MISSION TO SEAFARERS

Seafarers are our lifeline

Please remember them on Sea Sunday – July 8

On Sea Sunday we are asked to remember and pray for the seafarers who bring so many essentials for our daily lives to our shores. Over 90 per cent of our imports are brought to this country by sea, including much of our food, clothes, oil, toys and electrical goods.
Even though seafarers play such a vital role in our lives, they are easy to disregard as they are mostly out of sight. They spend little time ashore as ships can load and unload in a matter of hours, and many ports are situated far from towns and cities.
For seafarers, this means that they are not only isolated when they are at sea, but also when they are alongside in port. If you add to this the fact that they spend many months away from their homes and families and that ships can be dangerous places, it is clear that earning a living at sea can be lonely and hard.
This is why the practical and spiritual support offered to them by The Mission to Seafarers, the international mission agency of the Anglican Church, makes such a difference to their lives.
In some 230 ports worldwide, its chaplains, staff and volunteers visit seafarers on their ships and offer a welcome and whatever help they need. This can range from enabling them to telephone or email home, to offering comfort to the bereaved and assisting in cases of injustice.
While most seafarers are well treated, some are still abandoned in ports far from their homes, or remain unpaid or forced to work in unsafe or unacceptable conditions. In such situations, the Mission plays a vital role in providing practical care and moral support.
In over 100 major ports the Mission runs centres where seafarers can relax briefly away from their ships. In addition to offering leisure facilities and shops, they all have chapels or quiet rooms for meditation and prayer, and Bibles and other Christian literature in different languages.
The Mission has recently developed a new way of supporting Christian seafarers through a partnership with the Diocese of Oxford’s internet church, i-church. A Mission web pastor has been appointed and a seafarers’ section set up to enable them to become members of a church community which is not limited by geography and time zones.
Other new work includes re-establishing a full-time ministry in Colombo, Sri Lanka; appointing a second chaplain to the United Arab Emirates; and building a support boat in Dubai to visit crews of the hundreds of ships at anchor off the coast.
This work is only possible with prayers and support. So, on Sea Sunday, please remember seafarers and The Mission to Seafarers’ care for them.
For more information visit www.missiontoseafarers.org or contact Kathy Baldwin on 020 7248 5202 or email pr@missiontoseafarers.org

Life and love in a seafarer’s world

On a hot Sunday afternoon, a bulk carrier arrived in the port. I paid a visit to welcome the crew to Halifax and tell them about our Mission centre. To my surprise, when I arrived on board, I found the crew had not been granted any shore leave. They would be in port until late Monday without being able to set foot off the ship.
I introduced myself and explained how I could assist them. I said the next day at 10 am I would arrive with four cell phones and phone cards and would bring anything else they needed. When I left, I had a list of necessities to purchase for them, magazines they wanted and the number of phone cards they wished to buy.
When I got back to the ship next day with the cell phones, it almost felt like Christmas. The seafarers were amazed that I had been able to buy and gather together everything on their list.
I checked throughout the day to make sure their calls were going through and found that everyone was having success calling home except the Sri Lankan chief cook. He had tried both of the cards he had bought from me earlier in the day and neither was making a successful connection with his wife. He was just about to give up when I asked him to try another card I had on me, explaining it would give him fewer minutes but the connection might be better.
I called the number and this time it went through and he was speaking to his wife. I realised that this is what life and love is all about in a seafarer’s world and I was overwhelmed with happiness for him.
When I went back for my final visit to the ship, the seafarers told me they didn’t know how to repay me for all the things I had done for them. I told them I was so happy to help out and just to see them smile and be content was payment in full.
The chief cook asked me if I could spare time to talk and he told me he’d been a seafarer for approximately 50 years. In the past five years, he said, every port seemed to treat him like a criminal, with new security regulations making it difficult for him and his colleagues to get ashore. He then said how valuable my service had been to the crew on the ship.
That night at home I thought about how much of a seafarer’s life is at the mercy of others in the shipping industry, and how The Mission to Seafarers around the world plays such an important role in their lives.

Dorothy Harnish
Assistant Manager
The Mission to Seafarers in Halifax, Canada

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