Iceland 2001

I have just returned from a remarkable trip to Iceland. This country with its strange beauty of volcanic landscapes and mountains, extraordinary waterfalls and geysers shooting boiling water high into the air, once again shows the majesty of God in nature. The cold snow and ice and His natural supply of heat from the hot water below the earth was just a part of it. The visible speaks of the invisible.

I have to confess that Iceland was not a country I had thought much about. But some months ago it kept coming to mind, particularly during times of prayer. Was the Lord calling me to "go" and visit there? Well, in the summer would be nice! But no, it was to be in the winter. I eventually booked the flight to go and also planned to take time to visit family in England. There would be three days in Iceland to see what God had in mind. and then a return for seven days at the end to carry it out.

After booking the flight I felt at peace about going, although I still did not have a plan. I sensed it was something to do with "worship". By the time the journey began I was still none the wiser, but two "friends of a friend" who had been to Iceland and were kind enough to contact me from different parts of America gave me the name of at least a place to stay and the names of a couple of churches to make contact with - off I went, trusting God.

The Ark

I stayed in the Orkin hotel, "The Ark". This is actually the Pharaoh Isles Seaman's Mission. I'm pleased to say it was lovely and warm both physically from the hot water out of the earth, and spiritually from the staff. I was invited to join Eirny to attend a youth service at a Lutheran church, although the youth came from different churches. There was a man who was also staying at the hotel from Denmark who was preparing ground for a visit to Iceland by the head of YWAM in June. At the church over the altar was a large picture of Jesus stepping from the tomb. He was holding a standard with a flag on top and the guards were falling to the ground blinded by the light. Interesting.

After the service we went to take coffee (a favorite pastime) in a place set apart to minister to young people off the street, a place they can go and hang out. One of the women pastors that I met there was being given the official joy of pastor to the streets. The service was held the next day in the flea market surrounded by stalls and passersby. It was in the coffee area that was really crowded. I followed the sound of music to get there. I had to stand by a stall surrounded by idols, snakes, Buddhas and African carvings - not the beautiful ones  but many with very painful expressions - it made my prayer time even stronger. I found it strange but refreshing to worship God even when having to stand in such a place. The Bishop was there and the pastoral staff in their long robes with their Elizabethan ruffled collars.

Sunday Morning

I was still wondering what my visit was all about, and then things started happening. A young sinder came to drive me to the Rock Church where I spoke briefly with the Pastor and his wife. There I danced with the Holy Spirit flag and was given the opportunity to talk about Christian dance as well as the meaning of "rejoice", and that King David was willing to lay aside his royal robes to worship his God freely. The Pastor spoke from Joel 2:19 about the new grain (bread), oil (Holy Spirit), new wine (joy), and it all seemed to link together with my visit. This church had some dance worship in its past, and I was blessed to see them celebrate the last song with several men and women getting up to join in a line-dance.

Afternoon

Out of curiosity I attended the Pharaoh Island service in the mission hotel. This was an older group plus some of the Pharaoese students staying in the hotel. There was musical accompaniment on violin and guitar. An unexpected invitation came to say a little about why I was there. I spoke about our future as Christians and the Bride of Christ, that we are going to a wedding, a solemn occasion, to be followed by a great time of celebration (thinking of the Jewish celebration of weddings today and how they dance in fellowship at the party afterwards).

Evening

By late afternoon, the Pastor of Christchurch had managed to contact me and invited me to his church. This was a larger group of people. The woman who kindly came to collect me was talking in the car and as she realized a little of what I do in the Lord, she turned to me and said "this is an answer to prayer" (God has a pland and if we are obedient He does reveal it in his own time!). She had attended a dance workshop at a Women's Aglow meeting in Europe, and knew about the healing that comes through the dance ministry.

I was given freedom to minister "as the Lord lead". this allowed for an opportunity to lift the large flag with Jesus' name on it (John 12:32), and later to answer questions and talk to the congregation about how God is raising up this very visual way of worshipping all around the world. Even to challenge the mena and women to think on the "strength" part of "worship the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength" (Deut. 6:5) - to increase at times their prayer and praise by adding movement.

The Pastor called for me to show how, on the spot! So we all stood and worshipped as a congregation using hand and arm gestures. This song was followed by a request for another one! Fortunately I recognized some of the tunes of the Icelandic songs and they called  for "Blessed be the name of the Lord". Many people took up flags too. Icelanders seem a quiet people, so one member of the congregation blessed them by joining in and trying something new. The result seems to have been that the Lord was already drawing many people to this way of worship and praise, and this was a time of recognition of that. In some cases a definite calling was going on, and a time to be released. The church then invited me back to do an all day seminar.

This was all very humbling and yet again I stand in awe of what a Mighty God we serve! But I had to assume that if He sent me there for a purpose, He would give me what He needed for me to impart, so I prayed for His will to be done - and prepared lots of possibilities!

Return from England

 Robert, my son, and I took a tour out of Reykjavik, and this gave me a greater understanding of wher I was. We were blessed with the most glorious day that enabled the guide to take us where they usually can only go in summer. And also to see glaciers and mountains in the far distance, extraordinary vast rough treeless landscapes, extraordinary cloud formations, and gentle pastel colored skies. I gathered little stones of volcanic lava in different colors for the seminar. We stood at the great crack in the Earth where the European and American plates join (seemed like such a significant place). We saw the open air cliff where the oldest parliament in the world met, taking decisions such as the whole country to be baptized as Christians a thousand years ago, and a later decision that everyone would become Lutheran, the mainline church today.

Seminar

Men and women came to the seminar for varying reasons. some were already dancing in their prayer time at home. Some came  with a love of dance and now the desire to use it for the Lord. One young man came just because he was curious. Another because he had seen people worshipping with dance in a vision or dream. And one woman was responding to someone's challenge to come if you're scared to come. I was interested to later discover that several were members of the band. I felt the importance of that, the Lord drawing the musicians to worship in this way would give them greater insight into what is going on in the services and help them to lead when the time is right for dance to be used in prayer, prais, worship, or warfare.

The seminar was a day to taste several ways of using the dance ministry. We looked into the Bible at movement words and dance verses and their context. Harmonics was used as a way to begin movement for non-dancers; this was very successful and gave alot of joy. A great sense of flowing into movement, reaching a point  where we could offer the "dance" to the Lord as an act of worship. Then we spent time with Him thinking about what condition or state we should be in to make this offering - to come before the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3-4).

Flag Workshop

That afternoon we moved from the sanctuary to a large room, but it was a little craped for so many to worship freely with flags. So we learned some techniques and shapes that could be used, particularly in processionals. We then took the opportunity to look into the Bible about flags and even prayerfully designed our own. There was a great awareness of the meaning of the colors. Lastly, we briefly covered how to put together a dance drama to present before the congregation. For this we took Psalm 47, learning some basics of choreography and moving to the spoken Word.

Sunday

The following evening I joined ChristChurch again for their service. It was very quiet, as they had had a big banquet the ngith before. I felt led to dance at one point freely praising the Lord. Later, prior to their time of prayer, I sensed I should present a dance, "This too shall pass". This dance is about not getting so busy doing the things of God that we forget to spend time with Him; when we do He will free us from the things that bind us; that we should lay down the heavy burdens that we try  to carry at the foot of the cross; then look up, the cross is empty - we have a living Lord and He wants to hold our hands and invite us to follow Him along the path of life.

The Costume

For this dance  I should also mention that the Lord provided a dress and top from England for me to dance in. The color exactly blended into the unusual color of the sanctuary wall behind the cross and altar. It is these little details that He addresses that never fail to astonish me and reveal to me just how much He cares. And that HE is fulfilling HIS plan.

Testimonies

After the prayer time came a further time of worship. Now things seemed different - the flags are out, many members of the congregation are celebrating in a Jewish style circle dance, and some people are dancing worshipping freely.

I'm told the church is transformed, and once again that this is an answer to prayer. It is a joy to be present.

Testimonies are spoken of the freedom that the Lord has released. The Pastor and his wife invite me to their home, together with a woman who senses the call of God to this ministry. I answered many questions and try to share all the different things God is doing through dance in worship and the flag ministry; that it must be birthed in prayer and there is a need to find the style that will suit their church.

It is God's will, not ours. I stand amazed that in the last six months He has taken me almost from the bottom (South Island of New Zealand) to the top of the world. His love and care for the individuals among His people all over the world is overwhelming.

I thank you, those of you who were praying for this mission trip, those of you who helped make this trip possible, those of you who helped be God's provision for the journey. May you be blessed many times for your obedience and faithfulness.

In Jesus' name,

love from Lindy

Whereever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. Exo 20:24