# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1932_S59
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 59

them with the importance of being careful in the
treatment; for they try to plaster “the sick” in in-
stead of letting it be treated right. .

One poor old woman came some forty miles and
brought forty-five cents’ worth of fowls to pay for
two severe operations. It was all she had, and her
son had come to care for her. It is rare for a man
to care for a sick woman.,

We had to interrupt the clinic several times to
go out and correct mistakes in the work of the car-
penters; were called twice to send men across the
river; had to stop long enough to answer three
letters and send medicine along with two of them;
then step over to the manual-training school, show
aman some chairs, sell a hat and a cap; but in spite
of it all, we were only a half hour late for dinner,
and we were hungry as bears and thankful for the
rest and the food.

After dinner wife took her short rest while I got
the operation ready. (You see here the doctor can-
not say to the nurse, “Get the patient and the
operating-room ready at three.” No, he has to do it
himself, for he cannot trust the life of the patient to
a careless Negro.) So at three we were doing a very
hard major operation for an old man far from the
coast. We were kept busy on this work till nearly
five ‘and were so tired when it was over that we felt
like falling over, but had to hurry on and do the
regular evening work, getting through about dark.

I forgot-to say we were just ready to sit down to
dinner when a white German came in from the
South. It was a surprise, but we put on another
plate and were glad we had a chicken for dinner.
We were just going out, and I saw another white
man coming from the North; we had to put on an-
other plate, and I hurried them out to the table; for
you know there is a limit to the stretching capacity
of even a chicken, and another visitor might come!

We tried to write some of our letters, worked till
about nine, then gave up and went to bed and were
just asleep when a soldier came with a letter. We
found there was some cargo on a ship that was
anchored out about four miles and had to go on that
night. So I had to call a crew and put the boat in
the sea, as the tide was *way out. It was a big job.
Of course every one was tired and vexed at being
called at that time of night. We got the boat off
about eleven.

I was glad I had a man to go in my place and
thought I would sleep again and was just ready to
sleep, when a call came from a near-by town: One
of our sick boys, who had suffered much with a ter-

rible malignant tumor, was dead. We had just
gotten over this shock, when we were called again
to find a sick woman at the door. She had come on
this little steamer, had come ashore in a native
canoe, and the men brought her to the house. There
was no other place where to put her, and so we had
to fix her a bed in the house till morning, and again
we sought rest. Did we get it? No, we did not, for
the boat was coming back after its three and a half
hours’ trip. I had to go and help land the goods.
There was a big sack of mail; so we read mail till
4 a. M., and then we were so full of home thoughts
we could not do anything but talk about it. Thus
another day had begun, and we had not finished the
old one left behind us. But we had to go through
the new day just the same and could only be thankful
we had enough strength to do it.

Now can you see why the life here takes all the
vim out of us? Everything takes a little time and
a little energy, and by the time the day is over, there
is little left of the material called “pep,” and we
often fail to recuperate the exhausted supply during
the night. This constant strain for three years wears
us away, just as the proverbial “drop of water wears
away the hardest stone.” So we tell you at home
that you may see the need of more help on the field
and that you may not be weary with your part of the
work. We not only have the work, the worry, and
the strain, but we have the ravages of the awful
tropical climate to resist as well. But we are happy
in our work because we know the joy of service; and
whatever life brings us, “His cross is not greater
than His grace.” Dr. L. E. Samrrm in Woman’s Work.

Our Mission in Life.

To extend Christ’s kingdom, is it not this that
we stand for? ‘To tell the world of the Father’s
love to the world, was not that Christ’s mission?
To tell the world the story of Christ’s love, is not
that our mission? How true have we been to our
duty? That is the test of our discipleship. How
loyal have we been to the love which urges us to go
out and tell? That is the test of our sincerity as
Christians.

In the Chinese province of China there lived an
old Chinese woman who had all the outward marks
of a Christian. The missionary in charge of the
station did not doubt her faith and love. And yet
she never asked to become a member of the Church
and seemed worried and distressed when she was