More Workers for the Harvest

In 1947 a new era of preaching the good news began with the arrival of the first Gilead missionaries, who were both from Denmark. One of them was Leo Larsen. Two more missionaries arrived in December 1948: Ingvard Jensen from Denmark and Oliver Macdonald from England. These new harvest workers followed up the work done by Brother Lindal and distributed large quantities of literature. During the winter, they would work in and around Reykjavík, and during the short summer, they turned their attention to working rural territories along the coast. Ingvard Jensen particularly remembers one preaching expedition. He wrote: “During my first summer in Iceland, I accompanied one of the other missionaries on a trip to the rurals. As a rule we would go by bus or boat to the selected territory, bringing with us bicycles, tents, sleeping bags, literature, and provisions. So one evening we sailed to the town of Stykkishólmur on the west coast, arriving on the afternoon of the next day. Our plan was to call on all the homes in the town and then to bicycle to the town of Borgarnes, about 60 miles [100 km] away. A daily ferry service operated from there to Reykjavík. The trip began well. It was mid-June, and we had sunshine. The first night, we crept into our sleeping bags after having worked part of the town. During the night, however, we couldn’t keep warm in the bags, and the next morning we found out why: Four inches [10 cm] of snow had fallen during the night! It was impossible to cut short the trip, since there were no boats for a week. So we had to stick to our schedule, work the town, and bicycle over a mountain road to the next town, working the farms on the way.”

They reached Borgarnes four days later, cycling through sleet, rain, and gusts of wind up to 70 miles per hour [110 km/hr]. This bad weather was partly offset, however, by the extraordinary hospitality of the farmers along the way, who always invited them in for coffee and something to eat. Brother Jensen recalls that they had eight to ten meals a day! He said: “I had the feeling that people would be offended if we did not accept their kind offer, and it gave us an opportunity to give them a thorough witness about Jehovah’s established Kingdom.”

During the first three years of missionary activity in Iceland, the brothers placed over 16,000 pieces of literature. The return visits and studies, however, did not increase proportionately​—people readily accepted literature but did not respond to the message. For example, Brother Larsen and his wife, Missie​—who had come from Denmark in 1950 to marry Leo—​went to the east coast, where they worked the towns of Höfn, Eskifjördhur, Neskaupstadhur, and Seydhisfjördhur. During this demanding trip, they placed 300 books and about as many booklets. Bookmarks with a brief Scriptural message and the address of the missionaries in Reykjavík had been printed and included with all books. Everyone taking literature was invited to write to get more information about the truth​—yet, no one did.

However, in 1972, Mac and Valerie were appointed as missionaries and reassigned to Iceland. Mac served as branch servant and later as Branch Committee coordinator. He and Valerie stayed in Iceland for seven years and then were assigned to Ireland as missionaries,

1947: First Gilead missionaries arrive.