Ice and Fire
Thawing a Murderer's Heart
Last month, I found out that my friend Baldur in Iceland had written a book. It is his autobiography, Ice and Fire: Thawing a Murderer’s Heart, published in 2024. I was so excited that I purchased it right away from Amazon to my Kindle app, and started reading. I devoured the entire book in a couple days.
I wholeheartedly recommend Ice and Fire for anyone and everyone, especially to those who have not believed in God (yet). Baldur’s story is one of the most powerful testimony I have ever read, of a person’s life rescued and transformed by Jesus Christ. If it wasn’t for God’s divine intervention, I am not sure Baldur would be alive right now. Baldur’s childhood was unbelievably broken, what he experienced was so heartbreaking—one tragedy after another. I don’t want to give away too much of what is in the book, except that he did kill someone (as indicated in the title) and ended up in prison.
I consider it an honor and a privilege to know Baldur as a friend. As you may know, I have been to Iceland multiple times for short-term mission trips, and it was on those trips that I was introduced to Baldur and got to know him. When I first met him, he had just been saved and had turned his brothel into a church!
On one of my trips to Iceland Baldur opened his home for me to stay in. He is an amazing man of God and if you just met him you would never imagine who he was before!
So how did I started going to Iceland in the first place? It is a long story. From 2004 to 2006 I lived in the Charlotte area (border of North and South Carolina). There I was involved in a prayer and worship ministry called Charlotte House of Prayer led by my friend Greg.
In 2006 I moved to Seattle, but I still kept in touch with Greg and other friends in Charlotte. In 2007, Greg was taking a team to Iceland to co-lead a prayer conference in Reykjavik. He asked me if I wanted to join the team. I prayed about it and agreed to come. I was to be a part of their worship team, playing my electric violin.
That first trip was amazing! Over there, while I was playing in a worship set, I sensed that my violin skills was supernaturally upgraded to a higher level. I was playing better than I ever had played before. The prayer conference was powerful and fruitful, and I got connected to new friends there.
Afterwards, I thought Iceland was just an one time trip. I didn’t think I would go back again. However, in 2009, Greg invited me to go again. They were going to lead a prayer summit in Reykjavik. That second trip was even more powerful than the first. That led me to going back to Iceland again in 2010. And in that year, I went to Iceland twice. The second trip that year was a 3-month stay from September to December, one of the best times of my life.
I thank God for giving me the opportunity to go to Iceland and minister there. There are many great stories from those trips that I don’t have the space to share here. One thing I know for sure, is that God used Iceland to shape and mold me into the person I am today.
