Our Iceland Story Part 1

I've been wanting to share all about our trip for a while, and I started writing about the day after we returned.  I thought I would share the story with you, too.  When asked about the trip and how it went, I'm overwhelmed at God's goodness, and all He did in orchestrating this event.  I'm humbled and amazed by Him.  I hope you enjoy.  This first part will be from the time we left until our first full day on Vestmannaeyjar.  It's long...so if you don't like to read, then I'd say skip this.  :) 

There are so many things I want to share about this trip.  I’m almost at a loss for words, because there are so many things, God things, that happened in order for us to even be able to go on this trip.  Todd and I prayed long and hard about going.  When we first heard it mentioned in church on a Sunday night, I had the immediate thought that I would love for us to go together.  And then Todd texted me that exact same thought.

Days melded into weeks, and still we were praying.  Todd attended a couple meetings, but I didn’t.  It’s almost as if I were scared to even think that far ahead.  But one morning as we were getting ready, Todd got a text from Eddie stating that someone had given us each $150 in our account in order for us to be able to go.  God thing number 2.  We had fundraisers to raise money for our team to be able to go, and only God could make sure that 100% of our way was provided for us to be able to go.  Even down to some spending money, God provided it all.  Todd was able to do some work for several families in our church, but several people gave just to be giving.  God truly blessed us in providing our way.

Fast forward now, to the morning we left.  I was not that excited to leave because of the goodbye’s we had to say to our kids.  I was scared that something was going to happen to us while we were flying.  We actually made out a holographic will that is legal in the state of Tennessee, stating that in the event of our death, our children would be given to Brad and Marcia Coleman to raise.  Yikes.  I hated even the thought of this will, but it was something we had to do.

The night before we said goodbye to all the kiddos.  The only one that didn’t cry was Noah.  And Todd, but I’m not counting him.  Drew cried the worst.  And Jonah.  Even Graham.  And Graham, I later found out, woke up in the middle of the night, terrified over the thought of us flying for so long.  He woke my mom up and asked her to pray with him over our safety, and ended up sleeping in the room with her that night.

So on the morning of June 8, after a few hours of sleep (about 3 and a half), we packed it all up and headed out.  We’d said our goodbye’s the night before, and when we left, nobody was awake.  Thank the Lord for that...I was all cried out.  I had a headache from all the tears I’d shed and was not eager for more.  I was sad about not saying goodbye to my mom, but was a little relieved.  Then the minute the garage shut, she called my phone telling me that she'd just woken up.  :(  I was sad and kind of relieved.  I am very attached to my sweet Mom, and I would have cried even more.

We got to the church around 5:30 a.m. and prayed before we left.  We asked for God’s blessing and favor upon us as we traveled, and together with Ann Smith, left for the airport.  Stewart and Ann Smith were supposed to have gone on the trip with us, but Stewart had to have  bypass surgery.  He had 90% blockage in one of his arteries, and even 6 weeks after surgery, his doctor would not let him travel.  I know they were both heartbroken over not going.

We made our way through security (what a royal pain!) without any problems.  Even if it did make me sweat!  I had forgotten to wear "easy" travel clothes, so I had on an undershirt, a jacket and tennis shoes.   Todd and I were hungry, so once we were on the other side of security, we got a couple breakfast sandwiches from Lenny’s and a diet coke.  When we got to the gate, we saw that our plane was a small one. :) You know I love small ones, right???  Hmmmph.  I think at this point, some of our weariness caught up with us, because we all got the giggles.  The lady behind Carol was not at all happy as we all laughed hysterically.

We found out that Curtis Williams is hilarious.  We had already known how crazy he was, but we saw the funny side of him.  Already, he was showing this whole different personality, other than the "door greeter" personality we see at church.  It was so funny, and really refreshing, that he opened up like that.  Carol was laughing at my phobia of flying in a plane.  I hate to fly.  I am almost positive that I mentioned that a time or 300.  Seriously, I  HATE flying.  This was God thing number 4.  Of about a million.  God worked through all my fears and phobias and replaced them all with peace.  As in the following verse:

Philippians 3:6 & 7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and mind as you live in Christ Jesus.

Praise God, right? 

The joyful thing came next.  Todd and I were loving being together.  It was almost as if we were getting to know each other again.  We haven’t been alone like this (except for a night or two here and there) without the kids in about 6 years.  That’s why the goodbye’s were so hard, but it was worth it.  I stood up to go to the restroom on the plane and immediately slammed my head into the overhead compartment.  We lost it.  Composure returned upon my trip back to my seat until 5 minutes later when Todd spotted one of my hairs hanging from the overhead compartment.  Then the giggles returned again.  Praise God for joy!

Before I go any further, I want to say that Eddie prepared devotions to share every day.  Once in the morning, and once in the evening.  So we would place our focus on the Lord first thing and last thing every day that we were gone.  The devotions were about the fruits of the Spirit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  Galatians 5:22 & 23.

Back to our story.  Keep in mind we were functioning on 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep at the most.  Delirious, I tell you.  Pure deliriousness.

We landed safely in Boston.  Praise You, Lord, once again.  I prayed so much during that flight, y’all.  I had some serious Jesus time.  He met me on that flight and we had some amazing conversing.  Especially as we were about to land (it looked like it, anyway) in the water.  Seriously, WHO ON EARTH would put an airport right on the edge of a piece of land???  But He is so good.  So faithful.

I had taken a few pictures on the plane for the boys.  The last one that I took, when I put my arm down (I always put the camera strap around my wrist), the camera bumped the arm rest.  When we got into the airport and were making our way to the International wing, when I went to take a picture, I noticed that the viewing screen was blank. :( My camera had broken.  We were going to go buy one during our 8 hour layover, but Carol and Danny very graciously offered us the use of theirs the whole trip.  We gladly accepted.  And theirs was better than ours, anyway!  I can’t wait to see the pictures printed out.

We found our gate and split into groups.  Cassie, Curtis and Darwin went off exploring.  Todd, Eddie, Carol, Danny and myself went to eat at a seafood restaurant named Legal Seafood.  We actually were not going to eat there when we noticed the price of the food.  But then Danny said, “We’re going to eat here, together, and it’s all going to be on one ticket.”  He was paying our way.  God love him.  This was one of the many, many kind things he did for us.  I came to know and love him during this trip.

We ate and looked around some, and headed to the International wing to wait.  And wait, and wait.  The time passed pretty quickly, actually.  I spent a lot of this time reading through some of our devotionals and writing in my journal.  How else do you think I remember all this so vividly??  This is the point that Jeannie met up with us.  So on this trip were Eddie, Jeannie, Curtis, Cassie, Darwin, Carol, Danny, Todd and myself.  The perfect, God appointed group of people to be at the place we were going.  I’m losing count of the God things.  But this one was another.

The time finally passed and we made our way past security.  Again.  The 2nd time of the day that strange people and events made me sweat profusely.  This was also coming to be the theme of the trip, I was finding out. :) How ironic.  We go to Iceland and I sweat.  Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.  We ate dinner at Sbarro, because there was no meal on the plane to Keflavik.  We ate and soon after, boarded our plane.  With children.  Dreaded babies and toddlers.  On a 5 hour flight.  One of the babies, poor thing, must have had an earache and cried the majority of the flight.  Thank You, Lord, for earphones and airplane movies!  I watched Bride Wars.  It was really cute.

We landed safely in Keflavik at 6:30 a.m.  Thank You, Lord, once again!  For giving us Your traveling mercies.  I was thrilled to finally meet the infamous "Mike and Sheila"!  I had heard so many wonderful things about them, and absolutely could not WAIT to meet them in person.  Mike and a man named Stefan picked us up and drove us into the city.  The first place they took us to was the state church.  There are 2 kinds of churches in Iceland: the Lutheran state run church, and the pentecostal church.  The church that Mike and Sheila attend is called Philadelphia, and they have 300+ in membership.

Anyway.  The state church was really pretty.  The president of Iceland lives right behind the church.  With no gates or security or anything.  Mike said if he’d been home, we could have knocked and he would have invited us in for coffee.  Crazy thought, huh?  Before we left, we all gathered into a circle, held hands and prayed.  For our trip, and for us to be open to the Holy Spirit, and for the country of Iceland.  Two years ago the nation went bankrupt.  They had been one of the top 2 countries, economically, and they hit rock bottom.  There was lots of governmental corruption in that country, and God tore it all down and is slowly building it back up.  Slowly.  He has definitely had His hand in this, though, and is at work within them all.  That’s why what Mike and Sheila do is so important.  They have a radio station called Linden that is similar to Klove.  All of Iceland hears it on the radio, but anybody in the world can listen on the internet.  It’s www.linden.is.

After we prayed, we headed to our hotel.  We had breakfast while Mike told us all what we would be doing, and we went to our rooms for some much needed rest!  We’d been up 24 hours at this point and were desperate.  I slept for 4 hours, then showered and got dressed again.  We met in the lobby of the bed and breakfast, and Mike and Sheila picked us up.  We went to the Pearl, which is a museum.  We ate a snack then toured the museum.  The “snack” was a delicious crepe type thing filled with meats, cheeses and veggies.  And I had sprite to drink. :) I loved me some sprite that day.  We toured the city of Reykjavik next, in the car with Mike driving and telling us about everything.  After that we ended at Lindin.  Mike showed us all around and interviewed Eddie and myself on the radio!  Very interesting...anyway, we stayed at the station and had dinner.  Prepared by Sheila.  Sweet, sweet Sheila.  She had made some roasted chicken, some veggies and bread.  It was so good.  This is when I got my first taste of an orange soda called Applesin.

We went back to our hotel around 11 or so, and had devotion.  Eddie led us the first night, and he spoke on who God was to us.  Individually.  That day, for me, God was rest and peace.  Rest because of the rest I had on the plane and afterward at the hotel, and peace because in my prayer time, He’d given me that peace I spoke about earlier.  Thank You, Lord.  After devos, we crashed.

We woke bright and early the next morning, Thursday the 10th.  We had breakfast at the hotel, then devotions, and met Mike and Sheila in the lobby.  We had to pack up because we were leaving for Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Islands).  By ferry.  We were excited at this point, because we had no idea what was in store!  We all (well, most of us) took Dramamine and left.  Once there, I stayed outside and took lots and lots of pictures.  When the boat started moving, however, I was inside.  And quickly realized that I needed to be OUTside.  So out we went, but it was not any better.  I was quickly getting very sick.  You would not BELIEVE how much a huge boat like that could rock.  It was ridiculous.  Now, I knew what Sheila meant when she said, “You’ve never been on the North Atlantic Ocean.”  I stayed out for as long as I could.  It just so happened to be drizzling rain and was freezing.  When we went back in, Mike and Sheila must have seen the look on my face and looked at me and said, “You.  Go.”  So, down we went.  To the private quarters, we liked to call them. Meanwhile, above us Eddie (who proclaimed to not need seasick medication) was throwing up or “calling Ralph” multiple times.  As was Curtis.  And Darwin never actually called Ralph, but he sat in a corner on the top of the boat, outside, the entire time.  He had his eyes fixed on the horizon, and he would NOT take them off.  Even Mike, who never gets sick, got a little sick that day.  I am telling you, the sea was ROUGH.  But this is part of the memory that we made and will NEVER forget!  That dreaded ferry ride over to the Westmann Islands.

Down below was Sheila, Carol, and myself.  Later on, Cassie joined us.  "Mama" Carol was not actually sick.  She was in there to take care of us ladies that were sick.  And she did a fabulous job.  We stayed there until we reached the Westmann Islands.  When we were almost there, Todd came down to ask me if I wanted to come up to see what he was seeing.  I handed him the camera and told him to take pictures.  My stomach was still rolling, and I didn't want to lose it.  When I did finally go up to join the rest of our team, I saw that it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  Absolutely breathtaking.  We made our way off the boat and into the town of Vestmannaeyjar.  We were staying at Bethel, the only Pentecostal church on the island.  We were working with the pastor, Gudny (spelling???), his wife, Gudbjorg, and two out of 3 of their kids, “Karl”, and Yenny.  They have one more daughter, Elisabet, but she was at camp on the mainland while we were there. 

Before I go any further, I need to stop here.  Upon the planning of this trip, we had NO IDEA whatsoever what we were going to be doing in Iceland.  Our plans actually changed a few times,  but the last time the plans changed was in the few days before we left.  The volcano, E 15 as the military named it, started erupting again.  Mike called off all our previous plans and told us that we would instead be spending the majority of our time on Vestmannaeyjar.  We were going to be distributing movies about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The islanders all proclaim to be Christian, but don't have a personal relationship with the Lord.  Most of the people took the movie (because it was free, or okepis) but some turned us down.  We planted the seed while we were there and hope to see it harvesting next year, when we’re hoping and praying about going back.

Back to our story.  So we went to the church, met the pastor and got settled.  Some ladies had fixed us a yummy lunch of waffles, breads, ham and cucumbers.  It was delicious.  And coffee and juice.  Yummmm.  We were all starving.  We talked after that and took a tour of the church.  On the tour in the basement, we noticed that some kids had set up the area as a skate park.  There were skate board ramps and shoes all over the place.  Eddie, in all his bravery, decided to give the skateboard a try.  And proceeded to fall right on his rump.  Before you can ask, yes, I did indeed laugh my head off.  After the tour, we got settled in our spaces.  We had a communion service Thursday night.  It was beautiful.  Breaking bread with these sweet people.  And we worshiped together.  We knew the songs they sang.  They sang in Icelandic, we sang in English, and it was just beautiful.  Very touching.  Once again, God met us there.

We had pizza for dinner with the church people afterward.  And shortly after that, we had devotion, prayer, and we hit the sack.  We were exhausted.  I need to mention here that we had decided our sleeping arrangements would be that all the men would stay in the fellowship hall area of the church.  The church had mattresses for them to use.  They were really comfy, because one or two times I might have taken a nap on Todd's bed while waiting on the rest of our team to get ready.  Us women got to all room together in a little apartment that belongs to the church that is right above.  We were excited that we had our own shower.  The men did have bathrooms downstairs with them, but we were blessed to have a shower.  Well...until Todd broke it, but more about that later.

To be continued...