Modern Viking

Book excerpt: This is the fascinating story of the International Christian Leadership Movement and its founder, Dr. Abraham Vereide. I.C.L. is known around the world especially for its sponsorship of the annual Presidential Breakfasts in Washington, D.C., and this book contains many interesting sidelights on these famous events and personalities. Political leaders in Washington are warm in their praise of Dr. Vereide and his work: Congressman Charles E. Bennett says, “Abraham Vereide originally envisioned this Group—the House Breakfast Group which meets every Thursday morning for prayer, discussion and Christian fellowship—the most significant thing I know on Capitol Hill. I consider him to be one of America’s greatest citizen-leaders and one of our Master’s greatest tools for good.” “Reading the life story of Abraham Vereide is like boarding a fast-moving train,” writes the reviewer in Faith at Work magazine, “for here is a man who has been hurtling through life since childhood and now, in his mid-seventies, is still going strong. Though Vereide is Norwegian by birth, it is difficult to think of him except as the American pioneer, and the various stages and episodes in his life epitomize the best of the forces that shaped this nation. “The story of the development of International Christian Leadership is only slightly less interesting than the story of Vereide himself. And the names that dot the pages!—presidents of the United States, kings and queens, French diplomats, members of Parliament, African and Indian leaders, millionaires, governors, and great Christians of all kinds: Graham, Sunday, Peter Marshall, Schweitzer, Shoemaker, Bob Pierce, Peale. No less interesting are the anonymous men and women whose stories gleam through the swift-paced narrative: the mining camp rowdies, alcoholics, taxi-drivers, churchmen. All in all, this volume is a significant achievement.”