Mats-Jan became a Christian at the age of 19, after a divine encounter with God on his way on a train from the north of Sweden he decided to give his life to Christ. 1987-88 he studied at Word of Life Bible School in Uppsala Sweden, and in the summer of 1988 he married the love of his life, Anna-Caisa. Living first one year serving in a church planting project in the city of Umea in the north of Sweden he and Anna-Caisa moved back to Uppsala where they spent one year at Word of Life Bible school, Anna-Caisa attending the first course and Mats-Jan the second.

1991 Mats-Jan started to travel, preaching in the newly opened Baltic States and the rest of the Soviet Union. In 1992 they were ordained missionaries and sent to Mariopol, Ukraine in what was the beginning of an historic missions endeavor in the former Soviet republics.

The first year Mats-Jan and Anna-Caisa served pastoring a newly started church while the local Ukrainian pastor studied at Word of Life Bible school in Uppsala. During those 9 months the church grew from about 80 people to more than 600 in attendance and at the peak of that period more than 300 people were baptized in the Sea of Azov. During those 9 months 3 new churches where started in the surrounding cities.

In June 1993 Mats-Jan and Anna-Caisa, now with 2 sons, moved to the second largest city in Ukraine to pioneer a church there. They spent 3 years in Kharkov seeing the church grow to about 300 people, several outreaches started around Kharkov plus multiple ministries as kid’s ministry, orphan outreach, and book distribution center were established.

1996 the family moved from Kharkov to Baku, Azerbaijan, which became their home for the next 9 years. Receiving the baton from Per and Abbi Åkvist they took on the building and formation of Word Of Life Baku.                                                             During the years in Baku Mats-Jan was called the most dangerous man in Azerbaijan, twice brought before the Supreme Court accused of ´propagation of the Gospel´, in the Shia Muslim country of Azerbaijan. Despite articles published in newspapers calling him spy and many other things he continued to build and strengthen the local church, starting outreaches in many of the unreached nearby nations, cities and villages.
Word of Life Baku under the leadership of Mats-Jan and Anna-Caisa grew to become the largest evangelical church in the country with today over 1000 members. In 2005 they handed over the church to Pastor Rasim Khalilov and his wife Natalya who have taken the baton and continued the work of Word of Life Baku together with a dedicated team of co-pastors and leaders.

From 2005 until 2010 Mats-Jan served in Word of Life Uppsala as fund raiser and head of marketing and simultaneously travelling all over the world preaching and teaching at different Bible schools and churches.

In 2010 Mats-Jan and Anna-Caisa were asked by Word of Life Ukraine to come and serve as pastors of the church in Kharkov, which they once founded, as well as a member of the national leadership of the Word of Life fellowship in Ukraine. In February of 2012 they returned to Sweden after 2,5 years in Ukraine.

A world missionary for more than 20 years. Teaching in Bible schools all over the world, from Uppsala Sweden to Harbin China, he is well experienced in world missions.

Mats-Jan is also the co-author of the book ´When the walls of Soviet Union suddenly opened´ (at the moment only available in Swedish) published at World of Life Publishing 2013.

Mats-Jan has been happily married to the sweetheart of his life Anna-Caisa since 1988 and together they have 4 children. Today they reside in Uppsala, Sweden and are members the church of Word of Life Uppsala.

If you would like Mats-Jan to minister in your church please do not hesitate to contact us:

E-mail: mjs@matsjan.com

Cellphone: +46732706291