# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_Mai 1949_S60 # AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Page 60 May 1949 Number 5 association! You are just what I needed! You probably need money, don't you?" An essential point of our mission work lies in the fact that we must first make it clear to the people whom we approach in mission work that our concern is not a matter of recruiting members, but something fundamentally different: the salvation of their soul. We come as ambassadors of Christ, not on human commission. We are interested in the soul of the person, which the Lord Christ purchased with His heart's blood. We come to warn people of the eternal punishment of hell that is determined for all unbelievers, and to offer them the redemption which the Lord Christ has also earned for them. That has nothing to do with recruiting members. And this commission is important enough. What great activity is displayed by the members of parties, clubs, associations, sects, and so on. And yet with them it is a matter of things that in the long run can be of no use to a person. But the saving grace of God is the most important thing there is. Does our missionary zeal correspond to this importance? Or, perhaps, have we ourselves not yet even recognized this importance? The enemies of the Kingdom of God are at all times highly active and busy. The children of God, however, by contrast, often display a complacency and indifference, as if it did not concern them in the least. Our commission, which we have as Christians, to lead other people to Christ, is fundamentally different from the commissions of this world and is the most important commission there is. Shall the godless put us to shame? Hans-Joachim Walter [Image: church interior with altar, castle chapel] Photo: Helmut Höller Castle chapel at Burg Tannenberg. Will you, dear reader, soon begin your vacation day here, on a sun-drenched summer day, with joyful morning songs and listening to God's Word? Come to the summer retreat weeks from May to September at the Burg. The retreat weeks' leadership at Burg Tannenberg will gladly write to you with everything worth knowing about it: (16) Nentershausen über Bebra Hello, this is Essen speaking! From all the congregations of the Ruhr district, a large crowd of young people gathered on March 13 for a congregational celebration organized by the youth, and thus for a youth afternoon in Essen. Despite bad weather, individual congregations were represented with 30 or more boys and girls. The day turned out to be a fine success. Here are just a few offerings from the event: "Mitten wir im Leben sind mit dem Tod umfangen" (two-part setting by Othmayr); soprano solo: "Er weidet seine Herde" (from Handel's "Messiah"); a movement from the Trio Sonata in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven. The focus of the second part of the afternoon was the lay play "Thomas": a young returnee from the war, who no longer believes in the meaning of life, is led back onto the right path by "Freund Hein" (Death). The topicality and the good performance of the amateur actors helped the piece to be fully understood. — The day ended in cheerful fellowship. For the first time since the capitulation, the youth of Essen organized a larger gathering, and it took courage to come forward with such a program. Let us hope that other congregations, too, were inspired to call the youth together for similar events. Lutz Pötsch [Image: castle on a hill] Photo: Helmut Höller Will you, dear reader, soon look down happily and gratefully from the windows up there onto the greening forests and meadows around our Burg? You are cordially invited. [Image: vignette "From All the World"] Youth in Distress In North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs, there are currently around 6,000 homeless young people. To care for the homeless young men, the charitable associations of the state have created 24 homes with 12,000 places. For the state of Lower Saxony, the director of the State Youth Office in Hanover estimates the number of homeless wandering youth at about 8,000. 15 percent of these young people are girls. "News of the Evangelical Church of the Rhine Province" The Bible in Almost 1,100 Languages According to a new survey, individual books of the Bible have so far been translated into 1,090 languages, the New Testament into 214, and the Old Testament into 185 languages. EPI School of Dullness From an advertisement in a French newspaper (Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace): A great new adventure film; action, action, and once again action ... There is no need to think, one only needs to look at the screen. — One could not better point out the main danger of a film, namely thoughtlessly absorbing genuine and false things alike. [Image: vignette "Calendar Corner"] On the Origin of the Mission of the Moravian Brethren Among the many German Protestant missions, the mission of the Moravian Brethren (Brüdergemeine) is the oldest. Have you ever heard anything about its origin? In any case, the name of its founder will not be unknown to you. Just open your hymnal, and you will find his name there. How often will you already have sung the hymn "Jesu, geh voran, auf der Lebensbahn" or "HErr, dein Wort die edle Gabe, diesen Schatz erhalte mir," or also "Herz und Herz vereint zusammen sucht in Gottes Herzen Ruh"? Do you know who wrote these hymns? Count Ludwig Nikolaus Zinzendorf. He lived from May 26, 1700 to May 9, 1760. The most significant thing about his life is his magnificent work in the field of Inner Mission and mission to the heathen. As early as 1722, when he acquired the estate of Berthelsdorf in Upper Lusatia, he used the opportunity to give the Moravian Brethren, who had been driven from their homeland for the sake of their faith, the possibility of settling there. With great love he created a new homeland for these people and laid the foundation stone for schools and a poorhouse. A few years later, the Moravian congregation of Herrnhut arose there under him. But Zinzendorf did not see his task only within his newly founded congregation; he also thought of the poor heathen who did not even know that there was a Savior. But how did he get in touch with these heathen, and how did he come to know of their distress? When Zinzendorf made a journey to Copenhagen in 1731, he met a Moor there at the royal court. This Moor's homeland was somewhere in the West Indies, and he was now in the service of the king. The Moor told him much about his homeland and also about the hard lot of the Negro slaves. His moving accounts made a deep impression on the Count. Zinzendorf took him along to Herrnhut. There he laid upon his congregation's heart the tremendous distress of these people in distant India [sic]. — From this encounter of Zinzendorf with that Moor, a richly blessed mission to the heathen developed from then on. — Two men immediately declared themselves ready to proclaim the Gospel to the Negroes. These two first missionaries set out in the year 1732, equipped with only 18 marks, for the island of St. Thomas. They worked there under the most difficult conditions. Further missionaries followed them. The mission of the Moravian Brethren has preferably been carried into such regions as were especially difficult because of an unhealthy climate or also because of the wildness of various heathen peoples. Once, in a single year, 10 missionaries died as a result of the unaccustomed and unfavorable climate. The mission has continued to develop ever since. It has spread out, its fields of work are very extensive. A few of them may be named: 1734 Barbados; 1771 Labrador; 1792 South Africa; 1849 South Australia; 1853 Western Himalaya. Only the burning love for Jesus and the firmly grounded faith in Him could help Zinzendorf in his difficult work. All of this also speaks through his hymns. In them he confesses his love for the Savior and gives a living testimony. He drew from the source that offered him guidance and direction: from the Word of God. May the Lord grant us too, again and again, that firm trust in Holy Scripture of which one of his hymns in particular speaks. Let us therefore confess with Zinzendorf: "... If Thy Word shall no longer avail, on what shall faith rest? A thousand worlds mean nothing to me, but Thy Word alone matters." Heinz Schätzel Publisher: Lutheraner-Verlag G.m.b.H., Frankfurt/M., Taunusstr. 43. — Editor: Pastor Hans Kirsten, Oberursel (Taunus), Altkönigstr. 50. Published under license no. US-W-2055 of the news control office of the Military Government, licensee: Christian Schmidt. — Printing: Maindruck, Frankfurt/M.-Fechenheim. 10,000 copies. — Published monthly. — Subscription price: single issue DM —.45, quarterly 1.35, plus postal delivery fee for postal subscription.