The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 95

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

95

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be constructed of granite, those of the upper story
of burnt brick. In the lower story there will be
nine rooms, in the upper five. It will cost about
$4,000.00. Work will begin at once. The Board
hopes the Lord will provide the necessary funds as
the work proceeds.

A post-card from Genoa, Italy, informed us
that our three new missionaries and the two ladies
accompanying them arrived there safe and departed
for India on October 16.

Missionary A. Huebener, of our institute at
Nagercoil, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a
gasoline engine and a force pump for the use of the
institute. ‘The well on the Mission Compound is
119 feet deep, and it is an exceedingly difficult and
irksome task to draw the necessary water for 75 to
80 persons from this well with rope and bucket, es-
pecially during the long and hot, rainless season.
Is there no possibility of sending relief to our breth-
ren —none at all?

Missionary Freche reports that his church in
Turayeri is always well filled, and the prospects for
adding nine new members to his congregation are
good. He complains that the Pariah women hinder
him much in his work.

Missionary Gutknecht recently celebrated Holy
Communion for the first time in Taddiarkulam and
Thalakudi.

Missionary G. Kuechle is instructing 30 to 35
adults in Pernambattu. In four other villages he
has 30 Pariah catechumens. He is also instruct-
ing a Sudra woman. Several teachers of Missionary
Kuechle’s school were .recently accused in court of
having kicked an idol. The judge, however, re-
jected the charge, as the testimony of the false
witnesses did not agree. Another teacher was at-
tacked at night in his house and severely beaten.

Jun. A. Frrepricu.

Items of General Missionary Interest.

Tre AMERICAN BAPTISTS ARE MAKING PREPA-
rations to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary
of the founding of missions in Burma by Adoniram
Judson. ‘Two large parties have sailed from this
country, in order that they may be present at the
anniversary meetings to be held this month in Ra-
goon, Moulmein, and Mandalay. The total number
of Christians in Burma is 80,000, and some of the
villages and a few districts are practically wholly
Christian.

‘THE THIRTY-FOURTH CONVENTION OF THE GEN-
ERAL Council was held at Toledo, O., in September.
The Porto Rico mission board reported that the

~ Council had 9 congregations, 6 mission stations,

14 Sunday-schools, and 2 parochial schools on the
island. The total number of communicants is 423.
The cost of conducting this mission was $28,269.76
for the past two years. The Board of Foreign Mis-
sions reported on the Council’s work in India and
Japan. While the expenses of this board for the
past two years had been $124,749.40, it requested
an annual appropriation of $90,000 for the next
two years. At the close of 1912 the total member-
ship was 19,377, a net gain of 2,797 during the last
two years. The number being instructed for bap-
tism on the India field is 2,878. The mission field
embraces 577 villages and contains 314 congrega-
tions. The total native force in India is 411. The
foreign missionaries, including the wives of mis-
sionaries, numbered 29, of whom 12 were ordained
men and 9 woman missionaries. ‘The 223 mission
schools had 6,559 pupils, of whom 2,821 were Chris-
tians and 3,738 non-Christians. The mission owns °
12 bungalows used as dwellings for missionaries,
9 church-buildings, 192 prayer-houses and school-
sheds, 3 hotels, and one hospital. Since 1907 the
Council is also conducting a mission in Rangoon,
Burma. The number of Christians here is 238.
The work in Japan is conducted in cooperation with
the Lutheran United Synod and the Danish, Mis-
sionary Society. With the exception of the Tokyo
station, all the work is carried on in the island of
Kyushu, in the southwestern part of the empire.
The work is carried on by 9 ordained foreign mis-
sionaries and a number of native workers.

Rev. F. Moun, for many years a missionary of
the Missouri Synod among the Tamils of India,
has had to give up the work on account of the
health of his family. He is now in this country
awaiting a call into the ministry among us.

In 1900, A MISSION WAS BORN AT BARINGA,
KonGonanp, among a fierce and cannibal people
which had never heard of Christ. In the next eight’
years 8 people were gained; in 1910, there were
15 members; in 1912, they had increased to 80.
During the last year the increase has been very fast.
At Boginda, in Kongoland, there is a native Chris-
tian who maintains his own evangelist in the field.
The Christian missionaries of Kongoland, who in
past years often grew despondent, because their

_ work seemed to be in vain, now report that open

doors are being found by them on every side.