Sameiningin - 01.10.1961, Blaðsíða 18

16
Sameiningin
utterly alone, and with death around the corner. But there was
no sadness in his heart. He knew that he had found that which
all men seek, and relatively few men find, complete peace of mind.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith.” Only great men of God can speak like that.
Now, it is not my purpose to equate my friend, the Rev. K. K.
Olafson with the great missionary apostle, but I do find many
similarities in their careers. They both had been richly endowed
by God. They both had been given a keen mind. They both had
been endowed with forceful personalities. They both had caught
vision of the living Christ. They both had been called as co-workers
in His church. They both had been called to fight a very strenuous
fight. They both suffered frustrations and disappointments, and
they both could say in the end: “I have finished the course. I have
kept the faith. I have fought the good fight.”
Of course, due to the modesty which characterized Rev. Olaf-
son, he would never have used these words about himself. But
we can use them and apply them to him without reservation. It
seems that no matter what our occupation is, life is full of struggle
and strife. No man gets anything without fighting for it. The
higher the goal, the greater the struggle. This afternoon as my
wife and I drove down from Winnipeg into this community, and
as we followed the super highway which runs through this district,
and observed the cultivated farm lands and fine residences on
either side of the road, the thought came to me that this has not
always been like that. There was a time when this community was
nothing but brush and prairie. It was virgin land, which had not
been touched and not become productive. Then came the Icelandic
pioneers and settled here in the last decades of the last century.
The people came here minus the ordinary means of life and minus
the know-how that is considered essential when people settle in
a new country. In fact, they had nothing except a great tradition
to look back upon, strong hands, and a fierce determination to
carve out a living for themselves and become independent and
self-sustaining. With this determination they put their hands to
the plow and the scythe. They converted the virgin land into that
productive area which it now is. This was indeed a great struggle!
The parents of our friend were members of this pioneer band, and
he himself as a young man was no doubt called upon to put his
hand on the plow to cultivate the land as did the other young
people of this community in his day. The pioneers of this, and
other parts of the country, certainly fought the good fight. This
community has since the beginning been known as a community
of peculiar culture and refinement and also as a community which
has produced some of the outstanding men of the Icelandic settle-