We pray today for Iceland.

First, there’s an imminent threat of natural disaster. This morning emergency officials, fearing a major eruption of the restless Eyjafjallajokull volcano are evacuating more than 800 citizens. The volcano, 75 miles east of Reykjavik, erupted March 20th after almost 200 years of silence. The volcano sits under a glacier, and an eruption could spark flash floods as well.

Second, Iceland, a nation of only 320,000 people is in the midst of a financial crisis that involves the collapse of all three of the country’s major banks following their difficulties in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposits in England. Experts say that relative to the size of its economy, Iceland’s banking collapse is the largest suffered by any country in economic history.

Last week my friend, Agust Olafsson, a pastor and communications consultant in Iceland sent out the following email:  “Today the report of a special investigation committee looking into the recent economic fall in Iceland was published. Please say a prayer for the nation of Iceland, that we will process well these very serious things that the report makes public, and that in the long run this will lead to honesty, truth and prosecution where prosecution is due. This is an important moment in the history of Iceland.”

Let’s join in a prayer for the nation of Iceland today.

“God, you have created Iceland is a land of fire and ice, both physically and spiritually. We pray today for the destiny of this small but great nation. Today, this threat of volcanic eruption jeopardizes the safety of many. They need your help, protection, healing, and renewal. Protect Iceland and her people from any violent eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. And as this, and other less visible pressures build on this small island turn the hearts of Icelanders to you and not to themselves. Iceland’s grave economic, moral and governmental ethical crises are even more dire. In history Iceland’s people were great adventurers, traveling the seas discovering, exploring and conquering distant lands. You have given them a hearty, courageous and cheerful spirit that has enabled them, by your strength to carve a life and culture from a rugged terrain in a bitterly cold climate. May these present troubles – geologic, economic and ethical volcanoes – prove a kind of symbolic expression of your power rising in their hearts to melt away the frozen cap on their future, and a call to return to the character and faith of their storied history. God, recover the destiny of Iceland and today be her protection and salvation. In Jesus, the savior of Iceland and all the world…”