During the spring of 2008 Göran and Tineke Karlsson started soaking sessions in their home in the Swedish country side. They had been introduced to soaking the fall prior by Tommy and Kerstin Ydreborg, a pastor couple from Borås. Tommy and Kerstin had some years earlier lost their youngest son Benjamin and the soaking prayer had helpt them. To be in the presence of Father God, and receive His wonderful love helped them to work through the deep grief that they experienced after the loss of their son. They found a deep intimacy with the Father which they had not felt before, and they were eager to pass this on to others. They decided to travel to Toronto Canada, to be trained certified leaders in soaking at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, where soaking originated.
The soaking sessions in Tineke and Göran's home began to attract a small group of people from various parts of the country. Göran and Tineke felt called to open up their home on a regular basis for people who were tired and overworked so that they could be still before God the Father, rest in His safe arms and receive the love, the comfort, and the guidance they needed.
As the spring progressed they felt the Lord speaking to them, He showed them how Moses led the Israelites through the desert and how He provided them with fresh water. Moses was told to hit a rock with his staff so that the people could drink. But at one point the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock, but out of old habit Moses hit the rock with his staff. Because of his disobedience Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land.
Göran and Tineke felt that the Lord, with this specific passage of the Bible, wanted to say to them that they were supposed to listen carefully whenever they heard Him speak to them, that He was about to do new things that they were not used to, but that they should trust Him and obey Him even if it meant going against old habits and traditional ways of doing ministry.
To follow the Holy Spirit's guidance, without exactly knowing what will come of it in the long term, has since then been the path they have tried to walk. The longing to start a healing center grew stronger.
In April 2009, they met a wealthy businessman from the Netherlands who recently had bought a beautiful mansion next to Lake Åsnen in the small town of Urshult. To their amazement the man from Holland offered them to use the house for the glory of the Lord.
They decided, after some time of confussion and weariness about how to start the healing center, to offer soaking sessions in the house every other saturday together with two close friends from Växjö: Kenth and Christina Erixon, and with assistance from an older Dutch couple, Theobert and Rensine Pot, who had recently moved to Sweden. They started on the first of September. In January 2010, the team felt like they were supposed to extend the soaking to once a week.
One step at a time the Lord spoke to them what to do next. Tineke and Christina became certified soaking-leaders in May 2010 when they went to Toronto Canada, and in October Mike and Hiroko Preece from the healing center Gilgal House in the United Kingdom came to train Göran, Tineke, Kenth, Christina, and a soaking team from Borås in Sozo, a unique healing and deliverance ministry.
In January 2011, the four started Heart to Heart Ministries with the vision to minister God the Father´s love for the world. The team wants to be a tool in the hands of the Lord to heal, restore, and set people free. The healing center is slowly developing, but God is the only one who knows the exciting future ahead...
