# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1928_S28
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 27

An Open-Air Service in Alabama.

1927 we added 155 souls to our communicant mem-
bership by confirmation, and by baptism 213 were
received into the Church —a total of 368 acces-
sions for the year. These figures, however, do not
fully represent the people we are reaching with the
Gospel of Christ. Through our day-schools, ser-
vices, Sunday-schools, and mid-week instructions,
by means of literature and the visits we are making,
the seed of God’s Word is sown into the hearts of
hundreds and hundreds not listed in our records.
Through the Catechism and the Bible History,
which the children here in the Black Belt carry
into their homes, many mothers and fathers and
other relatives hear of Jesus and His love for
sinners. Last summer a young woman came to me
and requested that she be received into the Lutheran
Church. I asked her, “Where did you learn about
the Lutheran Church, and why do you wish to
join it?” She said, “My little brother attends your
school in East Selma, and through him I learned
to love the Lutheran Church.” God alone knows

how much glorious Gospel light ‘has illumined ©

hundreds of formerly dark and dreary cabins
through the schoolbooks which our children carry
into their homes.

With 1,127 communicant members on our
records, we had as guests at the Lord’s Table 3,468
persons, an average of more than three times a year
for each communicant. This in itself is wonderful.
But when we add that during the first three months
very few Communion services could be celebrated

because of lack of wine, we have even more reason

to thank God for the splendid attendance at the
Holy Supper.

In our thirty Black Belt schools 3% female and
9 male teachers and 1 pastor are teaching 1,706 chil-
dren the one thing needful. Our Sunday-schools
have ‘an enrolment of 1,419 pupils. We have re-
ferred to the streams of blessings which flow from
these nurseries into the ignorance and sin of the
cabins here in the Southland. May the Savior
continue to bless the work .done by the teachers
among the little folks!

The figures given above show that our people,
poor in this world’s goods, — many of them live
in very humble homes and are in destitute circum-
stances, — have during the year 1927 contributed
the nice sum of $10,074.74. This is approximately
an average of $1 a month for each communicant
member, or 25 cents a week. A large amount

One of Our Preaching-Places in the Black Belt.
A Sunday-school and Class of Catechumens.