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One
of our dearest friends and a founding board member of our ministry, Grace
World Mission, went home to be with the Lord just a few days ago on December
29. We had just come home from a two-month mission trip to Europe and had barely unpacked our bags when I was talking on the phone with Harald Bredesen and making plans for us to get together for lunch. He sounded so strong and alert on the phone, what a shock that he would pass away just a few short days after our conversation. The night before we were to get together, I received a call that Harald had taken a bad fall down the stairs and fractured his skull. The next few days were spent at the hospital by his side, taking in the last few precious moments beside a great man of God before he left us to be home with the Lord. |
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| Bryan Marleaux and Harald Bredesen in 1998 | |||||||||||||||
In
light of his passing, we are grateful that right before we left on our
trip we had some blessed times with him, just hanging out and eating dinner
in his kitchen, making different types of food and all kinds of crazy
desserts, Harald pushing us to dig further into the deep freeze in his
garage late into the evening to find what other delightful toppings we
could add to all the different sundaes we were creating. Harald was one
of the few people who loved food more than we did! We also had a very historic and unique opportunity before our trip to arrange an important, and, in hindsight, significant last meeting between two of the greatest pioneers and leaders of the world renown Charismatic Renewal; Harald and Jean Stone Willans were together one last time as we drove Harald up to the Pasadena area to visit the Willans’ church service and afterwards were able to interview Harald and Jean on camera regarding some key aspects of the Charismatic Renewal and their central roles in it. (We’ll have a video of this available in the future.) |
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Bryan
and Mercedes Marleaux with Harald and John Ruttkay grabbing a bite after a Grace World Mission board meeting. |
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| Left
to Right: Rick Willans, Bryan, Harald, Mercedes, Jean Stone Willans, Geoff
& Sarah Craighead, and
a friend. |
Harald
and Jean Stone Willans, two giants of the Charismatic Renewal. |
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Harald
and Jean coined the term Charismatic Renewal and spent many years together
pioneering the renewal as they held many “Christian Advance”
meetings ministering the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” to so
many. Harald is actually known as the first Charismatic as he is the first mainline minister who received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1946 while still remaining within the Lutheran denomination, even though he was almost forced to leave because of his experience with the Spirit. As well as being such an important figure in the historic “Charismatic Renewal” he has many other credits to his ministry such as mentoring and helping Pat Robertson begin CBN as well as impacting and influencing many other well-known ministers and figures such as David Wilkerson, Pat Boone, Dale Evans Rogers, John Sherrill, Jack Hayford, and on and on. He has also ministered to world leaders like Anwar Sadat, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin, amongst many others. |
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Hanging
out in the Jacuzzi, food and hot tubbing were some of his favorite earthly
things owing to his Norwegian roots. |
Harald
and Patrick sharing some love on our couch, not only a spiritual father but a grandfather too. |
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One
of the great legacies, yet lesser know aspects of his life, however, was
what one of my professors Bobby Clinton from Fuller Theological Seminary,
the school I graduated from, calls “Convergence,” a term Clinton
coined, which includes as one of its main aspects the point when a mature
and seasoned minister, that is well established and on in years, sees
the importance of pouring himself into younger people as a preparation
for the equipping of the next generation. An important aspect of ministry
that, as Clinton points out, “few ministers ever reach nor unfortunately
see the need to pursue.” |
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| Harald
and Bryan baptizing Bryan's younger brother Dana, after Bryan just led
him to the Lord. Immersing him in the pool at Harald's housing complex. |
Rick
Willans and Bryan praying for Harald back in October 2006 in Pasadena. |
Mercedes
and Patrick and Harald having a little feast with yet more chicken sandwiches. |
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| God
often used Harald in a discipling way with us and there were some wild
things that would happen when God would use him to deal with an area of
life that needed some kind of shaking up. Amongst some of the crazy experiences
that come to mind with Harald was a time years ago when we were taking
a prayer walk with him, which was one of his favorite things to do. We
ended up in a mall going through stores, as Harald led the way speaking
out loudly in tongues and shouting “Praise God!” while he
had us locked in his arms. God was using Harald, who liked to do this,
to eradicate the “fear of man” in our lives. The pinnacle
came when, as we continued walking, I noticed a surf shop. I silently
hoped that Harald would take us nowhere near it. As a lifelong surfer
there could be nothing more uncool than going into a surf shop with an
older person blabbering in some weird unknown language and shouting “Praise
God!” God, apparently, is not a fan of looking cool—just a
form of pride—and in we went, and the crucifixion of the prideful
self was dealt a seriously needed blow! Meeting Harald for the first time back in 1993 was an equally wild adventure. I first talked with him on the phone while he was eating a chicken sandwich and telling me as he gulped it down (with many sound effects to go with it!), what a great sandwich it was and how he wished he could give me a bite. "This guy is a trip!" I thought. What a fun trip it was getting to know him! We came to his house that day and were placed in an old office of his while we waited for over an hour to see him. Investigating around, I noticed lots of exercise equipment, stair climbers and treadmills, with a different telephone connected to each one. "Boy, this guy likes to workout and talk, doesn't he!" I quipped to Mercedes, an assessment that was confirmed even more when another phone was found down in a cement hole with a cover right by his Jacuzzi. We were finally invited in to see him, and another person supposed to have a meeting with him that day got lost on the way, which meant we had the rest of the day with the renowned Charismatic pioneer. |
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We
talked and then moved into eating dinner, and while we were in the middle
of it, with mouths full of food Harald grabbed our hands and started praying
in tongues and then blurted out: "Are you folks full Gospel?"
I responded, "I think so." I wasn't sure what he was asking...
"If you mean Spirit filled, that we are," I said. Harald grabbed
our hands again and started praying in tongues once more and then began
praying for us and the glory of God descended upon all of us as we sat
weeping, laughing, rejoicing and worshipping. Harald began to prophesy
over us regarding God's plans for our lives and ministry and we were incredibly
blessed, encouraged, and ministered to, and an indelible bond of friendship
and fellowship was formed that day that continued until the day he went
home to be with the Lord. |
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Hanging
out with Harald in our old ramshackle 330 sq. ft. apartment. Harald would
often come over and pray "Oh God when are you going to get these
precious servants of yours out of this misery." A prayer and prophecy
that, praise God, Harald got to see fulfilled through a miracle that God
performed through a dear friend of both of ours. Harald here still eating
those beloved chicken sandwiches. |
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