Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Page 212

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LE NORD
workers. Here is a man who wants to send money home. The
Church is at his service if special restrictions do not prevent it.
Considerable sums have been sent to Norway in this way. For the
years 1914—1938 the remittances amount to about 42^ million
kroner. Another man does not want to carry his pay about with
him. Again the Church is at his service and takes care of his
money. In the above-mentioned period about 49 million kroner
were thus deposited for safe keeping, — an important help to
self-help in many cases. A third man has to go to the dentist, a
fourth wants to buy some present to take home. And then, when
they, after the purchase has been made, are invited home to the
chaplain’s or the assistant’s house, new ties of friendship are
formed, of significance perhaps for the rest of their lives. Then
it may happen that a father who has been a long time at sea,
asks to be allowed to see the chaplain’s or the assistant’s little baby
in its cradle. The strong man gazes and gazes and takes the little
one in his arms. And the tears roll down his face at the thought
of his own little kid at home, whom he has neither heard laugh
nor cry — and whom perhaps he will not have a chance of seeing
for several years to come. By meeting such a man in a friendly
spirit it is often very easy to win his confidence which makes it
possible for one man to help another.
And how many other ways and means there are of brightening
a seaman’s life! Think for instance of the interest in sports and
games. The Seamen’s Mission has long since found a point of
contact with the seamen here. In Norwegian ships football is the
most popular game. Several boats have their own teams. An the
chaplains arrange matches between teams from Norwegian ships
and foreign boats or from local football clubs, and not in-
frequently they must act as umpires also. In other cases the Church
arranges running matches and walking matches in which both ac-
cidental spectators and police take great interest, and even stop
the traffic in order to give every one who partakes an even chance
to win. —
In other places local conditions favour excursions. With the
chaplain or the assistant as guide, art galleries, cemeteries, fine
quarters of cities and parks are visited, which the seamen would
seldom have reached if the Mission had not been there. And it is
a gratifying sign of the times that this part of the work grows
from year to year. The seamen want to get away from the har-
bour quarters. They wish to get a personal impression of that