Almost done...

I wrote this on Monday, but blogger was down for some reason:

 Well, we made it through last week and all the responsibilities thereof. Last week we met with our regional office of W. Europe all week and enjoyed a more intimate setting than usual (usually we are in a group of 250). One of our assignments for the week was to research our country and people group and do a presentation to our supervisor and colleagues. It was interesting to learn so much about Icelandic history and the history of Christianization there.

I was also surprised to learn how Iceland got it's name. I had heard (and naively repeated) that the first settlers of Iceland deceivingly named it that so that no one would go there. The reality of the matter is (according to Wikipedia), the first Scandinavian settler, Hrafna-Floki, named the country after spending his first cold winter there and seeing a fair amount of drift ice in the fjords.  

This weekend, I was reminded of how much I have parroted that statement as we were driving together through downtown Richmond.

Haley Jane- "Mommy, Miss Kathy has been showing my class a lot of pictures of Iceland."

"Wow, honey...that's great..."

"But...there are a lot of people there."

"Sure..."

"But...I thought you named it Iceland so that no one would go there."

 I formally apologize to anyone that I have led astray by my ignorance.

This one is my favorite

It's nice to have an internet connection

The Wall

We only have 1 1/2 weeks left of FPO. Some serious fatigue has been setting in here. We went through "stress-innoculation" training, which was....(what else) stressful. The worst part about it was that it went through the weekend, and we didn't get much of a rest. Back at it Monday with more sessions. I have been feeling like I can't absorb ANY MORE INFORMATION. My brain literally hurts at the end of the day. Learning Icelandic on top of everything else is just a lot. To top it off, the immunization of the week this week was Tetanus and I was up from 1:00am to 6:00am in a tormenting pain last night. I hate shot days.

Okay, I'm starting to sound really negative, so let me focus on some highlights:
1. The Pelts came down to visit us last week and it was encouraging to see familiar faces.
2. The girls on our Europe team offered to give us a date night, and we took them up on it. Nothing like a little downtown Richmond at twilight to ease the mind.
3. The whole FPO went on buses to DC on Thursday for a cultural experience. We met Dave and Nancy at a French bistro in Dupont Circle and got into some good conversations with some internationals later in the afternoon.
4. We are now in North Carolina getting ready to make an Iceland presentation tomorrow at Josh Dickinson's church. One of our jobs as IMB personnel is to mobilize Southern Baptist Churches to pray for our family and the work in Iceland.

Please pray that we can make it through this next week. There are many presentations and books that are due this week. I feel like I'm in college again...only finals week is MUCH WORSE when you have the responsibilities of being a parent, too!

On more thing to pray for: VISAS are not looking good. We are praying that we can get into the country by early November because Language school starts November 10th.

Looking forward to being in stafford in two weeks!

family photo shoot

It is taking a really long to upload these from our dorm room...more to come later.

I-kings

Last night, an hour after I put the girls to bed, Haley came into my room looking perplexed.
"Mommy, I'm very scared about something."
"What are you scared about, honey?"
"I'm very concerned about the Vikings."
Oh my word...Did her preschool-teacher have to be so thorough in her explanation of Icelandic history?
"Haley Jane...don't worry...the Vikings are not there any more."
"Are they in jail?"
"No...but they lived many, many years ago and they have all passed away by now."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure."

By this time, Darcy had waddled in behind her sister repeating, "I scair-ewed I-kings."

The girls are doing a really good job with the transition, but there have been many nights that Haley has been very concerned about something. She takes the Bible stories we read to her very seriously and was very scared last week about the "bad soldiers" who killed Jesus. She wanted to know where they were and if her life was in danger, too. It has been amazing some of the spiritual conversations we have gotten into with her. Pray for continued guidance and wisdom to shepherd their little hearts!

Week 4

This week was pretty heavy as we had a speaker come in and talk to us about the persecuted church. We heard story after story about fellow Christians around the world who are in prison (and worse) because of their commitment to follow Jesus. Many of our new friends here are going to very dangerous places to share Christ, so you can imagine it was a very somber week. It is humbling to be around people who are willing to sacrifice so much for the gospel. We feel like peons because we are going to the safest country on earth at the moment. Everyone has been asking about Iceland, so I've shared lots of stories this week about how safe it is. I've repeated the story a few times about how everyone leaves their babies in strollers on the sidewalk while they shop. At first I didn't participate in this cultural norm, but after many annoyed glances while I maneuvered our large double stroller through the quaint European shops, I started leaving Darcy in her stroller on Laugevauger while I went shopping. I didn't realize how much Darcy paid attention to my conversations until last night. I was tucking her in and talking about our new life in Iceland. She took her blankie out of her mouth and, with concern, said, "I don't want you leave me outside." I hugged and kissed her twenty times, reassuring her that she would not be left alone outside in Iceland. TOO CUTE...

Prayers for the week:
*Wisdom to know what to do with our car: sell or store or lend?
*Visas to come in
* Haley and Darcy to learn Icelandic and not be too angered or too frustrated by it (Last time we were there, Haley stood up in a children's church service while a duck puppet was telling a Bible story in Icelandic and screamed, "STOP!! DO NOT SAY THAT WORD! STOP SAYING THAT!!" Needless to say, we had to leave.)

Praise:
We celebrate 7 years of marriage tomorrow (Thank you Kristen, Michele, Jenna, and Linz for a wonderful date night!)

new hobby

They had a hair-cutting workshop last week and I learned how to cut hair! My girls were very patient and kind to let me try on them. Here are Darcy's before and after shots :

CPMs and other musings...

Wow...it is hard to find 5 minutes to myself around here. Last week I hardly went to any sessions; it was very disappointing. I must have lost some weight from being sick and not having an appetite. It took me four whole days to regain my strength. The rest of the family bounced back very well...lucky them.

The sessions I did attend, however, instructed us about Church Planting Movements (CPMs) and were incredibly inspirational. In case you are not familiar with this word, a CPM is "the rapid and exponential increase of indigenous churches planting churches within a given people group or population segment.” We had four missionaries from various countries come in and share how God had worked through them to create a CPM. It is crazy to think about going from 6 believers to 10,020 believers in just three years, but that is exactly what happened to one of these missionaries. I guess it is what happens when God decides to bless and when you are serious about prayer, intentionally sharing your faith, discipling people, starting small house churches, and those churches planting churches. I got excited, started praying for a CPM in Iceland, then started reading more about them. The last chapter of the CPM book we are required to read was a wake up call:

"A list of missionaries who have been engaged in Church Planting Movements reads like a catalog of calamity. Many have suffered illness, derision, and shame. In some instances the suffering was due to their own self-destructive behavior; in other cases it came at the hands of opponents. Students of Church Planting Movements suggest that the affliction may be related to a higher spiritual price required for rolling
back the darkness (Rev. 12:12). Whatever the cause, the disproportionate degree of suffering by missionaries engaged in CPMs is noteworthy. Missionaries intent on this course of action are well-advised to be on their guard, to watch, fight, and pray."

Woah. Back up the train. Adversity? Affliction? Diseases?
Persecution? Does it really have to be so difficult and hurt so much?
As if the rapid expansion of the most powerful message on earth would
just multiply without any opposition. Okay...just kidding, God...You can
give some other, well-intentioned, fervent missionary a CPM...I'm sure they would appreciate it. In other words: I guess I don't want You to work in such a powerful way if it means that I am going to have to go through so much adversity in the process. What a sad thought. I care more about my own comfort than the gospel being spread. I began to ask God to change my heart and make me care more about the things He cares about and less about my own convenience.

I guess that is a good seg-way for prayer requests this week. I guess I've been anxious thinking about the trials that will, inevitably, come our way in Iceland.
*Pray that I can live in the moment and trust God to take care of
us when trials do come.
*Pray for our language learning. We are expected to be full-time language learners when we first get to Iceland for the first four months. While we're here we have to begin that process.
*Pray that God will provide a good child-care set-up when we are both in language school in Iceland (This is a big one).

Yes, there are many other things to pray for regarding the Icelandic people and our mission there. Colby is recruiting people to pray for the lostness in Iceland, and I am recruiting people to pray specifically for our family's needs.

Thank you to those who are praying for us!

Underwear theology

Sunday afternoon Colby said he wasn't feeling well and laid down to rest while I set up a video for the girls and I to watch on Haley's bed. Twenty minutes later, Darcy was throwing up her lunch all over me, the DVD player, and the bed.  I cleaned up the entire mess myself (aren't you proud, Jennifer?) even though I dry-heaved a few times. 

A couple hours later I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor when Darcy comes in and out of nowhere asks, "Iz God ezeywhe-ah?"
Feeling proud that my daughter was contemplating the doctrine of omnipresence, I responded, "Yes! Good job, Darcy...He is everywhere..."
The next thing out of her mouth was, "He in my pants?"
"Hmmm...well..." I was befuddled by my toddler's ability to engage in deductive reasoning.
"He in my undew-wey-ah?"
What do you say?
"I don't want God see my undew-wey-ah!!"

Before I could respond, Darcy threw up again all over the floor that I had just sanitized. As I cleaned up regurgitated bananas, I was stunned that I had just had a theological conversation with my two-year-old. Now if she could just learn her colors...

Two hours later, I was throwing up...it's a good thing this thing is only 24 hours...