# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1926_S43 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 42, THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. I added $5.38 and the prayer that God would bless -the work of our Negro Missions and open the hearts of His people to give richly. I am a reader of the LurHeran Pioneer and therefore am deeply in- terested in the work. May God reward all those who are giving their services in this noble work!” Here follow two letters written by schoolgirls after listening to a lecture by Director Drewes: “The lecture by Rev. Drewes, of St. Louis, was surely interesting. He lectured on Negro Missions in Alabama. He also showed pictures explaining the poverty of the Negroes and their love for the Lord. The Negroes in the South have no buildings in which they can worship and no neat and large schools in which to educate their children. Though poor, the Negroes are cheerful givers and give as much as they can into the treasury of the Lord. Pastor Drewes’s lecture is a strong encouragement to us to give as much as possible that the mission- work among the Negroes may be extended.” “Rey. Drewes’s words and pictures showed the great need of spreading the Gospel among the Negroes. One of the pictures showed us Jesus sit- ting on His throne with a Negro and a white child in His arms. Jesus loves not only the whites, but also the Negroes, Another picture showed us a little girl named Marie and her brother. Marie is only a little over three years old, while her brother is still very small. Now, just think! Only three months after one of our missionaries had started to teach in the neighborhood where Marie lived, she could already recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed with- out a mistake! How they do love the. Word of God! Oh, that only more of them could hear it! God grant that the Word in all its purity be preached to them. Oh, that all hearts could be made: willing to help the poor Negroes, who are saying to us, “Please, help us!’ May we all pray that they. be helped !” But I have no fear that I shall be offending the writers of the above letters when I say that the one which now follows is the best of all. It was written to Mr. Theo. Eckhart, the treasurer of our Board Tor Negro Missions, by the pastor of a little boy who is no longer on earth. It explains itself: “Dear Mr. Eckhart: — Am sending check for $1.11, so many pennies saved up by Lloyd Bollhorst for col- ored children after he had heard an address by Rey. Carter some years ago. The little fellow was an inyalid until he was five years old. Then he ‘was able to walk to school. He died in November, 1924. ‘To-day his mother was able to open his little bank, having found the key which had been lost all this time. May the Lord’s blessing be upon the pennies of the little fellow who now rests in his Savior’s arms in heaven! Kindest regards from Carl E. Gallman.” FJ. L. Items of Missionary Interest. (By the Editor.) Alabama. — In Alabama our Colored Missions have 48 workers: 11 pastors, 3 professors, 25 lady teachers, 7 male teachers, and 1 matron. .Work is being carried on at twenty-six places. In the day- schools 1,500 pupils are receiving a Christian train- ing; in the Sunday-schools 1,404 persons are being instructed, among them about 500 adults. Louisiana. — The number of laborers working in our Colored Missions in Louisiana is 19: 7 pas- tors, 6 male teachers, and 6 lady teachers. These laborers are active at 8 different places. The day- schools are attended by 906 pupils, while the Sun- day-schools have an enrolment of 855. Southeastern Field. — In this territory there are 27 places, manned by 1 superintendent, 6 profes- sors, 13 pastors, 5 male teachers, and 14 lady teachers. In the 14 day-schools 795 pupils are en- rolled; in the 22 Sunday-schools 925 pupils are being instructed. St. Louis. — Here a building site for the new Grace Church has been secured. Plans are already under way, and it is expected that building opera- tions may be begun in the near future. Sunday-School Foundation for the Blind. — There are 100,000 blind people in the United States, 22,470 of whom read embossed type. Because most of these are poor and not able to buy the Word of Life for themselves, a movement has been set on foot to raise an endowment fund of $500,000, the in-. terest from which is to be used to furnish the blind readers of America with weekly readings of Scrip- ture in New York Point and Revised Braille print. Africa. — The Roman Catholics began their missions in the “Dark Continent” already in the fifteenth century. : The first Protestant mission in Africa was begun by the Moravians in 1737. Both of these missionary forces began operations in South Africa. In West Africa and in East Africa the Church Missionary Society of England began work early in the last century, while in Central Africa and North Africa Protestant missions were not opened until the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury. Our colored Lutherans are anxious to bring