Is God Working in Iceland?

For those of you who have followed our story for the past decade, you know that Iceland has been a big part of our lives. When we moved there as missionaries in 2008, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. From the beginning, it was our prayer to find an Icelander to help us carry on the work of planting a church there.

We left Iceland in 2010 because of Gracie’s medical situation, and we wondered if our time there had been in vain. Our prayers for a national to carry on the work hadn’t yet been realized. But then in 2012, we received an email from an Icelander named Gunnar. He had been listening to a Church Planting podcast while stocking shelves at a grocery store, and felt called to plant a church in Reykjavík. We flew him to our house, got to know him, and quickly realized he was the answer to our years of prayers.

Our church has helped Gunnar plant the church we had always dreamed of planting in Reykjavík,Iceland over the past seven years. Our church has sent mission teams, families, and financial support, but this week God is allowing us to send our biggest support yet. This past Sunday, we and were able to commission and send off Logan and Carla Douglas. I am so confident that God will use them to spread light all across that tiny island. During the service, Clint read the following prayer, pausing to recap all God has done. I wanted to share it because it captures everything we’ve been praying for and doing for 13 years in the nation of Iceland.

Lord Jesus, 

It has been our constant prayer for the past 13 years for you to send gospel workers from our church into Iceland. We have sent our own leaders and members for weeks, and months and years but we have longed to give more to this great cause. Oh Lord just as we are recipients of the church planting ministry of other churches in distant places, may you use us to plant a church that will know Jesus Christ and make Him known in Reykjavik, Iceland, Western Europe, and throughout the world. 

                ⁃ In 2005 a common mentor to Colby and I – Bill Jessup-watched a documentary on Iceland that peaked his interest in the spiritual condition of the people of Iceland. 

                ⁃ A line from the documentary said, “though the vast majority of Icelanders are members of the state Lutheran church, less than 1% attend any religious service weekly.”

                ⁃ That sentence captured Bill’s attention and led him to bring the matter of Icelanders coming to know Christ to our weekly times of prayer. 

                ⁃Over time, as the three of us voiced prayers for the people of Iceland, God began to instill in us a passion for seeing Jesus made know there. 

                ⁃Meanwhile,in rural Mississippi, a young Logan Douglas was becoming unreasonably captivated in Iceland, prompted by the watching Disney’s Mighty Ducks 2.

                ⁃In late 2005 we visited Iceland for the first time. In 2006 my family spent 4 months there to initiate the work, then the Garmans spent the first quarter of 2007 there… 

                ⁃We founded a campus ministry on the university campus and helped start a church that first year 

                ⁃ By 2008 the Garmans had committed to moving permanently to Iceland and began learning Icelandic 

                ⁃In 2010 a health crisis in the Garman family brought them back to Pillar…it seemed like our mission to Iceland was a failure. 

                ⁃Then through a strange turn of events in 2012 a man mentioned our effort in Iceland from the stage of a conference in Orlando. That conference talk became a podcast that was downloaded by a 20 year old Icelandic grocery employee in named Gunnar…Who would later contact us, plant a church and become an intricatel part of many of our lives. 

                ⁃ In 2012 we sent Bill and his family to live there for approximatey a year and since then God had used our small church and our big passion for a tiny nation to form a strong coalition of churches throughout North America to support the ministry 

                ⁃ Towards the end of 2017, we were introduced to the Douglas family who carried their obsession for Iceland into adulthood and integrated it with their passion for Christ that lead to God calling them away from a stable career and into a ministry in Iceland. They came here a year ago to begin the process of raising funds and getting to know our congregation. Now on this day, we have the privilege of celebrating with them the Lord’s sovereign purposes over all of our affairs.

Lord Jesus,

You are sovereign over documentaries, and Disney movies. You are sovereign over heart conditions and conference talks. You are sovereign over grocery stores and podcasts. 
Will you awaken your church in Iceland through the preaching of your word. Will you use Logan and Carla and their willingness to lose their lives for your sake to help others find new life in you. Will you do more than we can imagine right now in saving Icelanders and planting churches. Will you pour out your Spirit on the Douglas’ and on Redeemer City Church.

You have proven your preference for using the out of the way, the obscure, the humble, and the lesser known things of this world, places, and people to make your name great. So do that, we pray, in Iceland and through Logan and Carla. For your glory, Amen