Halfway Through Lecture Phase

So, this is the tail end of week five of my Iceland Backpacking DTS lecture phase. This means that in five more weeks we will be headed away from Iceland to spread God's love in a few different countries...

MEXICO

COSTA RICA

BRAZIL

THAILAND

LONDON

I'm super stoked about going on outreach with my team to these different places and I'll keep you guys updated on more specific details when we get those things set in stone. Each week we have a time for outreach preparations. Recently, we have been taking personality tests and doing team building exercises to grow closer and understand how we can work well together using our different personalities and skills.

One thing that has been pretty difficult the past few weeks is some sicknesses have come upon the team. Two students were in bed for a couple weeks and one had to leave due to medical stuff but also some spiritual things. We were hit pretty hard with this spiritual warfare that effected our group communication and messed some things up pretty badly. So things have been really weird losing a team member, but we've talked through it and are still trying to pick up the pieces and come together in Christ and lift each other up through this tough time.

On a lighter note, we've been exploring Iceland and have seen some amazing things. Endless waterfalls, reindeer, horses, sheep, old turf houses, and some awesome ice. We usually go travel or go hike somewhere during the weekends. Just this past weekend we decided to take a trip to Akureyri, the capitol of Northern Iceland, only about a four hour drive from the base. The road was snowy and icy so much so that we had to go out and push the van, but it was fun. On the way there we stopped and saw the most powerful waterfall in Europe, Dettifoss. But it was so windy; I was looking at my feet the whole time until the end of the hike, I looked up to see it and then turned right back around. Then we spent the next day walking around the city of Akureyri and going to the tourist shops. A unique thing about this city is their red traffic lights are shaped like hearts, which you can see in one of the pictures below. It's a beautiful city of about 20,000 people, positioned right there on the coast. One reason for this quick weekend trip was for us to get out and see more of Iceland but the other part was to read the Bible together. From the start of this DTS we have been reading through the Bible together once a week and this was supposed to be a fun Bible reading weekend. So when we weren't looking at waterfalls or roaming the city, we were diligently reading Joshua through 2 Kings. On the way back from this fun getaway we stopped and saw Godafoss, which means "waterfall of the gods" because when the Vikings became Christians, they threw all of their idols into this water. I thought that was a super interesting story about Viking testimonies, they were willing to throw away their valuables for Jesus. We then stopped to see some geysers and geothermal things. One thing that no one seems to mention is how horrid they smell. But I got some pretty cool pictures of them while the sun was setting. As we started to drive home, I dozed off until someone tapped me and said, "Anna look!" And there on the side of the road were sixty or more reindeer just standing in the snowy field - it was amazing!

We've also been doing evangelizing every Wednesday after lunch. One of the things that we did recently was hand out hot chocolate to people at the grocery store. Some of them received it willingly but others were suspicious, thinking they had to pay for it. Generally, Icelandic people are closed off and not open to anyone but we did have some people stop by and we had some good conversations.

For lectures, we have been learning a lot about the person of Jesus and Lordship, and how to practically apply those things to our lives. We are learning how to have a personal relationship with Christ and how he longs to have a personal relationship with us. Also how we need to not just accept Jesus as our savior but also as our Lord, and giving him our all.

On my free time, one of my leaders, Kristine, has been teaching me how to knit. I've already worked really hard and knit myself a headband; it's a little sloppy at the beginning but you can see my progress. Then just a few days ago I started on a big project to make a traditional Icelandic sweater and I'm super excited to try and get it done before Christmas.

Thank you all for the continual prayers, they are much appreciated! Keep your eyes out for more Facebook and Instagram posts, I'll be trying to post more in the next few days.

God Bless!