minute drive out onto the motorway to another municipality, in completely the opposite direction from where we thought the property was located.

On the way there, we talked about how foolish this might look, driving around searching for a property in this way. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. The hotel could have been anywhere, and on top of that, this was the wrong municipality according to what the online listing had indicated. Just before we reached the place I had pointed to on the map, I said to Emil, “If we find the property here now, only God could do something like that!”

​

And do you know what…

We drove straight to the property.

It could only be God!

(See map for driving route)

​

We were able to speak with the general manager there, who quickly showed us parts of the property. He told us that everything stated in the listing, and everything we had seen in the pictures, was correct. He also told us that the property was owned by an 84-year-old man who wanted to sell quickly.

​

On the way home in the car, I suddenly remembered that five or six years earlier, I had had this number, 34 million, in my mind. Could this property be the answer? After all, it cost 34 million euros.

​

A few days later, my father in Norway also called me. He told me that he had been reminded of the Bible verses where Jesus tells the disciples to go and find the room that had been prepared for them for the Passover meal. They were to say to the owner, “The Lord has need of it.” That room later also became the upper room where the Day of Pentecost took place, and where, after Peter’s message, about 3,000 people were added to the church that same day.

​

For me, this became yet another confirmation that the Lord desires a greater miracle and that He has set aside a place that is ready!

​

The amount required to purchase the property was still much higher than I dared to have faith for, so I did nothing more about it except send an email to the real estate agent. Around Easter this year, my wife May-Linn came across a new listing that she thought looked interesting, but there was not much information and only one picture. This was a property listed at 14 million euros. When I looked more closely, I discovered that this was the same property we had previously seen listed at 34 million euros. A week later, the listing disappeared from the internet, but because I had emailed the real estate agent in 2023, I had the information I needed to contact them.

​

When we attended a viewing at the end of August, the real estate agent told us that the price had been reduced to 22 million euros and that the listing at 14 million was not valid. In any case, it was this listing that awakened our interest again, while at the same time Emil had asked me several times, saying, “Dad, God led us straight to this property. Aren’t we going to do something about it?”

​

Many more details and miracles could have been shared here. What we want to communicate, however, is that God has led us, and that He has now brought us to the “negotiating table” to acquire this property.

​

He desires revival, and we are convinced that this place will become a great resource in His harvest work.