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The Wet Bible
The Wet Bible
 
The Norwegian freighter, Childar, was shipwrecked at the mouth of the large Columbia River, out from Astoria, Oregon, in the spring of 1934. Four men of the crew lost their lives at once and three were badly hurt.
 
Carl Hansen, Halden, Norway, sustained the worst injury. We called on him the last day he was at an Astoria hospital. Twenty-two of the crew were then sent back to Norway.
 
When the Astoria and Portland newspapers described the shipwreck of the Norse boat, they did not forget to mention the soaked Bible which Carl Hansen had saved and which he read at the hospital.
 
When the men were ordered into the life-boats, it was out of the question to take much along, but Carl grasped his Bible and put it in his pocket. He and the 21-year-old cook, Odd Mevik, had come near a life-boat, when a big wave lifted the boat and then dropped it down upon them. Mevik was killed and Hansen sustained a broken nose, a broken arm and hip.
 
In a suffering condition he and two other wounded sailors were brought into Astoria by the coast guard. As soon as Carl had had his wounds dressed and tended to, he asked them to place the water soaked Bible open before him, so he could read it.
 
He could not speak English, so the reporters did not understand his language. But the open Bible in front of the badly wounded young man spoke a quiet but impressive language. This language was understood.
 
In this manner the young Norse Christian sailor became a witness for Christ in the foreign land about the life-giving power that flows into a believing heart through the life -giving book.
 
Do you read your Bible?
 
The Bible is given you as the Word of Salvation, as the compass of your life, that you may rescue your soul from the shipwreck of life.
 
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