March is Women’s History Month. The story of North Central alumna Agnes “Aggie” (Berg ‘44) Hurst may not grace the pages of major history books yet the story of her origin and her life has been told and retold, as it captivates the imagination and serves as an indisputable reminder of how God is at work in every circumstance.
It’s hard to tell the story of Aggie in short form, but at the end of this overview of Aggie’s life are links to additional accounts of their story—in book and video form—and for the deeply curious, Agnes Hurst’s autobiography, “One Witness,” is available from the T.J. Jones Library.
Aina becomes Aggie
Agnes was born in 1923 in N’Dolera, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to Svea and David Flood. Her given name was Aina Cecilia Flood.
Svea and David Flood were Swedish missionaries who came to the Congo in 1921 with their two-year-old son, David, Jr., and another missionary couple, Joel and Bertha Erickson.
After two years of traveling from place to place trying to find a village that was not hostile to their presence, they settled a short distance away from N’Dolera. The village chief had forbidden them to interact with the villagers but allowed one boy to deliver eggs and chickens to the families once a week.
Svea embraced the opportunity to befriend the boy and developed a friendship; eventually, the boy made a decision to follow Jesus!
Despite this one success toward their mission of sharing the Gospel, the Ericksons were discouraged and decided to return to an established missionary outpost in Uvira, Belgian Congo.
The Floods remained at N’Dolera and several months later, Svea gave birth to a baby girl.
When baby Aina was 17 days old, Svea, who was already weak from a recent bout with Malaria, passed away from delivery complications.
Devastated by the loss of his wife and discouraged by their lack of progress in their mission, David flood secured help from villagers to help him travel with his young son and newborn daughter to the Uvira outpost.
David was greeted in Uvira by the Ericksons and he announced that he was returning to Sweden and leaving the mission field. Despite pleas to stay from the Ericksons, David would not change his mind.
However, the vast jungle terrain between Uvira and the nearest port would not be survivable for little baby Aina, who was struggling with health problems already.
The Ericksons offered to care for the baby until they returned to Sweden the following year on furlough. David reluctantly left the baby with them and returned home to Sweden.
Tragically, Bertha Erickson died unexpectedly a short time later. It happened that Arthur and Anna Berg, American missionary friends of the Ericksons, were visiting at the time. Faced with the daunting task of raising an infant while serving as a missionary, Joel Erickson placed baby Aina into Anna Berg’s arms and said, “God sent you here for this.”
The Bergs, who were childless, were stunned but received the child.
Shockingly, three days later, Joel died unexpectedly and mysteriously in the same fashion as his wife, followed shortly after by another missionary. Suspecting the village chief may have poisoned their friends, the Bergs quickly left Uvira with the baby.
Anna Berg renamed Aina with an American name, Agnes Charlotte Berg, and called her “Aggie,” and the family resettled in the village of Massisi. Aggie spent her early years speaking only Swahili and running and playing freely with her friends in the village.
Going to America
When it came time for the Bergs to return home from their mission assignment, there was a major complication: now 3-year-old Aggie was not legally their child.
Upon his return to Sweden a few years prior, David Flood had married Svea’s younger sister Cecilia to help him care for David Jr., but he lived an embittered life filled with alcohol and anger, and disavowed anything having to do with God.
The Bergs had heard of David’s emotional state and did not believe it would be best for Aggie return to her birth father. They tried to find ways to take the child out of the country legally without contacting David, but found themselves left with only one choice: ask permission of David to take the child to America. Upon receiving their letter, David granted permission to take Aggie with them, but they could not yet legally adopt her.
The Bergs and Aggie returned to Arthur’s home state of Minnesota. Even though Anna and Arthure were called to full-time missionary work, they decided if they returned to Africa with Aggie they would risk losing her—a thought they could not bear. They pursued pastoral ministry instead, first planting a church on a Native American reservation in South Dakota, and later planting a church in Sioux Falls (what is today Sioux Falls First Church).
Anna Berg’s father was the Reverend C.M. Hanson, the first superintendent of the North Central District of the Assemblies of God. In her autobiography, Aggie recounts frequently feeling isolated because of her unusual story and the high expectations that came from being the daughter and granddaughter of preachers.
Because Aggie’s birth father, David, was still alive, the Bergs had been unable to legally adopt her. They had to go to unusual lengths to keep her immigration status legal and lived with an ever-present fear that David Flood would one day call to claim his daughter back. David was still embittered, but at one point wrote a letter to the Bergs to say he was coming to America to do evangelistic work and wanted to visit. Before the Bergs could respond that letter was followed by a letter from Aggie’s Swedish Aunt Signe who warned that David had no evangelistic intentions but instead was planning to get “Aina!”
Through a mysterious turn of events, David never turned up.
After years of wrangling with congressmen and government officials, it was determined enough time had passed without sufficient contact from her father, and the Bergs were granted permission to legally adopt Aina/Aggie.
Early adulthood
When she had the opportunity to go to North Central Bible College (now North Central University), Aggie was looking forward to finally breaking free from the less-than-thoughtful ways people spoke to her or about her.
Unfortunately, one of her cousins who was also attending North Central revealed Aggie’s story in front of her friends, and Aggie was discouraged to have her misfit past accompany her to school.
The bright spot in her college experience came in the form of a man named Duane “Dewey” V. Hurst ’44. The two met on Aggie’s pre-enrollment visit, and not long after her arrival as a student, they were dating.
Aggie left North Central when Dewey graduated, but the couple returned a few years later when Dewey was asked to teach at NCBC. During that time they had their first child, a daughter named Gigi.
Next, Dewey was called to serve in various capacities at the Assemblies of God headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, where their son, Rick, was born. While in Springfield, Aggie was also granted U.S. citizenship, at last.
Eventually, Dewey went on to serve as president of Northwest College (now Northwest University) in Kirkland, Washington, and even served as mayor of Kirkland.
Pilgrimage to Sweden
For their 25th wedding anniversary, Northwest College gave Aggie and Dewey airline tickets for a trip to Sweden. As they planned their itinerary, Aggie prayed they would be able to see her father and her siblings, including David Jr. and three other brothers and a sister that were born to David Sr. from his marriage to Cecilia.
She reached out via letter to the last known address for her father and her correspondence eventually found its way to David Flood. He replied that he would be glad to see her.
The day before their departure for Sweden, Aggie received in the mail a magazine—written in Swedish. She recognized the words “Pentecostal” and “Stockholm” but there was no indication who had sent it to her. What caught her attention was a photo with an article that showed a small grave marked with a cross and the name “Svea Flood.” Aggie rushed to the home of a Swedish teacher from the college.
As her friend translated the article, Aggie learned the remarkable story of how the little boy with whom her birth mother, Svea Flood, had shared the Gospel long ago in N’Dolera continued to grow in his faith. When he grew up, he obtained permission from the village chief to build a school. Through the school, the boy won the children of the village to Christ, who in turn shared Christ with their parents, and eventually, the village chief became a Christian, too! The article concluded that 600 Christians were living in N’Dolera because Svea Flood shared the Gospel of Christ with one child.
When they arrived in Sweden, Aggie and Dewey were greeted by all of David Flood’s sons—including her full brother, David Jr. Thrilled to be meeting her siblings after all these years, she asked to visit her father. Preparing her for the visit, her brothers sharply warned her not to speak to her father about God because the old man would fly into a rage.
But Aggie’s faith was strong and this request would be impossible to fulfill.
When Aggie met her father, he told her, “Aina, I never meant to give you away.” To which she replied,
“It’s all right, Papa … God took care of me.”
David Flood didn’t fly into a rage but bitterly replied, “God forgot all of us …” and turned away from her. Because of the timely arrival of the Swedish magazine, Aggie was able to David that he didn’t go to Africa in vain. She recounted the story of an entire village following Christ because of Svea and their work in Africa.
Aggie invited her father to return to his faith, and he did.
More reunions
Recounting “coincidences” in her book to the point they seemed commonplace, Aggie shared stories of many reunions that happened seemingly by chance, including meeting her elderly Aunt Signe at a church service in Sweden and attending a gathering of church leaders in London that led them to the man who was the boy her mother led to the Lord in Africa. When and Dewey went to Africa several years later, she even meeting the man who made the small hammock and carried her through the jungle when David Flood left N’Dolera.
Not the end
Aggie died from cancer in 1984 and her autobiography ends with a section entitled “Not an epilogue,” written after her passing. Throughout her life and as she faced cancer, her family’s words state, “Her spiritual growth was most apparent in times of crisis. As Dewey observed her, worked alongside her, and supported her in prayer, Aggie became a true minister of Christ’s grace. Although she never carried a minister’s credentials, friends and strangers traveled hundreds of miles to see her, to be helped by her. She made a tape of her testimony, and almost incessantly he received letters from people who had experienced miracles in their lives after hearing Aggie tell her story. After decades of identity crises, the real Aggie had finally arrived.”
The final words of Aggie’s book were “Not the end.”
Photo credits: Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
Watch or read more about Aggie and Dewey Hurst
Video – “The Story of Aggie Berg Hurst”
Article – Decision Magazine – “Harvest from a Single Seed”:
Blogs
Seattle Times Obituary – Duane V. “Dewey” Hurst (2017)
