Lydia Prince

A brief timeline of Lydia (Christensen) Prince’s journey to Israel:

Lydia was born March 8, 1890 in Bronderslev, Denmark. In December 1926 her “suitor” proposed marriage and she couldn’t accept, needing an answer to a question in her heart, “Is there something more to life than just a career, nice apartment, furniture … and a pension?” She went home for Christmas and learned her father had expressed the same sentiments the last couple years of his life.

When she returned to Korsor after Christmas break (January 3, 1927), she began reading the bible the next day and was born again, (that is when she prayed and told God, “if you will show me Jesus as a living reality I will follow him” and Jesus appeared to her.) In February she was baptized in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues and that night God showed her the vision of the woman and men in middle eastern dress, and at the end of February she was baptized in water by immersion.

In August (while on summer break) she visited Pentecostal churches in Sweden and on her last night before returning to Denmark, she listened to a missionary speak, and along with other things, he shared about the hospital they were building in the Congo. As he was talking, she heard God tell her, “You have money to help him.” She had received her bank statement just prior to leaving for Sweden, and it was equivalent to about $3000 U.S. dollars. She shared with him and his wife after the meeting what she believed God was telling her: to give money for his hospital and also her vision about people in different dress. He told her they had been to the Holy Land and saw people dressed as she described. When she returned home, she immediately withdrew all her inheritance ($3000) and sent it to him. She began to earnestly seek God’s plan for her and “…almost against my will I began to turn my attention that direction [Israel].”

She spent weeks praying, by October and November, her heart was changing, and there was love in her heart towards people in Israel she didn’t even know. In December, in a prayer meeting with the Pentecostal group where she attended, God gave her the vision of a baby girl’s face, in a box. She came to believe God was directing her to Jerusalem but hesitant to actually turn in her resignation.

Over Easter weekend of the next year (1928), she listened to a missionary from China, talked to him after he finished speaking, explaining to him what she believed God was telling her and voiced her hesitation to him. He said, “Sister Christensen, Denmark is full of spiritual cripples who have heard the call of God but were afraid to step out in faith. Don’t you be one of them.” She wrote out her resignation that night.

In a missionary magazine published in Sweden, she saw the address of a Swedish lady who lived in Jerusalem, Ida Gustafsson. She wrote to tell her she was coming to Jerusalem. Gustafsson wrote back and agreed to meet her on Lydia’s arrival. Lydia spent the last few days before she left for Jerusalem with her mother and her mother told her a story about when Lydia was five, had pneumonia, she thought they were going to lose her. “I remember standing by your bed one night and telling God that if He would spare your life, you would be His. Perhaps that explains some of the things that have been happening these last two years.” Lydia agreed. She arrived in Tel Aviv October 18, 1928. Miss Gustafsson met her there, with a hired driver and they left for Jerusalem.

Compiled by Kathryn Currier
(Source: Appointment in Jerusalem by Derek and Lydia Prince)

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