Gustaf Sword was born in Sweden, came to America in his early years and lived in the Connecticut area. He'd received Swedish seminary training and served as pastor of Swedish churches in Chicago and Des Moines from 1914-1920.His first missionary assignment in Burma was a small village two miles from the Chinese border, located on a main route into China. His mission was to serve the Kachin people. He designed and supervised the building of the Kachin Bible Training School. Interested in translation work, Mr. Sword compiled a Kachin Bible Dictionary and wrote a Pastor's Handbook in the Kachin language. As needed, he translated textbooks at the training school and also edited a monthly magazine in Kachin. His wife Edna faithfully served with him during their many years in Burma.

In W.W.II, Dr. Sword left his mission station and his comfortable home just 24 hours ahead of the Japanese. His house was looted and later burned, his garden and fruit trees destroyed. As Dr. Sword later put it, they were "burned out." The church, their home, and the entire mission station at Kutkai were bombed and burned by both Japanese and American forces. Caught in the storm of fleeing refugees on the Burma Road, he was discovered by General Claire Chennault, and carried to India by the "Flying Tigers" (Mrs. Sword had left earlier).

Dr. Sword was requested to return after the war, and served for many months as interpreter and liaison officer under the Office of War Information. In 1946, he assumed the responsibilities of reorganizing and coordinating the postwar Baptist work in Burma. Living in Rangoon he served as mission secretary. For five years he traveled thousands of miles overseeing the reconstruction of Baptist schools and churches. When he returned to Burma Gustaf wrote, "We built better than we knew. The Kachin people have not only remained faithful, but have carried the banner farther a field, and have gained large numbers of new converts.

"Upon retirement from foreign service in 1952, he served in various stateside responsibilities including staff mission representative for the Illinois Baptist State Convention and visiting lecturer at Central Baptist Seminary, to note some areas. In 1952 William Jewell College conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity upon him. He and his wife's retirement marked thirty years in the mission founded by Adoniram Judson. Gustaf had a brother Victor, who was also an American Baptist missionary, serving in Assam from 1921-1949.

In Burma the Swords encountered barbaric hill tribes living in filth, degradation and ignorance. Their huts had no windows or chimney; their unwashed bodies were covered with vermin. Many lived in a stupor induced by rice wine or opium. To these people the missionaries brought cleanliness, decency, order, and above all, they were able to "Instill in their hearts a working faith in Christ, the only power that will save."