About the Girl

Greetings all! My name is Emily Shipman (as of almost four months ago, when I married the Zachariah featured below). I grew up in north-central Minnesota with my parents and two older brothers. My family owns a fourth-generation family vacation resort that sits on a lake and keeps everyone very busy. I am 24 years old and in my second year at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. I started my undergraduate degree at Bemidji State University in northern Minnesota, before transferring to Bethel University in St. Paul (Socio-Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Cross-Cultural Mission). I have been blessed to experience two extended stays abroad, the first to Africa for nine months on a discipleship training program. We were based in Zambia, and also spent time serving in Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. It was an incredibly challenging and faith enriching experience. I later traveled to New Zealand to volunteer at a Christian camp for five months, and enjoyed the lovely scenery and met some wonderful people. I love traveling and experiencing new cultures and getting to know people. I am extremely grateful at this opportunity to experience Iceland and spend time with some locals there, as well as the great crew we have going on the trip. My interests beyond traveling include adventure sports – rock climbing and white water rafting and the like, board games, waterfalls, campfires, scrapbooking, eating smoothies, and experiencing the outdoors.

Good and gracious God, I thank you for this opportunity to experience more of your incredible creation. I lift up to you this trip, all those who are so graciously hosting us and making this possible, and all connected to this experience. Open our hearts and eyes to be receptive to all that you would have us learn, and to all we are able to meet. And may the peace, hope, and love of Christ be a noticed reality in all our lives today and each day. Amen.

Exhausted

What an intese couple of days. Yesterday, our group went to þingvellir, as Kjerstin eloquently described. It was my task (thanks to Prof. Giere's appointment with friends in the Faroe Islands and thus his absence at þingvellir and thanks, as well, to a coin toss) to preach a brief sermon in þingvallakirkja, a 150-year-old church in one of Iceland's most sacred sites. It was, I have to admit, a huge honor to have this opportunity, but at the same time, it was a monumental responsibility. Not that preaching God's Word isn't always a monumental responsibility, but I definitely felt the pressure this time more than usual.

To add to the stress, I found out 17 hours before the sermon was meant to begin that Iceland and the US attend to different lectionaries. The sermon I had been cooking up in my head corresponded to an entirely different set of texts. Oy gevalt! I spent about 12 of those 17 hours stewing over what to write, beginning sermons only to scrap in frustration, praying the whole time, "Veni, Sancte Spiritus!" After literally 2 dozen or more attempts running late into the night, I finally gave up, went to bed and began afresh the next morning. At 6 a.m. I finally found a bit of inspiration and just went for it. I don't think it was "good," in the classic sense, but at least it was heart-felt and quite literally the best I could do under the circumstances.

Once the sermon was over, I felt as though a thousand-pound weight had been lifted off, so I was able to enjoy all of the awesome things Kjerstin described in her blog entry. The only thing I would add to her version of the story is that we were guided by Hregviđur (Hreggi) Norđdahl, my "Host Father," who is a research geologist at the Univerity. There's nothing quite like being guided by an expert in the field! What a blessed day!

Our dinner at Fjöruborđiđ ("Crazy Lobster" or something like that, I guess) was beyond exquisite. By the time I walked home from Gunnar & Thora's I was utterly spent.

Today we visited the University of Iceland's Theology Department, where we met a bunch of the Theology faculty and met (and re-met) a few of the students. We also attended a lecture by Dr. Olson about pre-marital counseling. It was thought-provoking for me on a number of levels. Maybe I'll blog about that later.

After lunch we went to the Pearl. Most of the gang went out on the roof for a view of the city. I'm extremely afraid of heights and had to skedaddle back indoors after only a few seconds. We went to the Saga Museum on the ground floor (much to my satisfaction), which was a lot of fun.

Some of us then went downtown, and some of us went to the mall in search of yarn. Long story. After that, we had dinner with the local deans in this area of Iceland. After all the visiting today, I am once again completely knackered and ready to turn in. Tomorrow we meet with someone in the Bishop (of Iceland)'s office, and I'm sure Gunnar has a great deal of stuff in store for us. In the meantime, off to Sleepyland.

God of the universe and God among us, we give you thanks again for your gifts of natural beauty, for your grace and for cultivating graciousness in your people. Continue to bless this place and those who make it their home, just as you bless those of us who come to enjoy it as guests. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.