Here's an informative Q&A with Maggan Johansson, Coordinator of Project Hannah in Sweden.

1) Tell us a little about your background

I was raised in a Lutheran pastor’s family and am the second child of seven siblings. I have always believed in God, but my faith became deeper as a teenager when I met other Christian youth around the same age at Christian youth camps.

During high school, I took classes to help me work as a nurse in mental hospitals and at 18 I started to work at a mental hospital in a university town. That was a good year for me as far as meeting many Christian friends, but it was very shocking to see how the patients were treated. One of my new Christian friends that year became my husband. At the time, he was studying theology. I was not ready to move further with any education then, so I started to work at a Christian family treatment home on the west side of Sweden when I was 19 years old. My husband and I married when I was almost 21 after he was ordained as a pastor in the church of Sweden. We have three children.

2) How did you learn about Project Hannah?

I was working as a teacher of vocational (employment) training courses for immigrants. The immigrants I taught would be ready to work in elder care after finishing classes. One day when I was walking outdoors during my lunch break a very strong thought came to my mind, which was, ‘after this project I want to work with something more international, maybe radio.’ This surprised me, because ‘radio’ didn’t exist in my ‘world of ideas.’ At that time, I knew very little about radio organizations, but I can still remember the spot where I was when that thought first entered my mind. But, I did not take the thought seriously at the time; I just let the idea ‘fly away.’

Three months later I got a phone call from the nominating committee in Norea Radio (Sweden). They asked me if I could be a substitute member on the board of Norea. I remembered that strong thought from my lunchtime walk and I felt a spark of joy. But, I was also very confused, because I am not fond of board meetings at all. And, I did not know why I should be in that organization. However, I felt touched by God. I asked the lady to give me a week and then to call me again. But I understood that there was a connection between the thought I had during my lunchtime walk and the Norea invitation I got by a phone call and that both were from God. So after a week I said ‘yes’ with joy. I learned about Project Hannah at the first board meeting. The work of Project Hannah touched me like it came straight into my arms from heaven. And I knew why I was there at that board meeting!

3) Why were you interested in working with Project Hannah?

During my period at the education company, I understood that God had another plan for me. I felt strongly that the period at the vocational school was a kind of education for me too, even if I worked as an educator. I knew it was temporary. I prayed a lot about what kind of spiritual gifts God had given me. I asked him about a gift of prayer. So I understood Project Hannah was the answer when I was at the first board meeting. My entire adult life had been spent with all the different types of women Project Hannah focuses on. I whispered to God at the first board meeting, “YES, here is the tool!!!!”

4) What led you to start the “Hannah’s Café” program in Sweden and what is it like?

This was a challenge! How to reach out to Swedish women? The Nordic character is different from many other parts of the world. We are known as reserved people and spiritual questions are many times very private among the people. I have knowledge about many of the topics, but I felt it would not have any impact if I and Stina told the listeners about all kind of things. So we decided to interview Christian women who had been through all kind of things in life. I had never produced programs before. But, we bought a handy recorder and it took me several hours to understand the instructions of this recorder. Then I learned to edit the audio through trial and error. I listened to a secularized radio program very early on Sunday mornings, just because I wanted to know how they did their program. I don’t know how we got in touch with all the women for interviews. It just happened. We have included one interview for each program. The interviews are split in segments, and we have twisted the segments together. Some are the same topics from Women of Hope translated globally, but others are different. We have used our experiences with people in need and then tried to find Christian people who have gone through the same situations. We feel that God has opened the doors in an amazing way. We envelope the women’s story with scriptures and bible stories in the second part of the program. We share the Christian hope for the future. We have also used segments from the interviews in the second part (messages for the soul). We are broadcasting from 18 local FM stations at the moment and also on Internet.

We are thankful to God for all these women that have shared their own story.

5) How do the women you meet with respond to Project Hannah’s prayer ministry?

The prayer ministry in Sweden is also a challenge! When I’m invited to different meetings, people tell us that they want the prayer calendar. They receive the prayer calendar, but I’m longing to deepen communication with them. I use to write them occasionally that we would like to pray for them as well as women around the world and some of them would and asked for prayer. We face some challenges from our culture to expand the ministry, but there is much more we could do.

Read more about Project Hannah in Sweden.