The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 84

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Lhe Lutheran Fioneer.:

Lutheran Mission Work in Australia.

For about nine years our brethren in Australia
have been doing mission work among the native
blacks on the western coast of South Australia.
The mission among these Australian negroes has
always been considered very difficult and almost
hopeless. Years ago it was written of them: “They
stand on the lowest step of human existence. With

of our brethren has been abundantly blessed by the
merciful God, “who will have all men to be saved,
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” The
patient labors of the missionary, the Rev. C. A.
Wiebusch, have not been in vain. Where nine years

ago heathenism and sin reigned supreme, there is
now a congregation of more than 50 native Chris-
tians. About 150 souls are under the daily in-

fluence of God’s Word at the mission station, and

\ Missionary Wiebusch and a Group of Native Christians in Australia.

no fixed abode, they wander from place to place
and prolong their wretched lives in the most mis-
erable way imaginable. To bring them down still
lower by European vices and diseases is easy; to
elevate them to ordinary men or to Christians is,
humanly speaking, almost an impossibility. Chil-
dren, who received the most careful Christian train-
ing, as soon as grown have cast off their clothing
and returned to their tribe in the wilderness!”
Still, the Gospel of Christ has proved a power’
of God also among these people, breaking the power
of sin and Satan and leading many from darkness
and misery to light and salvation. Also the mission

the Sunday services are attended by a large number
of native blacks, who give thanks for -the Gospel
by which they have been ‘turned from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God.
The 5th of June of the present year was a spe-
cial day of rejoicing and thanksgiving at the mis-
sion station. On that day the new beautiful church
was dedicated. Three services were held, the even-
ing service being a communion service. From the
report of a visitor, who took part in the festivities,
we learn that it was “a day of rich blessing and
great joy.” The day had been looked forward to
with great pleasure by the native blacks, who had