As you already know my husband's work called him to Iceland. He was working with the National Film Archive of Iceland. We got in early Saturday morning and spent most of the day sleeping. The next day we set off to meet some JWs that I contacted before we left. There were three sweet Pilipino girls manning their booth in the freezing cold. I mentioned the guys name who told me they were going to be there and we even got hugs. One said that she knew of the Bible Students. Hubby talked to two of them, while I talked to the third. The conversations were not deep and we only stayed about 10 minutes or so.
Next we met with a church group. We found out about this group from the owner of the Airbnb we were staying at. (Airbnb’s a lot of times are a lot cheaper than hotels and you can get a room in someone’s house or an entire house or apartment to yourselves. –we got an apartment about a mile away from the film archive). We will call the woman, Margret (her Icelandic name is something like that), she is renting out her mother’s apartment and in the bedroom bookcase we noticed books on Revelation and a Concordance, and Icelandic Bible and lots of other books that I could not read.
My husband talked a little with her and she told us about her group. (You see Iceland is technically a Protestant Nation—Lutheran being the biggest—but no one goes to church and the youth are basically unbelievers.) They had a song service and a little talk on Thankfulness, and then we were invited to Thanksgiving dinner with them.
I left some tracts in their meeting room and we had some conversations at the dinner. We sat with the minister’s wife and talked with her and then Elvan the piano player who was the minister’s brother and also the husband to Margret the Airbnb lady. Margret was out of town at her mother’s up north. They all knew that Hubby had to lead a Bible study later that day (we Skyped into our home ecclesia), but never asked any questions. I asked Elvan some questions about the End Times, Israel and Prophecies, but he was either really shy—which he seemed to be, but also not versed on those things but did agree with some things I said.
There was no one person that stood out to me. I did write a long letter for Margaret with a tract and left it on the table, telling her a little about the Bible Students.
We left tracts everywhere. We flew from AL to GA to NY before getting to Iceland and so many opportunities to pass out tracts. On the way back after we got into NY, we had to check our bag back in (we don’t usually do check bags, but because we needed so much winter stuff—we couldn’t fit it in our carry ons). We came to the counter, and the lady in the next counter had to tell the boys to help us—I don’t know what they were doing, maybe playing games on their phones because they were looking down and not paying attention that we were standing there. But before we left them I handed them both one of the “blessing” tracts. They both stood there for a moment not knowing whether to take it or not. Our flight attendants also got them and one from our Iceland to NY trip was on the next flight (but not working) and she remembered B-- and so they (the other attendants) and B-- were talking about the trip just before we landed. When we left, I gave on to the new attendant and said that the other one had already gotten one on the last flight.
On the last flight one of the pilots was standing in front of me as we were leaving and so he got a blessing tract.
While we were in Atlanta we were at the lounge. Traveling as much as B-- does he has access to the Delta Sky Lounge. Basically, it is a huge room where you can relax and they have food and beverages. If you know me, I am all about the free food. This lounge was packed. It took us a while to find a place to sit (in Iceland we had the whole place to ourselves practically). When we were about done eating, I noticed a man standing with his luggage holding a plate food, eating and watching the TV screen. I invited him to come to our table as I was done eating and we would be leaving soon. He came and B-- struck up the conversation with him and before we left, we left him with a blessing.
I don’t know how many tracts we put out, but it seemed like a lot (I didn’t count what I brought, just grabbed a bunch and filled my pockets and purse.) We mostly passed out the Chicago “Blessing” and “Little Child” tracts—those seem to be my favorites to give out. I am really liking the Blessing tracts, because I can say, “here is a blessing for you”. I still have along way to go, but I am improving and able to hand them to someone besides just leaving them in places. I than you for your prayers on that behalf.
B-- had an experience at the airport lounge on his trip to Singapore, where he handed one of the blessing tracts to the lady working there. He said it was early in the morning and she was a bit boisterous. She read the tracts out loud and would interject “I believe that” here and there and said she would write in the for the booklet.
Its experiences like that which spur you on to do it again.
Believe it or not Iceland has a Costco and while I didn’t hand the tract to the cashier—it was my intention, but he was talking to his helper when we were done, so I left it on the counter. We hadn’t left the store yet and one of them comes running up to me to tell me I left it there and hands it back—what could I say, so I took it and then handed it to the girl who checks your receipt on the way out. I don’t know if she was genuine or not, but she took it and said, “for me?” and she held it close to her and gave me a big smile.
What I had read about Iceland is that 0% of the youth believe in creation, though it is a nation of 80% Christianity. Most of the people that we met working in the stores and restaurants were the youth. Those at the Film Archive were very nice and hospitable, but not religious at all.
Icelandic culture is full of ghosts, gnomes and things like that. I was going to get a book on Iceland stories for my young niece and nephew and I read the jacket of the book and it talked about sorcery, ghosts, gnomes and trolls—I put the book back down, I just couldn’t do it, got them a tee shirt instead.
Below are some pictures from the trip--I have not finished processing them yet.
Next we met with a church group. We found out about this group from the owner of the Airbnb we were staying at. (Airbnb’s a lot of times are a lot cheaper than hotels and you can get a room in someone’s house or an entire house or apartment to yourselves. –we got an apartment about a mile away from the film archive). We will call the woman, Margret (her Icelandic name is something like that), she is renting out her mother’s apartment and in the bedroom bookcase we noticed books on Revelation and a Concordance, and Icelandic Bible and lots of other books that I could not read.
My husband talked a little with her and she told us about her group. (You see Iceland is technically a Protestant Nation—Lutheran being the biggest—but no one goes to church and the youth are basically unbelievers.) They had a song service and a little talk on Thankfulness, and then we were invited to Thanksgiving dinner with them.
I left some tracts in their meeting room and we had some conversations at the dinner. We sat with the minister’s wife and talked with her and then Elvan the piano player who was the minister’s brother and also the husband to Margret the Airbnb lady. Margret was out of town at her mother’s up north. They all knew that Hubby had to lead a Bible study later that day (we Skyped into our home ecclesia), but never asked any questions. I asked Elvan some questions about the End Times, Israel and Prophecies, but he was either really shy—which he seemed to be, but also not versed on those things but did agree with some things I said.
There was no one person that stood out to me. I did write a long letter for Margaret with a tract and left it on the table, telling her a little about the Bible Students.
We left tracts everywhere. We flew from AL to GA to NY before getting to Iceland and so many opportunities to pass out tracts. On the way back after we got into NY, we had to check our bag back in (we don’t usually do check bags, but because we needed so much winter stuff—we couldn’t fit it in our carry ons). We came to the counter, and the lady in the next counter had to tell the boys to help us—I don’t know what they were doing, maybe playing games on their phones because they were looking down and not paying attention that we were standing there. But before we left them I handed them both one of the “blessing” tracts. They both stood there for a moment not knowing whether to take it or not. Our flight attendants also got them and one from our Iceland to NY trip was on the next flight (but not working) and she remembered B-- and so they (the other attendants) and B-- were talking about the trip just before we landed. When we left, I gave on to the new attendant and said that the other one had already gotten one on the last flight.
On the last flight one of the pilots was standing in front of me as we were leaving and so he got a blessing tract.
While we were in Atlanta we were at the lounge. Traveling as much as B-- does he has access to the Delta Sky Lounge. Basically, it is a huge room where you can relax and they have food and beverages. If you know me, I am all about the free food. This lounge was packed. It took us a while to find a place to sit (in Iceland we had the whole place to ourselves practically). When we were about done eating, I noticed a man standing with his luggage holding a plate food, eating and watching the TV screen. I invited him to come to our table as I was done eating and we would be leaving soon. He came and B-- struck up the conversation with him and before we left, we left him with a blessing.
I don’t know how many tracts we put out, but it seemed like a lot (I didn’t count what I brought, just grabbed a bunch and filled my pockets and purse.) We mostly passed out the Chicago “Blessing” and “Little Child” tracts—those seem to be my favorites to give out. I am really liking the Blessing tracts, because I can say, “here is a blessing for you”. I still have along way to go, but I am improving and able to hand them to someone besides just leaving them in places. I than you for your prayers on that behalf.
B-- had an experience at the airport lounge on his trip to Singapore, where he handed one of the blessing tracts to the lady working there. He said it was early in the morning and she was a bit boisterous. She read the tracts out loud and would interject “I believe that” here and there and said she would write in the for the booklet.
Its experiences like that which spur you on to do it again.
Believe it or not Iceland has a Costco and while I didn’t hand the tract to the cashier—it was my intention, but he was talking to his helper when we were done, so I left it on the counter. We hadn’t left the store yet and one of them comes running up to me to tell me I left it there and hands it back—what could I say, so I took it and then handed it to the girl who checks your receipt on the way out. I don’t know if she was genuine or not, but she took it and said, “for me?” and she held it close to her and gave me a big smile.
What I had read about Iceland is that 0% of the youth believe in creation, though it is a nation of 80% Christianity. Most of the people that we met working in the stores and restaurants were the youth. Those at the Film Archive were very nice and hospitable, but not religious at all.
Icelandic culture is full of ghosts, gnomes and things like that. I was going to get a book on Iceland stories for my young niece and nephew and I read the jacket of the book and it talked about sorcery, ghosts, gnomes and trolls—I put the book back down, I just couldn’t do it, got them a tee shirt instead.
Below are some pictures from the trip--I have not finished processing them yet.
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