Þingvillir

I've been waiting for a chance to use that character. It's called a thorn and sounds like th in "thing". Th as in "this" is Ð or ð and is called an eð, which is hardly fair since the name of the letter contains the letter.

Anyway, Þingvillir was the site of the oldest parliament in the world, dating back to the 900's, when everyone in the country would gather there for two weeks in the summer. We imagine there was much trading of horses, daughters, etc., as well as just a big social event in general. The place is absolutely beautiful, including a spectacular waterfall.

We visited with our brethren Marias and his wife Gyða and daughter Berglind again today. Marias helped us by contacting newspapers to get prices for an ad for the Truth for the World correspondence course, and he is also now working on translating the ad into Icelandic for us. He also gave us some valuable insight into how to word the ad and what days of the week would be best for placing the ad. Tomorrow we will meet with Erik from the TV station and also place the newspaper ad.

Sorry for not posting last night, but we got back later than usual.

We spend the afternoon with Marias and his family yesterday as well, and had dinner. Gyða is a gracious hostess and an outstanding cook. They have tea at 2 p.m., which includes WAY more than tea. Yesterday they served us the Icelandic version of crepes, about 4 kinds of bread and pastry, tuna salad and shrimp salad with crackers, dried haddock (a local fish. they say their kids would eat it like candy. dried, it's like fish jerky), and all the tea or coffee we could drink. For dinner she cooked fresh haddock and various bread and vegetables (hungry yet?). For tea today there were more crepes and other new local foods for us to sample and sample and sample and......

Please continue to pray for us in what we're trying to accomplish here. The brethren we have met are generous, sincere, and gracious, but in their Christian walk they are babies. They need a more solid biblical foundation, wise guidance, and plenty of encouragement. I will say no more about this now, but suffice it to say that some of their problems are rooted deeply in the culture. Hopefully with the BCC and other tools, we can help them grow. Please pray for our families as well. We miss you very much. We love you all.