Sixth Leg, Icelandic, Já (Yes)

Hello all,

This is close to the final entry for the tour, but it's not. We still have South Dakota to visit and we'll play at Life Light festival, which I'm looking forward to and will describe later in this post. But I'm back in Minneapolis, and loving it.

FYI, this is a longer post, because I think we were given some clear lessons and I feel it's important to share them with you. So be prepared. :)

For the Icelandic part of the journey, it seemed as though we might get off without a fight. It's a place of intense beauty (of which we were able to see more of due to a bus trip to the north of Iceland), cool temperatures, a national history that recently includes Christianity, and wonderful tour organizers (of wonderful Polish origin! I like Poland and those who are Polish.) Nevertheless, we ended up with challenges, mostly within ourselves, but definitely spurred by the devil's efforts.

One challenge was tiredness. At this point, I think I can safely say that we were all pretty tired. In Finland, I was already feeling like I wasn't going to be able to correctly answer the questions people had about who I was, what I did, and when did I start playing in the band. One time I said that I taught graphic design, which I don't, but I do teach violin and cello and do freelance graphic design.

In the face of tiredness, the next challenge was overcoming tiredness because we had our first of three sequential shows the day after we arrived and after a 7 hour bus ride to get there. I was surprised, though, at my alertness, and must say that God gave me what I needed that day, and I saw that he continued to do that each day. At no point during the shows or after did I feel like I was going to fall over tired, or was too tired to talk to people afterwards. I felt the opposite, actually, and God gave me specific people to talk and pray with.

Our first show was in Akureyri in the north, outdoors on a trailer stage in the main square. Though it wasn't an enormous crowd, many more people came than local people had expected or had seen in previous square concerts of any sort. At this show, God reminded us of the rewards of obeying his whispers. As David and Luke were getting ready before the show, at the end of the warmup band's set, David saw some guys who were leaving and said to Luke, "Those guys need to stay for our concert." So Luke jumped out of the bus and said to them that they should stay, and they said, "Okay," turned around, waited for our show, and were some of the people who responded to give their lives.

During our sound check, one girl stood towards the front of the stage watching for a while, and then I didn't see her any more. After sound check, I saw her walking by with some of her friends, and felt a distinct urge to invite her. It was one that I knew would not let me rest if I ignored it. I ran down the steps from the back of the stage and towards them, hesitated, realizing that it was going to be awkward when a girl runs up from behind them to invite them, but I went for it anyway and invited them. At the end of the show, she was one who responded, and was also supporting one of her friends who had been really touched. Grazena and I began to talk with her and another girl after they had prayed. She believes in God, and prays and thinks he's a "good dude." She explained that she likes to call him "Dude," like a friend. She asked me what I think God is like. I talked about the time that he showed his back to Moses and through that I know that he is the most powerful, dangerous, awe compelling being, but within that, he is the most loving father for us personally. She had had a stillborn baby two years ago at the age of 14, and said she has to believe that he is in God's care. We prayed together, and I prayed that her life would be guided by God, and that her compassion for her friends will come from His heart as the source. It was a blessing to pray for her, and I felt that God was able to reach her in a way she wasn't expecting. During our discussion, she told me that the reason she came to the show was because some lady had come running up to her and told her to come back for the show. It was a gift that she said that, and hopefully is an encouragement for you to follow those silly-seeming nudges.




Our second show was on the Christian stage in Reykjavík at their annual national culture night. This festival is the biggest party night in Iceland, and most bars and clubs stay open all night. A major problem, though, is that there are many many young people who are on the streets all night drinking lots. Before our show started at about 9 pm, I looked out of the parked bus window to see a group of 14 or so year old boys pretty publicly finishing off a bottle of vodka. On our walk home, I was amazed at how many young people were on the street drunk, and my heart hurt for them. During our shortened version of the show, though, I was very happy to see that the square was filled, and people were even standing and watching in the street beyond the square. When David was talking to the crowd, there was one group of people who yelled a couple of times in unison, "shut the f up" and some who mockingly responded to David's call. But there were those who were serious, and many responded. I talked with two girls after they prayed. They both had a belief in God, but hadn't experienced it as a relationship. They felt the spirit of God throughout the show, and one said she felt something inside her that she hadn't felt before. I talked about the greatness of God as a creator and father, and said that those things they felt were probably God's reaching out with the greatest love we could experience, longing to be in friendship with them.

Our third show was held at a prayer and worship center for those who are in rehabilitation from addictions. It's a really good place, and their motto is "loving people back to life." The setup went slowly because we had to tear down their regular music setup, clean off the stage, and then set everything up for our show. The show went well, despite some blood spills on the carpet, and I was able to talk and pray with a girl who had joined up with this group only three months ago.

Radek, one of our tour organizers, shared the next day about how he had felt that the devil was going to try to destroy our unity during the day of our last show here in Iceland and the following day. I had the same feeling, and even though I sensed that our being able to finish well was in danger, I failed to thwart it and I handled a situation during setup poorly, the poorest I had handled any situation on tour yet. After my reaction, I felt as Peter must have after the rooster crowed. I had been used as a tool of division. Fortunately, we have a good father, counselor and conqueror on our side, and I was able to make reparations fully before and after the show.

But this last challenge continued the day after the concert, our only free day in Iceland, when we got calls from both the rehab center and the festival stage organizer telling us that we had to clean up the stage blood from our shows. On tour, free days are like gold. Sometimes we joke that on free days we are "masters of our own destinies" for a few moments with no one saying when we need to be anywhere. Usually, the stage blood is not an issue, and we've never been asked before to clean up blood from a stage with an easily cleanable surface like the one for the festival. The carpet is understandable, but our ability to do much more than we had already done the night before was small. Discussions and decisions on what to do and who would do it brought some tensions, but in the end, both dilemmas had simple resolutions. 5 minutes after the arrival of those who went to clean the carpet, a lady came and told them that they were going to hire a steam cleaner instead. So they hadn't even begun before they were released from that duty. When the few guys arrived at the festival stage and they saw that there had been no attempts to clean it, they just sprayed it with a hose, and the stage was clean. Easy. But these situations were definitely tests to see what our reactions would be, and to test our unity. I can't say that I or we got gold stars in this test, and I don't think that the test is over, but during a meeting that Radek called, we were able to voice the divisions we saw, ask for forgiveness, and expose the junk underneath the surface to clean it with God's grace. (cleaning pun not intended...)

So I guess these long explanations only serve to illustrate the point "Listen and Obey in humility."

As far as the general feeling from Iceland that I have from this tour is that, unfortunately, the church serves the church within itself, and doesn't know how to or see the excitement in reaching beyond their own walls. The organizers were given close to no help from church leaders and members who said last year they would help in this year's tour. Also, finding a home for new believers is hard because of the lack of church involvement. But on the other hand, we were blessed by some great individuals, including a pastor in the north, our amazing, good-hearted bus driver, Joseph, and the people who provided us with the bus at half the price, and, again, our tour organizers and helpers.

During our meeting with Radek, the idea of beginning a group of people who are active, supportive and welcoming to events like No Longer Music and to those who wouldn't normally go to a church came up, and is something to keep in prayer. Iceland needs a revelation of a powerful, kind God, and with only 300,000 residents, the devil doesn't want that word to get out. Pray that it does.


SOUTH DAKOTA, USA!

Yes, I'm looking forward to playing at LifeLight Festival! You can see all the details at http://www.lifelight.org/festival. We're playing tomorrow, Friday, night at midnight on the "Souled Out" stage, after David speaks at 7:15pm on the main stage, and after Switchfoot plays on the main stage at 9pm. Last year, 320,000 people came to this cost free festival, and I'm really excited to see how it goes there, and the sorts of things God will do. Please be praying for our safe travel, as we leave tomorrow morning, and also for David that he hears exactly what he is to say from main stage. Also pray for each of us that we would have a burst of spirit-led energy and enthusiasm, and would be used to speak to and encourage many many people.

Thanks again, so much, for reading and praying along with us. I'll post another blog after LifeLight to let you know how it goes.

Love,
Christa