# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1929_S89
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

88

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

time learning lip-reading. The parents protested
in vain at this and tried to get the faculty to train
what hearing he then had, so that he could get a
fair education before the hearing was all gone. This
was in L., where the father had become pastor of
one of our churches in that city in 1913.

“An appeal was made to the faculty of a paro-
chial school there, and Teacher K. was found will-
ing to take him and try to teach him as a normal
child by having him sit in the front seat, near the
teacher. This went well until the fifth grade was
finished and a part of the sixth. Then the teacher

of that grade had a nervous breakdown, and Ste-
phen could not continue there.

He had made fair

Present Deaf-Mute Institute, Detroit, Mich.

progress in all his studies except arithmetic and
grammar. These were hard for him, because he was
not getting all the instruction. He probably got
less than his teachers and parents thought.

“After much consultation it was decided to send
him to the state school for the deaf at B. This was
done in the fall of 1925. The parents expected that
the spiritual care of the boy would be looked after
by our missionary for the deaf in this State. This
man, however, was having a large congregation on
his hands and much trouble besides, so that he did
not go to B. all that year. No one else could be
found to go. The school authorities seemed derelict
also in the matter of religion. Of course, in a state
school no religion could be taught, but the custom
prevails in'some other state schools for the teachers
to take their pupils on Sunday to the church of

their choice and interpret the sermon for them.
This was not done at B., and the entire year passed
without the boy’s attending a single service that he
could understand. For several years previous he
had probably got little from the services; but at B.
it was worse because he was thrown in with boys
who were unbelievers and utter worldlings, so that
there his Old Adam developed tremendously and
carried the boy to utter godlessness.

‘When the parents discovered what had oc-
curred, they were amazed and hurt beyond words.
Their son of so many cares an outcast from the
company of the faithful, headed for eternal and
temporal ruin! The company he had got into at
the school was wicked, and many of them
had their homes in L., where Stephen was in
easy reach of their plans for his complete un-
doing, morally and spiritually. How could
this ring of iniquity be broken and the boy
freed from the shackles of this ungodly com-
pany? Many an anxious day was spent in
trying to solve the problem, and then light
and hope appeared.

“An appeal was made to the Lutheran
School for the Deaf at Detroit. But the boy
was too old and large to fit into this school
properly. Yet there was one thing that
made him eligible—he had not yet been
confirmed, and the dear brother at the head
of the school offered to take him in at great
inconvenience and labor to himself and his
assistants. The boy was sent Hast at once
and entered the Detroit school, the only Lu-
theran school for the deaf in America, on
October 29, 1926, and a new world was
opened for him. By the patient, skilful,
almost inspired work of Superintendent Wm. Gie-
low the Word of God gradually broke that proud
and stubborn heart, and the raging lion of self and
ungodliness gave way to the gentle influences of the
Holy Spirit, and the lion became a lamb, a lamb of
Christ.

“His father went East and attended his confir-
mation with his class on May 29, 1927, in Detroit.
Never was there a more impressive service for the
father than when he saw his lost son brought back
to the fold by the hand of his dear classmate Rev.
Wm. Gielow.

“Rey. Gielow explained how he had worked to
bring this about. He said he had used the Second
Article of the Creed and Luther’s explanation of it,
chiefly. With that, he said, he could always win his
point with Stephen.