Donald Bergagård

Jack Donald Lennart Bergagård was born on 13 February 1936 on Öckerö, an island community in Bohuslän on Sweden's west coast. He grew up in a Pentecostal milieu and later kept a family house on neighbouring Hönö, a gift from his father that served as office and recording studio during summer stays. Public sources name his wife Berit Noomi Margareta Bergagård and children including daughter Madeleine (also spelled Madelene), who recorded with him.

In the late 1950s Bergagård worked as a pastor in the Pentecostal Elim congregation in Örebro. A 1959 visit to Aage Samuelsen's Maran Ata meetings in Oslo convinced him to carry that revival into Sweden. After friction in Elim he left in spring 1960 and founded the first Swedish Maranata congregation in Örebro, becoming one of the founders of the Swedish Maranata movement. Through the 1960s he was a prominent song evangelist in the movement until a 1968 break with Arne Imsen and the Stockholm congregation.

He recorded extensively from about 1960 onward for labels including Norsk Grammofonkompani, Cavatina, Maranata Record Mission, Victory, Evangelii Center and his own Donotema imprint, often with accordion, and sometimes with collaborators such as Arne Imsen, Erik Gunnar Eriksson and The Faith Brothers. Signature songs include his Swedish text to Där rosor aldrig dör and Min kung och jag. From 2001 to 2004 he pastored Maran Ata in Oslo, then spent much of the next decades based in the United States while returning each year to Hönö.

In March 1963 he led a Maran Ata meeting in Jönköping at which a 13-year-old boy with diabetes was prayed for. The boy's parents withdrew insulin; the child died a week later, and the case drew Swedish media coverage. It remains part of the public record of the early Maranata years.

Bergagård was married to Berit Noomi Margareta Bergagård and had two children. Daughter Madeleine recorded Andliga sånger och country with him in 1983. For roughly four decades he lived largely in the United States, returning to the west-coast house on Hönö for summer evangelism and recording. Swedish Christian newspaper Dagen interviewed him around his 90th birthday in February 2026, when he was still described as active with accordion and preaching.

During the summer of 2026 his health declined because of heart problems, and autumn engagements were cancelled. Donald Bergagård died on 29 September 2026 at the age of 90. Världen Idag reported the news the same day, quoting friend Kjell Samuelson, who called him simple and folksy with his accordion and wonderful singing voice. He is survived by his wife and two children. A detailed medical cause beyond the reported heart problems was not published in the principal notices.

Bergagård is remembered as a founding voice of Swedish Maranata and as a song evangelist whose recordings and accordion-led meetings shaped free-church revival culture for generations. Där rosor aldrig dör and Min kung och jag remain closely tied to his name. His long discography, Oslo pastorate and decades of cross-Atlantic ministry left a durable mark on Nordic Pentecostal and Maranata circles.