# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1913_S6 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 6 ’ The Lutheran Pioneer. days I have the pleasure of opening the door to some wayward boy or girl who has decided to come to us. By Christmas I hope to have fifty to sixty on my roll.” We sincerely hope that our good missionary’s hopes may be fully realized. There was something in the plain, simple little mission school which the children and also their parents missed in the large, fine, and well-equipped public school, and that was the Gospel of Jesus. In this respect these colored parents and their children showed a most commend- able appreciation of the great value of a Christian education. : Missionary Thompson adds: “My church is a new building, recently erected; the congregation is very small and very poor. We have no bell and no altar. Has your church, perhaps, one or the other which it no longer needs? If you should have an old bell or an altar which you no longer use, they would be of great service to us here. We are not begging your congregation for these, but if you have them, and would like to see them be of some service, please send them to us.” The Editor is sorry to state that his congregation is not the owner of an old altar or useless bell, but perhaps some other congregation may be able to help out. How is it? Brief Items from the Colored Mission Field. The school of our Bethlehem Station in New Orleans has an enrollment of more than 250; the new school in Carrollton, a suburb of New Orleans, has 72 pupils. : Immanuel College in Greensboro, N. C., has 86 students; Luther College in New Orleans has 36 students. As Rev. Messerli accepted a call to a congrega- tion in Ohio, the old pastor of Grace Church in Concord, N. C., Prof. J. Ph: Schmidt, is in charge till a new pastor can be secured. Shortly before Rey. Messerli left, this charge was made the happy recipient of an organ for the church. The kind donor was Mr. Andrew Werling of Ossian, Ind., who in time past has furnished organs for a number of our mission churches and schools in North Caro- lina. God bless this friend for his unselfish kind- ness to our poor, struggling congregations! For the sixteenth time that noble unknown sup- porter of our Colored Mission came to the Treasurer with a gift of $500.00. Again and again has this friend come to the rescue of our depleted treasury with his gifts. May God, who seeth in secret, re- ward him openly for his love to the Kingdom! Field Secretary Bal:ke, who, was seriously in- jured in a runaway November 8, while on an official visit to Mansura, La., after lying in a hospital at New Orleans for several weeks, was able to go to his home in Cincinnati shortly before the holidays. May God enable him soon to enter upon his work again! The lwo professors of Luther College, the Messrs. Wilde and Meibohm, have opened a new mission in New Orleans, the third one in 1912. ‘The new sta- tion is about two miles from St. Paul’s Station, and there is no Colored church in the neigh- borhood. or the present the work is being con- ducted in two rented rooms. Miss Sophie Raymond, a graduate of Luther College, has charge of the school. Sunday-school and services are regularly held. An organ is lacking, —a fine chance for a friend of our mission to make himself useful ! Rev. G. M. Kramer, of our Bethlehem Mission in New Orleans, sent the following good news to the Mission Board on December 8: “As a Christmas present to the Mission Board our congregation voted last night to increase the monthly contribution to the mission treasury from $40.00 to $45.00 a month, beginning with January. We appreciate what the Mission Board and, through it, our fellow Lutherans are doing for us, and we realize that with the open- . ing of new mission stations the treasury has as- sumed additional burdens; and it is our desire to help carry this burden. With the help of God we hope to be able soon to follow with another increase after we have caught our breath a little more from the repair work of the past summer.” — This is certainly a fine Christmas present, and the Editor is sure that the Mission Board highly appreciates it. It is a little late now for Christmas presents, but the Editor is sure that presents of a like nature from other missions would be just as welcome, even if they were made in January or February. How would it be if all our stations would make an earnest, ° strenuous effort along this line? This would be the most practical and convincing way of showing appreciation for what has been done by the Mission Board for our Colored congregations. On Sunday, September 15, three adult members were added to Bethlehem, New Orleans, by the rite of Confirmation. Our mission in Mount Pleasant, N. C., -Rev. John Alston, repaired its school last summer. ‘The