The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 38

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38 .

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Items of Interest from the Colored
Mission Field.

ITINERARY OF SUPERINTENDENT Bakke. — Field
Secretary Bakke has just returned from an extended
‘tour of inspection. From his report we glean the
following items.

In New Orleans he spent a few days, meeting
with the missionaries and the professors of Luther
College in conference. He writes that two of the
new mission schools are held in large public halls,
while the others are occupying very cramped quar-
ters in small private houses. In these four newly
opened schools 256 children are being instructed.
He declares that four plain chapels are absolutely
necessary to the success of these four stations.

He also visited Napoleonville. He speaks in
very high terms of the school conducted by Mis-
sionary Berger at this place. A service held during
Rev. Bakke’s presence, on Friday evening, was at-
tended by 30 adults and children. Rey. Berger is
instructing a number of boys and girls for con-
firmation.

Missionary Berger’s new station at Johnson was
inspected on Sunday, March 22. Rev. Bakke writes
that there are 116 children of school age in John-
son, and that Missionary Berger has gathered quite
a number of them into his Sunday-school. A regular
mission-school is loudly called for by the conditions
obtaining in Johnson. ‘The village has neither a
church nor a school! The nearest church is a Bap-
tist church, two miles distant. ‘The nearest Catholic
church is ten miles off. On the day of his visit,
Rev. Bakke preached to a fine number of people
in a public hall, the use of which has been offered
to our missionary for services free of cost. - Those
in attendance declared that they desired a Lutheran
church and school, and promised to assist according
to ability in building a chapel. A very encouraging
circumstance met with at Johnson is the absence
of secret societies, which have proved such a hin-
drance to our work in Napoleonville. .

On March 25, the Field Secretary was in
Atlanta, Ga., where he preached to a number of
people in a private house and baptized two children

of a former member of our colored congregation in
Charlotte, N. ©. “These people are hungry. for
God’s Word,” writes Rev. Bakke, and he suggests
that they be given a service at least once a month.

From Atlanta, Ga., Rey. Bakke proceeded to our
“extensive field in the Carolinas, where he spent

practically the whole of last month. We expect him
to furnish us with an interesting batch of news on
this part of his trip for our next issue. —

From New Orleans the news comes that Teacher
Napoleon Seeberry, the first graduate of Luther Col-
lege and the able teacher of one of the classes of
the Bethlehem school, is ill with typhoid malaria.
May God grant him a speedy recovery !

Items of General Missionary Interest.

Kongo, Arrica.— The American Presbyterian
Mission in the region of the Kassai River is making
fine progress. From May, 1912, to January, 1913,
no less than 64 delegations waited on the mission-
aries at Luebo Station, asking for Protestant teachers
for their villages. ‘They came as far as several
hundred miles and represented a population of
120,000 persons. ‘The head chief of the Bakuba
urges his subjects to attend the services and to send
their children to the mission-schools. he mission-
aries have already translated parts of the Bible, a
hymn-book, and a school-reader into the Bakuba
language.

AmeERicAN Home Missions. — Thirty-eight
Home Missionary Boards operating in America,
represented in the so-called Home Mission Council,
report that in 1913 they spent $10,653,119 in.
their work. Of this sum about $400,000 was
used in. Colored Mission work and $250,000 was
for work among the Indians. ‘The Presbyterian
Board of Home Mission spent the largest amount
— $1,475,853.81; the Northern Methodists appro-
priated $1,000,715.92 to the same cause. Lutheran
statistics are not at hand, but it is very probable
that the annual expenditure of the various Lutheran
synods for mission work among the immigrants,
Colored and Indians, and for the support of various
mission churches and schools will exceed $800,000
per year. This estimate is based upon the annual

_ expenditure of the Missouri Synod for its various

Home Mission enterprises. i

Nicrrra, Arrica.— Reports are coming from
Africa that the Yoruba people of Southern Nigeria
are embracing Christianity in great numbers. The
mission societies at work in this region have but
a pitiable handful of workers to take care of the
multitudes that wish to become Christians. What
a pity that we hayen’t a number of missionaries -
to send there! May the time be near when we

may be able to answer the cry which comes to us