On Easter Sunday earlier this year, while London was basking in hot sunshine, a group of 24-7ers went on a mission trip adventure to Iceland, where the temperature was just above freezing. Were we crazy? Absolutely. Especially as there was no plan. Well…I had a few half-baked ideas to pray here and there, but this was essentially a leap of faith, a hope that God would lead us somewhere.
The story had started three years ago in August 2004 when I went to Iceland on holiday with a friend. I was fascinated and intrigued by this beautiful, remote and vibrant country with its mysterious scenery and cool music. On one occasion we stayed at a remote hostel in the middle of a golf course near a remote town called Borganes. The setting sun reflected incredible red and orange colours on the hills in distance and so we drove up to higher ground and watched the most amazing sunset I had ever seen. It felt like such a holy moment that I prayed with my friend in the car, and at that moment I felt like something had stirred and come alive in me, and that I would be back to Iceland before too long.
In 2006, Phil Evans from 24-7 heard of my interest in Iceland and suggesting I took a mission team to Iceland. My life was crazily busy and despite Phil’s constant pestering (!) I decided I didn’t have the time or energy to take the team that year. However, I decided to give up my job in September and shortly afterward I attended the 24-7 international leader’s gathering in London. During the gathering, a friend of mine, Rosie, bumped into a friendly American called Eric on the tube (metro). They got chatting (which, if you know London, is very unusual on the underground) and discovered they were at the same conference. Eric told Rosie that he had a vision to move to Iceland and start a House of Prayer in Reykjavik. Rosie then told him about my Icelandic interest (you have to understand that in a city the size of London, this meeting was such a co-incidence!) So Rosie introduced Eric to me and we exchanged details and decided to go out there on a fact-finding visit later in the year.
So, in November 2006 I set out for Iceland, via the 24-7 Nordic gathering in Stockholm. Eric got up and shared about his vision for Iceland, and it seemed an honour and responsibility that Eric (an American) and I (a Brit) were here to represent Iceland, a country with no national representatives at the gathering. The gathering was a great time of preparation and getting to know other people from the Nordic nations. When we eventually arrived in Reykjavik a few days later we felt a sense of anticipation at what God had in store. We spent a good few days wandering around Reykjavik, praying, chatting, drinking coffee from cosy cafes, just trying to take in and listen to the things God was saying to us. The temperature was well below freezing and the snow lay thick on the ground. I had one Christian contact- a Vineyard pastor whose name was the only fruit of a long internet search for churches in Iceland. He was away in the UK for a conference but had asked Eric, Mark and I to speak to the youth group, and so we made arrangements to meet his daughter Helene-Inga in a downtown restaurant. After a quick meal, we followed Helene-Inga back to her house where the youth group was to meet. However, one by one the youth group cancelled, and so it was just the three of us thirty-something guys with two teenage girls in the house, feeling a little awkward. Helene-Inga then remembered there was an IHOP-style prayer meeting in the Philadalphia Pentecostal church in central Reykjavik. (IHOP is a night and day prayer movement that started in the USA around the same time as 24-7 in UK). So we jumped in the car and were very soon back in Reykjavik walking into a worship/prayer meeting in Icelandic! After the meeting Helene-Inga introduced us to the worship leader, a girl in her mid-twenties called Gugga. Eric briefly explained why we were here and she immediately fell to the ground in either shock, amazement or under the power of the spirit. Either way, it seemed like we were right in the middle of God’s purposes as Gugga explained many Christians have been praying in Iceland for a movement of night and day prayer, a house of prayer for the city and nation.
Our new Icelandic friends also introduced Eric to a Christian estate agent (realtor) who was fully behind the vision for a house of prayer in Reykjavik. We looked at one property in downtown Reykjavik and dreamed of prayers and pilgrims praying non-stop for the city, and for a place of revelation and love for the people of Iceland.
We also spent time praying in Hallgrimskirkje, a beautiful modern church on a hill in the middle of Reykjavik, with windows behind the altar from which you can look out over the city and to the hills beyond. We just felt a sense of God’s peace there where we could chill out and pray and hear God. We longed that one day this place would be full again with people praising God and seeking his face. I also had the opportunity to see the northern lights for the first time – eerie but awesome green streaks across the dark sky, viewed from the hot-tub in our guesthouse! We returned to our respective nations with a strong sense of God’s purposes and excited by what may be to come.
After Christmas I began planning to take a team to Iceland in Easter as one of the pioneering /mission teams 24-7 were planning to send out to various nations across Europe. After advertising on the 24-7 website we gathered a team of 7 (including Eric and Katie), and flew out to Reykjavik on Easter Sunday 2007.
I was excited, but underneath completely unsure of what we would actually do. Normally, I am a planner, liking to organise and plan things to the nearest detail, strategising and dreaming months in advance. I had ideas for 2 or 3 days……. but we were here for 7! I had broad aims and objectives and ideas for places we could pray but nothing concrete. It was difficult to do focused evangelistic outreach as I was very keen we build strong relationships with churches, something really significant as Iceland has often had people coming out, doing independent outreach and then disappearing as fast as they came. We wanted to build for the long term, not do ‘hit and run’. We arrived mid afternoon, and settled into our accommodation (BB44 in Kopavogur) where we had stayed in November. Sigga, Tolli and her family who run the guesthouse gave us the warmest welcome, having known Eric for a few years. The first afternoon we spent chilling, praying, organising food and hijacked the conservatory for our team meetings! We shared communion and ate together and prayed for God’s blessing on our time. I was desperately praying for inspiration and that God would do something – I didn’t want to bring a team all they way here for everyone to be bored or disappointed.
On Easter Monday we wandered around Reykjavik, praying and trying to listen to what God was saying, taking photographs, getting a feel for the nation and people. One downside of this is that it was so cold that we couldn’t stand to be outside for too long! So we wandered between shops and coffee bars praying, talking, listening, freezing and thawing. Due to the adverse weather we were back sooner than I planned, so we spent more time praying and laughing and getting to know each other in the guesthouse. The following day we drove out to the hills north of Reykjavik, taking in the breathtaking scenery. It was now that I was running out of ideas. There were more trips we could do, but I wanted to avoid this being a tourist holiday. We met up with Gugga, in the classy coffee shop where she worked in downtown Reykjavik, and she also invited the children’s pastor from her church and another friend called Kolbeinn Sigurdsson, who was really excited to meet us as he had a specific vision for night and day prayer in Iceland. He invited us to a prayer meeting later that evening that he led each week. After this, Eric and Katie had arranged to meet the Christian estate agents who were looking for a house to be used as a house of prayer. We all agreed to go along as we figured seven people praying and listening to God was better than two! We started to get inspired as we looked around houses and began to dream of the potential for a 24-7 prayer monastery in the heart of Reykjavik. It was cool to be able to pray in one of the houses with the estate agents!! We also looked round a run-down warehouse near the harbour. We clambered in over dust-covered junk and climbed the stairs. Looking round we felt that this definitely wasn’t the right place…however, the property owner handed Eric a box containing a small pair of silver clogs as a random present…..which was incredible because at the Nordic 24-7 gathering Eric had received a prophetic picture from someone, which involved Eric walking across Iceland in clogs!! So even in this run down place, the presence of God was already there.
In the evening we had been invited by Kolbeinn to the weekly prayer meeting he led in a church in Kopavogur, about 10 min drive from the guesthouse. I must admit to feeling tired, and the team was running late as we rushed to get dinner cooked and then get out to the meeting. My initial thoughts were ‘We’ll go along, pray for a bit and then come home and get an early night and work out what we are going to do tomorrow’. We arrived at the prayer meeting about 15mins late, but we were immediately put at ease by the warm welcome we received from the Icelanders present at the meeting. Eric got up and shared his vision, and we split off to pray individually for about an hour before coming together for corporate prayer. What followed I can’t really describe in much detail because it was too awesome for words. There was a real sense of God’s presence and some of us shared prophetic words and bible verses we had been meditating on during the personal prayer time. Then, one by one, our new Icelandic friends called us out to pray for us and prophecy over us. This time was so powerful and so personal that it wouldn’t be right to share on a public website! But it was like we had the secrets and dreams of our hearts revealed, and although I can only speak for myself, I came out just about speechless, and I can honestly say it was the most powerful prayer meeting I can ever remember being in!
The next day was spent chilling at the Blue Lagoon (amazing geo-thermally heated outdoor natural pool) where we chatted and reflected on our previous night’s experience. The following evening, Kolbeinn and his wife Ella had invited us to their home in Hafnafjordur for an evening meal. We tucked into a great chicken curry while chatting to Kolbeinn more about why we were here. While we there Eric mentioned that he came from Charlotte, North Carolina. Kolbeinn and Ella then explained that they had been praying a few months earlier and had received the word ‘Charlotte’ as they were praying. They wrote it down and didn’t fully understand this at the time, they didn’t even realise it was a town in the USA. It was only now that they realised the significance of that word! I felt this sense of what I can only describe as ‘Holy Fear’ – this sense that somehow we were right in the middle of God’s purposes for this nation – purposes that had led Kolbeinn and Ella to leave their missionary life in Rwanda and come back to Iceland because of a vision for night and day prayer….purposes that would led Eric and Katie to leave their lifelong home in the States and follow God’s call to move to Iceland….purposes that led me to go to Iceland on holiday 3 years ago and to eventually take a 24-7 team here…purposes that had seemingly randomly drawn us together for this moment…..(not to mention the fact that Kolbeinn’s old pastor in Rwanda was friends with Greg who was on the team from Charlotte) After dinner we felt we had to pray, and had another awesome time of worship, prayer and mutual encouragement….
The following day we returned to Kolbeinn’s home to share with some more Icelanders why we were here…Greg talked about the history and ethos of IHOP, while I shared about the history and vision of 24-7 (I somehow managed without a copy of Red Moon Rising to hand!). We then prayed for the Icelanders who were there ,which was a real privilege as the Icelanders had kind of blessed us a whole lot more than I felt we had blessed them! We returned home the next day bewildered but excited at what God had done…he had taken my fragile plans and tendency to want to organise something to the finest detail and done something completely different and unexpected. You could argue that we didn’t see anybody saved or healed, we didn’t do the frontline mission stuff…but God seemed to have completely different plans for this trip. We had felt part of a much bigger plan that God was bringing together in his timing…and for now it was a time to be still and reflect on God’s awesomeness.
There is so much more I could write, and if this has aroused your curiosity and interest then I highly recommend reading Carol Baker’s report on the trip from the perspective of a team member! Carol is a journalist by trade and a great writer. There should hopefully be a link at the bottom of this article!
To sum up, and for you to pray for this tiny but incredible nation, I’ll leave you with some general prayer points and prophetic insight that came from the team prayer times/prayer walking and conversation, usually in a coffee house or hot tub!
-Iceland had Christianity forced on it in 1000AD – it was a 50%-50% decision between Christianity and Paganism – they decided on Christianity and everyone was baptised in a day! The state Lutheran church has a membership of something like 98% - but very few devout believers. We felt that God wanted to do something bubbling up from below, organically, a move of God springing up from the grass roots like a geyser, to counter the top-down approach. We would love you to pray for this move of God and for Eric and Katie as they move to Iceland this month, with the vision of starting a prayer room and urban monastery, and that they would live out the Kingdom of God amongst the Icelandic people.
-Iceland is an intensely spiritual place, with a lot of occult and new age activity as well as Christianity…please pray that the openness to spirituality would lead to the Icelandic people seeking and receiving God in a powerful way!
-Iceland is very creative and produces the most amazing music, including the likes of Bjork, Sigur Ros and Mum… the music often reflects a sense of deeper spirituality than much of western pop culture…pray that Icelanders would discover God the creator, who loves music and who loves them even more!
-Pray for unity amongst the churches, and a pastors prayer conference that Kolbeinn is organising in November. Pray that God would stir the hearts of the Christians to seek him more and more in prayer.
-One of the pastors we spoke to said Icelanders have the opposite to ‘Janteladen’, in that they believe they can do anything- they are a very entrepreneurial nation…pray that they would come to rely on God as the source of their confidence.
-Pray for the young people who hang out on the main street in Reykjavik, Laugavegur, know for its crazy drunkenness…pray for creative outreach and relationship building by Christians in the cafes, bars and clubs and the possibility of having a prayer room on this street…
-Pray that Eric and Katie would settle in well into their new environment and that God would supply all of their financial need, good friends, direction, resources and would mightily bless them!
-Pray for some Icelanders to come to the Nordic 24-7 gathering next year!
If you are interested in being involved in future Iceland teams, or would like to be kept informed of developments please e-mail me on sieuro@hotmail.com and I would love to chat to you!
The story had started three years ago in August 2004 when I went to Iceland on holiday with a friend. I was fascinated and intrigued by this beautiful, remote and vibrant country with its mysterious scenery and cool music. On one occasion we stayed at a remote hostel in the middle of a golf course near a remote town called Borganes. The setting sun reflected incredible red and orange colours on the hills in distance and so we drove up to higher ground and watched the most amazing sunset I had ever seen. It felt like such a holy moment that I prayed with my friend in the car, and at that moment I felt like something had stirred and come alive in me, and that I would be back to Iceland before too long.
In 2006, Phil Evans from 24-7 heard of my interest in Iceland and suggesting I took a mission team to Iceland. My life was crazily busy and despite Phil’s constant pestering (!) I decided I didn’t have the time or energy to take the team that year. However, I decided to give up my job in September and shortly afterward I attended the 24-7 international leader’s gathering in London. During the gathering, a friend of mine, Rosie, bumped into a friendly American called Eric on the tube (metro). They got chatting (which, if you know London, is very unusual on the underground) and discovered they were at the same conference. Eric told Rosie that he had a vision to move to Iceland and start a House of Prayer in Reykjavik. Rosie then told him about my Icelandic interest (you have to understand that in a city the size of London, this meeting was such a co-incidence!) So Rosie introduced Eric to me and we exchanged details and decided to go out there on a fact-finding visit later in the year.
So, in November 2006 I set out for Iceland, via the 24-7 Nordic gathering in Stockholm. Eric got up and shared about his vision for Iceland, and it seemed an honour and responsibility that Eric (an American) and I (a Brit) were here to represent Iceland, a country with no national representatives at the gathering. The gathering was a great time of preparation and getting to know other people from the Nordic nations. When we eventually arrived in Reykjavik a few days later we felt a sense of anticipation at what God had in store. We spent a good few days wandering around Reykjavik, praying, chatting, drinking coffee from cosy cafes, just trying to take in and listen to the things God was saying to us. The temperature was well below freezing and the snow lay thick on the ground. I had one Christian contact- a Vineyard pastor whose name was the only fruit of a long internet search for churches in Iceland. He was away in the UK for a conference but had asked Eric, Mark and I to speak to the youth group, and so we made arrangements to meet his daughter Helene-Inga in a downtown restaurant. After a quick meal, we followed Helene-Inga back to her house where the youth group was to meet. However, one by one the youth group cancelled, and so it was just the three of us thirty-something guys with two teenage girls in the house, feeling a little awkward. Helene-Inga then remembered there was an IHOP-style prayer meeting in the Philadalphia Pentecostal church in central Reykjavik. (IHOP is a night and day prayer movement that started in the USA around the same time as 24-7 in UK). So we jumped in the car and were very soon back in Reykjavik walking into a worship/prayer meeting in Icelandic! After the meeting Helene-Inga introduced us to the worship leader, a girl in her mid-twenties called Gugga. Eric briefly explained why we were here and she immediately fell to the ground in either shock, amazement or under the power of the spirit. Either way, it seemed like we were right in the middle of God’s purposes as Gugga explained many Christians have been praying in Iceland for a movement of night and day prayer, a house of prayer for the city and nation.
Our new Icelandic friends also introduced Eric to a Christian estate agent (realtor) who was fully behind the vision for a house of prayer in Reykjavik. We looked at one property in downtown Reykjavik and dreamed of prayers and pilgrims praying non-stop for the city, and for a place of revelation and love for the people of Iceland.
We also spent time praying in Hallgrimskirkje, a beautiful modern church on a hill in the middle of Reykjavik, with windows behind the altar from which you can look out over the city and to the hills beyond. We just felt a sense of God’s peace there where we could chill out and pray and hear God. We longed that one day this place would be full again with people praising God and seeking his face. I also had the opportunity to see the northern lights for the first time – eerie but awesome green streaks across the dark sky, viewed from the hot-tub in our guesthouse! We returned to our respective nations with a strong sense of God’s purposes and excited by what may be to come.
After Christmas I began planning to take a team to Iceland in Easter as one of the pioneering /mission teams 24-7 were planning to send out to various nations across Europe. After advertising on the 24-7 website we gathered a team of 7 (including Eric and Katie), and flew out to Reykjavik on Easter Sunday 2007.
I was excited, but underneath completely unsure of what we would actually do. Normally, I am a planner, liking to organise and plan things to the nearest detail, strategising and dreaming months in advance. I had ideas for 2 or 3 days……. but we were here for 7! I had broad aims and objectives and ideas for places we could pray but nothing concrete. It was difficult to do focused evangelistic outreach as I was very keen we build strong relationships with churches, something really significant as Iceland has often had people coming out, doing independent outreach and then disappearing as fast as they came. We wanted to build for the long term, not do ‘hit and run’. We arrived mid afternoon, and settled into our accommodation (BB44 in Kopavogur) where we had stayed in November. Sigga, Tolli and her family who run the guesthouse gave us the warmest welcome, having known Eric for a few years. The first afternoon we spent chilling, praying, organising food and hijacked the conservatory for our team meetings! We shared communion and ate together and prayed for God’s blessing on our time. I was desperately praying for inspiration and that God would do something – I didn’t want to bring a team all they way here for everyone to be bored or disappointed.
On Easter Monday we wandered around Reykjavik, praying and trying to listen to what God was saying, taking photographs, getting a feel for the nation and people. One downside of this is that it was so cold that we couldn’t stand to be outside for too long! So we wandered between shops and coffee bars praying, talking, listening, freezing and thawing. Due to the adverse weather we were back sooner than I planned, so we spent more time praying and laughing and getting to know each other in the guesthouse. The following day we drove out to the hills north of Reykjavik, taking in the breathtaking scenery. It was now that I was running out of ideas. There were more trips we could do, but I wanted to avoid this being a tourist holiday. We met up with Gugga, in the classy coffee shop where she worked in downtown Reykjavik, and she also invited the children’s pastor from her church and another friend called Kolbeinn Sigurdsson, who was really excited to meet us as he had a specific vision for night and day prayer in Iceland. He invited us to a prayer meeting later that evening that he led each week. After this, Eric and Katie had arranged to meet the Christian estate agents who were looking for a house to be used as a house of prayer. We all agreed to go along as we figured seven people praying and listening to God was better than two! We started to get inspired as we looked around houses and began to dream of the potential for a 24-7 prayer monastery in the heart of Reykjavik. It was cool to be able to pray in one of the houses with the estate agents!! We also looked round a run-down warehouse near the harbour. We clambered in over dust-covered junk and climbed the stairs. Looking round we felt that this definitely wasn’t the right place…however, the property owner handed Eric a box containing a small pair of silver clogs as a random present…..which was incredible because at the Nordic 24-7 gathering Eric had received a prophetic picture from someone, which involved Eric walking across Iceland in clogs!! So even in this run down place, the presence of God was already there.
In the evening we had been invited by Kolbeinn to the weekly prayer meeting he led in a church in Kopavogur, about 10 min drive from the guesthouse. I must admit to feeling tired, and the team was running late as we rushed to get dinner cooked and then get out to the meeting. My initial thoughts were ‘We’ll go along, pray for a bit and then come home and get an early night and work out what we are going to do tomorrow’. We arrived at the prayer meeting about 15mins late, but we were immediately put at ease by the warm welcome we received from the Icelanders present at the meeting. Eric got up and shared his vision, and we split off to pray individually for about an hour before coming together for corporate prayer. What followed I can’t really describe in much detail because it was too awesome for words. There was a real sense of God’s presence and some of us shared prophetic words and bible verses we had been meditating on during the personal prayer time. Then, one by one, our new Icelandic friends called us out to pray for us and prophecy over us. This time was so powerful and so personal that it wouldn’t be right to share on a public website! But it was like we had the secrets and dreams of our hearts revealed, and although I can only speak for myself, I came out just about speechless, and I can honestly say it was the most powerful prayer meeting I can ever remember being in!
The next day was spent chilling at the Blue Lagoon (amazing geo-thermally heated outdoor natural pool) where we chatted and reflected on our previous night’s experience. The following evening, Kolbeinn and his wife Ella had invited us to their home in Hafnafjordur for an evening meal. We tucked into a great chicken curry while chatting to Kolbeinn more about why we were here. While we there Eric mentioned that he came from Charlotte, North Carolina. Kolbeinn and Ella then explained that they had been praying a few months earlier and had received the word ‘Charlotte’ as they were praying. They wrote it down and didn’t fully understand this at the time, they didn’t even realise it was a town in the USA. It was only now that they realised the significance of that word! I felt this sense of what I can only describe as ‘Holy Fear’ – this sense that somehow we were right in the middle of God’s purposes for this nation – purposes that had led Kolbeinn and Ella to leave their missionary life in Rwanda and come back to Iceland because of a vision for night and day prayer….purposes that would led Eric and Katie to leave their lifelong home in the States and follow God’s call to move to Iceland….purposes that led me to go to Iceland on holiday 3 years ago and to eventually take a 24-7 team here…purposes that had seemingly randomly drawn us together for this moment…..(not to mention the fact that Kolbeinn’s old pastor in Rwanda was friends with Greg who was on the team from Charlotte) After dinner we felt we had to pray, and had another awesome time of worship, prayer and mutual encouragement….
The following day we returned to Kolbeinn’s home to share with some more Icelanders why we were here…Greg talked about the history and ethos of IHOP, while I shared about the history and vision of 24-7 (I somehow managed without a copy of Red Moon Rising to hand!). We then prayed for the Icelanders who were there ,which was a real privilege as the Icelanders had kind of blessed us a whole lot more than I felt we had blessed them! We returned home the next day bewildered but excited at what God had done…he had taken my fragile plans and tendency to want to organise something to the finest detail and done something completely different and unexpected. You could argue that we didn’t see anybody saved or healed, we didn’t do the frontline mission stuff…but God seemed to have completely different plans for this trip. We had felt part of a much bigger plan that God was bringing together in his timing…and for now it was a time to be still and reflect on God’s awesomeness.
There is so much more I could write, and if this has aroused your curiosity and interest then I highly recommend reading Carol Baker’s report on the trip from the perspective of a team member! Carol is a journalist by trade and a great writer. There should hopefully be a link at the bottom of this article!
To sum up, and for you to pray for this tiny but incredible nation, I’ll leave you with some general prayer points and prophetic insight that came from the team prayer times/prayer walking and conversation, usually in a coffee house or hot tub!
-Iceland had Christianity forced on it in 1000AD – it was a 50%-50% decision between Christianity and Paganism – they decided on Christianity and everyone was baptised in a day! The state Lutheran church has a membership of something like 98% - but very few devout believers. We felt that God wanted to do something bubbling up from below, organically, a move of God springing up from the grass roots like a geyser, to counter the top-down approach. We would love you to pray for this move of God and for Eric and Katie as they move to Iceland this month, with the vision of starting a prayer room and urban monastery, and that they would live out the Kingdom of God amongst the Icelandic people.
-Iceland is an intensely spiritual place, with a lot of occult and new age activity as well as Christianity…please pray that the openness to spirituality would lead to the Icelandic people seeking and receiving God in a powerful way!
-Iceland is very creative and produces the most amazing music, including the likes of Bjork, Sigur Ros and Mum… the music often reflects a sense of deeper spirituality than much of western pop culture…pray that Icelanders would discover God the creator, who loves music and who loves them even more!
-Pray for unity amongst the churches, and a pastors prayer conference that Kolbeinn is organising in November. Pray that God would stir the hearts of the Christians to seek him more and more in prayer.
-One of the pastors we spoke to said Icelanders have the opposite to ‘Janteladen’, in that they believe they can do anything- they are a very entrepreneurial nation…pray that they would come to rely on God as the source of their confidence.
-Pray for the young people who hang out on the main street in Reykjavik, Laugavegur, know for its crazy drunkenness…pray for creative outreach and relationship building by Christians in the cafes, bars and clubs and the possibility of having a prayer room on this street…
-Pray that Eric and Katie would settle in well into their new environment and that God would supply all of their financial need, good friends, direction, resources and would mightily bless them!
-Pray for some Icelanders to come to the Nordic 24-7 gathering next year!
If you are interested in being involved in future Iceland teams, or would like to be kept informed of developments please e-mail me on sieuro@hotmail.com and I would love to chat to you!