<\/p>\n
A rising star in Swedish media, Ingrid Carlqvist worked as an investigative reporter and editor at some of the country\u2019s largest news companies.<\/p>\n
Her reporting would lead her to take some controversial stands on issues like Muslim immigration to Sweden, which would doom her career in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n
Then, after 59 years of living as a convinced atheist, her life completely changed in 2019.<\/p>\n
An Atheist Who Was \u2018Very Fond of Christianity\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Ingrid said, \u201cI thought I was an atheist, but I was very fond of Christianity. I, for many years, dreamed about there being a revival in Sweden.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI just didn’t think I needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingrid\u2019s journey to Christ began when her friend Henrik Hultberg, a Christian, was miraculously healed of a serious blood clot in his brain while in the hospital.<\/p>\n Ingrid recounted, \u201c(Henrik) said to me, \u2018You have to become a Christian. That’s the thing, don’t you understand?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ingrid told him, \u201c\u2018Yeah, I, I think I want to. But how do you do it?\u2019 And then God started doing things in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Meeting Jesus at the Sea of Galilee \u2018On The Wrong Boat\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The turning point came when Ingrid went to Israel, visiting the Sea of Galilee where, as she puts it, she \u201cgot in the wrong boat.\u201d<\/p>\n After Ingrid talked about Christianity on her podcast, a listener suggested she meet Lars Enarson, a Swedish Bible teacher living in Israel.<\/p>\n Enarson said, \u201cThat’s when I decided I’m going to connect with her and see if she would be interested in coming to Israel and I could show her what Israel is all about. And she graciously accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n Enarson and his sister Ellen gave Ingrid a tour of the Holy Land and scheduled a trip to the Sea of Galilee. She traveled north with Ellen, and they prepared to board one of the many tourist boats that operate on the lake.<\/p>\n Ingrid said, \u201cAnd then I just saw a lot of people walking onto this boat, and I said, \u2018Ellen, that must be our boat. Let’s go.\u2019 And we went on this boat, and suddenly people started to sing in English hymns.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a boat chartered by a group of American Christians.<\/p>\n And Ingrid told Ellen, \u201cI think we’re on the wrong boat.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Okay, but now we’re here. Let’s just have fun.\u2019 As she sang along with them, she knew all these hymns, but I had really bad conscience. I hadn’t paid for my ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n Then the Pastor told the story of Jesus walking on water, calming the storm, and how Peter tried to walk on water and began to sink because of his unbelief.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 Words Hit Her Like a \u2018Boom!\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n When the Pastor repeated the words of Jesus, \u201cWhy do you have so little faith, Peter?\u201d Ingrid said they hit her like a \u201c\u2019boom\u2019 in my heart. I started crying. And I just cried and cried and cried. And I thought to myself, \u2018Wow, I really met Jesus today.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As the boat returned to shore, Ingrid, her face still red from crying, felt guilty because she hadn’t bought a ticket for the cruise.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I went up to the Pastor, and I said, \u2019My name is Ingrid and I’m from Sweden, and I’m so sorry that I got on the wrong boat. And he looked at me and said \u2018Ingrid, you were definitely on the right boat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Smears on Her Reputation Followed Her Into Church<\/strong><\/p>\n Ingrid returned to Sweden and began reading her Bible each day and even enrolled in a Bible College. Although when she wanted to join a church, the media’s past attacks on her reputation, that she was \u201can Islamophobe, a racist, a horrible person,\u201d followed her.<\/p>\n Members of one church looked up Ingrid on the web and she says she felt unwelcome and left.<\/p>\n Then she discovered a church pastored by Sven Wiborn.<\/p>\n Wiborn told us, \u201cI looked it up on the internet and I could see very, very bad things written about her. And I was interested. So, I went to her and I talked to her, and I found a longing for truth. And she told me she had been rejected in different churches. And I said, \u2018It’s not right.\u2019 If God has saved her, who are we to stop her? Even if she’s different? Doesn’t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingrid Says God Gave Her the Title For her Book<\/strong><\/p>\n Then, as she was driving to her baptism, \u201cI heard a voice in my head saying, \u2018You must write a book about your story, how you came to faith. And I will give you the title.\u2019 And in English it is \u2018Oh my God, Do You Really Exist?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it’s true, He exists.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingrid\u2019s new book, Oh My God, Do You Really Exist?, was published last month. Lars Enarson, who wrote the forward, says we should never decide who is a good candidate to become a Christian.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many people who are looking for truth today and many are like her and they just need to hear the truth, \u201cEnarson said. \u201cI think many are open today. And we have the answer. So, I think we need to be very bold in in reaching out to these people.\u201d<\/p>\n And Henrik Hultberg, who\u2019s miraculous healing started Ingrid on her journey, said he knew God was going to get her.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pretty convinced,\u201d Hultberg told us. \u201cI just thought, \u2018He’ll get her soon enough. Sooner or later, He’ll get her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her New Mission: Reaching a Nation of \u2018Unhappy Swedes\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Ingrid wants to use her new book to reach a nation of what she calls \u201cunhappy Swedes,\u201d many of whom in polling have admitted that their lives lack meaning.<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s my mission. You can go around and believe almost all of your life that you are an atheist because \u2018It’s cool. It’s cool to be an atheist.\u2019 Then you believe in \u2018science\u2019 and all that stuff. And God is for people who are \u2018weak or a little stupid. \u2018\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, my message is, \u2018No, it’s not. It’s just waiting there for you. You can change your life like this and just be filled with happiness.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ingrid hopes to release an English version of her book soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rising star in Swedish media, Ingrid Carlqvist worked as an investigative reporter and editor at some of the country\u2019s largest news companies. Her reporting would lead her to take some controversial stands on issues like Muslim immigration to Sweden, which would doom her career in the mainstream media. Then, after 59 years of living<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4111,3149,976,8652,481,5622],"class_list":["post-32652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-atheist","tag-convinced","tag-finds","tag-galilee","tag-jesus","tag-sea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}