Sunday, April 19, 2009

Iceland - Day 5

The weather here is a major element of our Icelandic experience. The first 2 days it was fairly pleasant so that a coat was not needed most of the time. As a result when we headed out in search of the newspaper office on Friday Jimmie didn´t even get his coat until I fussed at him - but am I glad that I did. When we ended up wandering about on that mountain top we got our first taste of bitterly cold Icelandic wind. We were definitely NOT dressed for it (my long johns were back at the B & B, brrrrrr!) but to not have had a coat would have been disastrous. Since then the temperatures have been chillier and the winds stronger. Our landlord was popping in and out this morning with only short shirt sleeves talking about the spring weather, and the 4 of us were eyeing him in disbelief. The winds were very strong today, shaking the building, rattling doors, and pushing you along when you walked outside.

There is a large map of Iceland in the foyer of the guesthouse and I took a few moments to look at it a bit closer this morning. Those miles and miles of incredibly rugged countryside between here and Reykjavìk are actually lava fields. They are covered in some kind of lime green lichen so I had not realized that, but no wonder they appear so harsh. According to the map much of the southern portion of Iceland (where we are) is covered in lava fields, which is not a comforting thought exactly. Makes me wonder where the source was. I have found pictures of at least 2 volcanic eruptions on the island in the last 15 years or so.

We worshipped with the church in Reykjavìk this afternoon and it was wonderful to at last meet everyone. The Christians in the congregation there were Marias and Gyða (the church meets in their home), their middle daughter Swanhildir, and a couple Paul and Darlene. Another man also attends regularly but has not yet obeyed the Gospel, and the last visitor was a man from Pennsylvania, Royce Sartin. They gave us a copy of the Icelandic hymns they planned to sing during worship, so before we started I asked Paul to tell us a translation so that we would have some idea what we were singing. He did and they were very pretty songs. They also sang What a Friend We Have In Jesus in Icelandic while the Georgia group sang it in English. Jimmie preached on the Authority of Christ. Everything went very well and afterwards there was lots of time to visit with our brothers and sisters. Our workshop begins tomorrow afternoon so I hope it goes as smoothly.

By the way, we would love to hear from you, too. Just hit the comment link below a posting or send us an email. If there is something you have always wanted to know about Iceland but were afraid to ask, now is the time. I will try to find out for you.

- Linda

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