Iceland!

Hello all, Jenna here! We made it to Iceland! Hallelujah! The first day of 2010 was spent traveling for me. It was a long flight for me, as I couldnt' sleep a wink. I had a pounding headache by the time we finally got to Iceland but I was so glad to have made it! We were greeted at the airport by our hosts and then they drove us to a church (the picture of the church in the dark)where we were served a nice breakfast with breads, a variety of jams, some cheese and pastries. It was delicious! It was about 9:00 at that time and it was still dark as if it was night. It was really bizarre! After that we went to our host parents' home and took a 3 hour nap, which was much needed. They said that it was too tempting to sleep all day, but if we had done that, they said it would be too hard to adjust from jet lag so we slept only for 3 hours, and then got up and met around 1:30 to go around downtown. We got to see a beautiful church called Hallgrimskirkja, (the tall church pictured above) It was beautiful inside! The organ was especially impressive (picture included above). city hall and a 3-D map of Iceland, and also this amazing hot dog stand that is very popular here. Bill Clinton had a hot dog from this stand when he was here, that was mentioned several times! We all got a hot dog from there, and it was delicious! It had ketchup, mustard, fried and raw onions and then some sort of special sauce that I can't really describe...but it was really good! As we were driving around in the car, I was able to catch a picture of what we could see driving down the street; the view is amazing!! I love it! (this picture is also above!) The land is beautiful here! Anyway, after the hot dog stand we all went back to our host family's home (Gunnar and Thora are who I am staying with and they provided dinner for us that evening) and hung out until dinner was served. Dinner was delicious! We had a smoked ham that had an amazing glaze on it, and halves of peaches were also in this dish. We also had cooked carrots, potatoes, and many other wonderful things. They also had us all try headcheese, which is the head of a sheep that they burn, boil, and do something else to it..I don't remember quite exactly the preparation that goes into it. What was prepared was a chunk of meat that kind of looked like a slice of pork roast, and they said it consisted of everything but the brains and the eyes. I tried it, and it wasn't terrible, but I wasn't diving in for another bite. For dessert we had this wonderful caramel cake, with caramel dripping down the sides...SOO good! After dinner we all gladly went to bed! It was a lovely (and long) first day!

Today (Sunday) we got up and went to a church in the city for their Sunday School. Because it was after a holiday, there were not many people there. It was fun to watch the Sunday School kids participate. They sang songs, and then the pastor told them a story (in Icelandic, but he showed them a picture of what looked like Jesus holding a child). Then, there was a puppet show, which was really entertaining! After that we met one of the pastors and then went back to our host home for a little bit. After that, we got ready to go to the swimming hall. Swimming is a huge cultural past-time in Iceland, and the pools are outdoors. Yes, outdoors. It was cold out today, about 20 degrees or so, but we all went swimming. The pool had about 6 hot tubs, and they varied in temperatures. There was one that was really hot, one that was slightly less hot, and then one that juusssttt right (sounds like a Goldilocks and the 3 Bears). The pool's water itself was heated to about 80 degrees, though I didn't try the pool out, I just jumped from hot-tub to hot-tub. It was a nice afternoon! I enjoyed it! When we finished at the pool, we went back home and hung out and chatted with each other. Our host mom, Thora, wanted to take her dog on a walk so four of us went with her. We walked for quite a bit and got some good exercise. It was very pleasant and we got to take in more of the fantastic scenery! I stupidly left my camera in my room so I didn't get to take pictures...but I will try to keep them coming, I promise! We came back and had leftovers from last night, which tasted just as delicious tonight as it did last night, and then we watched a movie in the living room. It was called Adam's Aebler, which is translated as Adam's Apple. It was a really really good movie, I enjoyed it. Very thought-provoking. It was in English subtitles, but I really liked it. It's about a pastor at a church who houses people with issues, but he has a mental illness himself. This particular prisoner's name was Adam, and he was a neo-Nazi. It was interesting....I won't tell you the rest of the plot but encourage you to watch the movie sometime if you can!

Tomorrow we will travel to Skalholt, to an Icelandic pastor's acadamey/conference. We will get to meet pastors from all over Iceland and have the opportunity to hear our own professors, Sam Giere and Dan Olson lecture! :) We will be there for 3 days! I'm looking forward to this trip to Skalholt! I'm not sure if we will have internet access there or not but if I don't, I'll tell ya all about it when we get back!

I will end this post with a prayer, Grace and Peace all!

Gracious God;

We thank you for this wonderful opportunity to travel to Iceland and see your work in this amazing place. We thank you for the wonderful hospitality we have been blessed with, and for the ministry of the pastors in this country. Please be with us as we travel to Skalholt, and be with the pastors as they gather together for learning, worship, and fellowship. We ask all these things in your holy name, Amen.