April + May Update

We have had a very busy spring. We finished off March with lots of renovation work at the guesthouse and then everyone took a quick vacation break to celebrate Easter with family. James and I stayed back and hosted the couple that came to pour epoxy on the floors in areas where we were renovating. They were a lovely couple from Poland, and they told many stories. After they left, James and I were given the opportunity to borrow our friend’s truck and travel to the northwest of Iceland to explore the Westfjords. And they were beautiful! We set up the back (covered) part of the truck with sleeping pads, sleeping bags, blankets, and makeshift curtains so that we could camp in style. We traveled around that area for almost a full week! The roads were bumpy, and the weather was crazy, but we had a great time.

When we returned, we jumped right back into renovation mode because there were only about 12 days until the guesthouse’s opening day. All of us worked very hard to get things cleaned, painted, and everything put back together. The stress level was high and there was so much to do. And that’s prime time when things go wrong… Just a few days before opening, I happened to go into a room to put some things away, and to my surprise, there was water dripping from the ceiling onto one of the beds. This was obviously a setback and a pretty sucky situation. We ended up ripping out the whole ceiling to find an old leak that just so happened to break through the ceiling that day. The plumber came down as soon as he could and sealed up the leak with a quick fix. Unfortunately, lots of the piping throughout the house is so old that there will definitely be more problems in the future unless all of the plumbing is updated and replaced. But, for now, it works and things in that room are in order. Just a week or so after that leak was found…a guest came out of their room and exclaimed, “it’s raining in my room!”. Different room, different leak. This one happened to be coming for one of the showers upstairs that we had just finished renovating. This set us back a bit mentally and we felt a bit defeated. Things have been slower getting that leak fixed and patched, but the situation is looking up. Hopefully, that room will be ready in the next week before we are fully booked and need to use all the rooms.

James and I took a few days after opening day to relax and slow down. Since we are not directly involved with running the guesthouse (we aren’t staff and do not get paid as employees - we are more like volunteers and help out where we can). When we started helping around the property again, one of the projects that we were asked to work on was cleaning up and clearing out the barn. This property has a long history and was once owned by a farmer who had sheep and horses and ran the area as an actual farm. Now, there is still the original barn and garage building standing. It regularly fills up with things from around the farm and from the guesthouse. Some things we sorted to keep and others we trashed or burned. It’s quite a bit of work though because you never know what will come in handy later. For example: electrical cords, light bulbs, scrap wood (because we all know the prices are crazy nowadays), glass which may be able to be repurposed as new windows, and so on. James and I have been spending most of May doing that. We set up cabinets and shelves to put things on and keep the area organized. We regularly burned things in the designated burn barrel and filled up the dumpster with odds and ends.

Also, I finished knitting an Icelandic sweater for myself! (I actually started it two years ago during my first time in Iceland) I will have to get started on making one for James soon, maybe it can be done by Christmas.

There were many rainy days this spring, but we have now had better, warmer weather and since each day brings us closer to summer, the sun is out longer and longer. Right now, it doesn’t fully set until after11 pm and then in the middle of the night, it rises around 2:30 am. We sometimes wake up when it shines through our window, but we have good blackout curtains to keep the room nice and dark most of the night. With all the sun and rain though, the plants, especially the grass, are growing at an alarming rate. You can actually see it. You wake up one day and there is significantly more green in the view than the day before. One chore that has to be done more and more regularly throughout the summer is mowing. They say when the weather is nice, the grass needs to be cut every three days! This last weekend, James took a turn mowing. It is quite a big area. It needs to be mowed with the push mower for the steep hills and the ride-on mower can be used for the rest. But the belt just broke on the ride-on one! So, unfortunately, James had to push mow the whole thing. He even got a little sunburnt, which is crazy because just a few weeks ago it was snowing and raining but now the sun has finally peeked through.

Some good news is…we officially have our resident permits for Iceland! This is a bit late as we received them at the end of April, but it worked out so well - all in God’s timing. The situation was, that James and I were allowed to be here without visas for 3 months. So, we turned in our resident permit applications before we came here and waited for them to process as we stayed and lived in Iceland. Now the week before our 3 months was up, we were stressed and worried because the government agency had been giving us trouble and not really answering or giving us the correct info. We called, we emailed, and we also stopped by the office…all to see if it was a yes or no or if we should look at leaving the country or not. Well, just days before our expiration, we got the email! We had been accepted and each given a 1-year resident permit. The plus side is we will be able to stay for one year from the start of our resident permit, not the start of when we arrived…three months earlier. Somehow in God’s timing and through His power, we were able to sneak in those extra 3 months. He really does take care of our needs and desires.

Our future plans have updated recently too. We have applied to be staff at a YWAM base in Norway for the fall! We will be helping with their BCC (Bible Core Course) and learning how to plan and run it on our own. It will be from mid-August to the end of November. Afterward, we hope and pray that we can work with the believers here to host our own Bible Core Course school to teach people how to read and study their Bibles through the inductive method. We are very encouraged by the faith that the believers here in Iceland have, especially the young people. They are ready to see a spiritual awakening happen in their home country.

For those of you that don’t know James and I are now in North America! We are visiting Oregon for two weeks and then James is headed to Nova Scotia for his brother’s wedding! I will not be able to make it, so I will be in Oregon for the whole month of June. But we are excited to see you all, update you in person, and catch up with friends and family.

We will, unfortunately, be missing a youth camp that happens every year at the property in Iceland, but we will be praying and encourage you all to pray with us, that the youth will be overwhelmed by the Lord’s presence and catch the Holy Spirit’s fire.

Thank you again for supporting us! It is because of you guys that we get to keep doing what we’re doing and even have time and funds to visit family. If God tugs on your heart to support us financially, please do! There are options down below on how best to send us funds.

Thanks for tuning in and have a blessed day!

Here’s the link to a little update video from us 😊

https://youtu.be/qTYFd3mHIIg