Iceland

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 3, 1914

At the Scandinavian Union meeting, Brother O. J. Olsen, superintendent of the Iceland Mission, gave the following interesting and encouraging report of the work in Iceland:—

“When we began work in Iceland in 1911, we saw that it would be impossible for the living preacher to carry the truth to all parts of the island, which contains about 120,000 square kilometers. We therefore planned to publish and circulate one of our books that would lay a good foundation for future colporteur work. We selected ‘Christ Our Saviour.’ As Iceland has a population of only about 85,000, we decided to print an edition of only 2,500 copies in order not to have any left on our shelves when we had finished canvassing the whole island. But this edition was soon sold, and we published an edition of 4,500 copies, which we also sold, and then published the third edition of 3,000, making a total of 10,000 copies. At the present time these are nearly all sold.

“At the beginning we had only one canvasser, but we soon saw that we should have more and began to develop native workers. The first brother who undertook the work was a fisherman. During the first three days Brother Anderson went with him, teaching him how to carry on the work. The fourth day the native brother went out alone in the evening after the Sabbath, and in one hour sold twelve books. During the following two days he sold 50 copies, and after being out forty

days he had sold 800 books. Others have done equally well. One brother sold 360 books in thirteen days, selling 43 copies at one time in two hours.

“When it comes to the delivery, the canvassers have to carry the books on their backs, as there are no roads or means of communication whatever. One of these faithful Icelanders has carried 68 copies of ‘Christ Our Saviour’ a distance of nearly twenty-five miles, fording streams, climbing mountains, etc. But our canvassers do this without any word of complaint. We are now planning to publish a 10,000 edition of another book.”