Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Every mother has a dream for her child.  Whether young or old, rich or poor, the world over, mothers dream of their children’s happiness, safety and good health. Of course, there are days when children give their mother’s a heartaches and headaches. So follow the directions on the aspirin bottle carefully, especially the part that says, ‘keep away from children’.  Some mothers complain that their children never speak to them. Here are two easy tricks.  With small children the quickest way for a mother to get their attention is to sit down and look comfortable. With older children and young adults, simply change your Netflix password. They’ll come around soon enough.  Certainly, mothers have dreams for themselves, but there comes a time when every mother chooses to lay aside her own dreams in order to make space in her arms to hold the dreams of a child.

As she boarded the ship, the Restauration in Stavanger, Norway on July 4^th, 1825, Martha Larsen Jeilane could not imagine the challenges before her.  She was a newly married 21-year old wife, 7 months pregnant, and a Quaker in a less than tolerant land.  During the Napoleonic wars of 1807-1814, the Danish- Norwegian king had supported Napoleon Bonaparte and the French. This resulted in the capture of many Norwegians sailors and crewmen who were incarcerated in England by the British Navy.  In the prison some Norwegians came in contact with new religious communities, like the Quakers. Among the prisoners was Martha’s future husband Lars Larsen Jeilane. When released after the war these Norwegian prisoners brought these new religious thoughts with them back to homeland. The authorities in Norway, however, did not approve of any other confessions than Lutheranism. Religious dissenters were persecuted and threatened by the government.  On complaint of the Lutheran clergy, the local sheriff would come with his men and take the Quakers’ children by force, bring them to the regularly pastors, and have them baptized or confirmed, as the case might be. They even went so far as to exhume the dead in order that they might be buried according to the Lutheran ritual.

The Quakers were not alone in their mistrust of state officials. Most common people were displeased with and suspicious of the office-holding class in Norway, , who had little time or respect for farmers and laborers. Thus, poverty, oppression, and religious persecution turned the minds of the early Norwegian emigrants toward America, the land of freedom, equality and abundance.

In 1821 the Quaker community in Stavanger, which gathered in Lars Larsen’s home, sent two of their members, including Cleng Peerson, to America to find out about opportunities for the community to settle there. When he returned, he spoke of the good prospects he had seen in America. It was decided that a group should travel, and Peerson went back to America to prepare for their arrival. Only a small number of the passengers of Restauration were actually members of the Quaker community. Most of them were pietistic Haugeans, who were sympathizers with the Quakers. Led by Larsen they organized the purchase of single masted ship or sloop that was commonly used for transporting herring and grain in the Scandinavian waters.

Although the Restauration was not constructed as a passenger ship, it was fitted for 52 berths for the journey to America. When the Restauration left Stavanger she was carrying a load of iron and whiskey. They began by crossing the North Sea and passed though the English Channel. On the English coast they entered the small harbor of Lisett where they started to sell the whiskey, unaware that this was illegal. When they found out what danger they had set themselves in, they had to escape in a hurry. They went as far south as Madeira. Outside of Funchal they found a barrel of Madeira wine floating in the sea, which they rescued. The ship’s crew soon became seriously drunk, and the ship came floating aimlessly into the harbor. The port authorities feared that the Restauration was a ‘plague smitten ship’ without command.  The cannons at the fort were already pointing at the sloop when a German ship alerted the passengers aboard the Restauration that they had to immediately show their colors. One of the passengers then at the last minute, managed to find and raise the flag.

The Restauration’s sloopers stayed at Funchal for about a week and were well treated by the American Consul. He was impressed by their courage, conviction and faith.  Before departing Funchal he hosted a dinner for them and increased their store of provisions, including an abundance of grapes. As the Restauration sailed out of the harbor the fortress fired a salute in their honor. A month later, on September 2^nd,  halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, Martha Larsen gave birth to a daughter, Margaret Allen named after an English Quaker writer.  They began as 52 passengers aboard the Restauration, and now they were 53. A month later, on October 9^th,  the ship entered the New York harbor.   Incidentally, that is how that the date October 9^th was chosen to celebrate Leif Erickson Day.  In New York, the ship, cargo and captain were taken under arrest due to a violation of the 1819 Passenger Act. The ship exceeded the number of passengers safe to sail to ocean.  The arrival of this Restauration, the smallest ship known to have crossed the Atlantic with emigrants, attracted so much attention, that the case against the sloopers was dropped, but not without paying a stiff fine. When the ship and cargo were eventually sold, they only got $400, which was less than half of what they had paid for it in Norway.. On November 15 1825, President John Quincy Adam personally pardoned the new arrived immigrants.  By this time most of the sloopers had already travelled on to Orleans County in New York.

I can’t imagine as an expectant mother Martha Larsen Jeilane, knew the path that lay before her, but she had a dream for her child and filled with courage, commitment and faith she journey to America. Martha Larsen courageously fought for a better life for her child- even leaving her homeland on a ship too small for the seas and never expecting to return.  That level of courage is true of every mother whether an emigrant, a refugee or a citizen of the nation, you want a better life for your child.  You are ready to risk it all for the chance that your child will have a better tomorrow. That is the love of a mother.

Martha Larsen committed herself to this child even before she was born. As a healthy man having just travelled on the relatively calm seas of Greece, I can’t imagine a 7-month pregnant woman boarding a ship for a 14 week journey to America. But that’s what mothers do.  Someone once joked, Motherhood is more than a vocation it a life sentence.  Another added, “I can’t wait until I am paroled when my son turns 18 and hopefully goes far away to college.”  That is the commitment of a loving mother.  They demonstrate commitment for their children throughout their lives often sacrificing their own dreams for the dreams of their children.

Finally, Martha Larsen fully embodied her faith in God. She knew the voice of the shepherd Jesus who called her his own. She knew him and followed him. More importantly she embraced his promise of eternal life. In spite of the dangers and the perils on land and on the seas, Martha trusted that no one could snatch her from God’s hand- not even the cold and perilous waves of the Atlantic.  And she shared the message with her daughter Margaret Allen.

My friends, every mother has a dream for her child.  I hope this Mother’s Day, you will remember the women who courageously loved you and risked everything for you. I hope you will celebrate the mothers who were fully committed to your daily trials and sacrificed their own dreams for you. And I pray that you will remember the mothers who knew the voice of the Good Shepherd who called them his own, and loving shared that faith in Jesus with you.  And I pray for the mothers  among us that you may be faithful in your high calling ever making way for your children’s dreams.

Eleven years would pass before the next two Norwegian ships departed for America in 1836. By then many of the first sloopers had moved west to Chicago and eastern Wisconsin. 900,000 Norwegians would eventually emigrate to America, following in the wake of the passengers of Restauration,  the majority travelling by ship, often sustained by loving mothers who kept the faith in Jesus Christ alive and well in this new land. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.