The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 5

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 5

tendance, but we wish to assure our old friend of
our heartiest good wishes, and we implore upon the
union God’s choicest blessings.

Our Mission Treasury. — The middle of last
month a balance of $5,400 was in the bank to the
credit of our Treasurer. The various chapels and
schools recently built have cut the balance on hand
down greatly. Ordinarily, the receipts from Jan-
uary to June are smaller than at any other time
of the year, and this fact is causing the Board

’ some anxiety, because the indications are that the
demands upon the Treasury during the next few
months, owing to necessary building operations and
the expansion of the work, will be greater than is
usually the case. — Don’® NEGLECT TO READ ON!

ALABAMA Is Cattine! — Yes, Alabama is call-
ing louder than ever. Never has the Macedonian
cry come to us with greater insistence than just
now from Southern Alabama. It is becoming more
than ever apparent that it was wise strategy to
place Pastor Bakke, the oldest and most experienced
laborer in our Mission, in charge of this promising
field. We are sure that no one else could have
taken care of the field at this stage of development
so successfully as he can. Under his efficient super-
vision the work is now being carried on in three
counties. In Wilcox County we have Rosebud and
Oak Hill, in Monroe County are Vredenburgh and
Buena Vista, and now the work has also been be-
gun at ‘Tilden, in Dallas County. Pastor Bakke
preached at Tilden a month ago to an open-air
meeting of hundreds of Negroes. ‘he people there
are hungering for the bread of life. How much
in earnest these Colored people of Southern Ala-
bama are may be seen from the example of a man
who comes a distance of eighteen miles once a week
to be instructed for Confirmation.

At Oak Hill 120 children are being instructed
in a room 20 by 24 feet. ‘Their seats are un-
planed boards. Missionary Tervalon at Oak Hill
ought to have two teachers to assist him in his
work. At Rosebud a third teacher is a crying
necessity. The two schoolrooms at this station
are filled to overflowing. A number of localities
in Southern Alabama having no churches and
schools are begging Superintendent Bakke to help
them. At Buena Vista, Monroe County, a new
station has been opened, with Mr. J. S. Mont-
gomery in charge of the school. Forty adults and
25 children are here being prepared for Confir-
mation. The Sunday-school has an average at-

tendance of 75 scholars, and 100 pupils are ex- .

pected for the day-school. The Board has purchased
five acres of land and an old building at a very
reasonable price from a white friend of our work
at Buena Vista. The old house will, for the
present, serve for a school and chapel. At Tilden,
Dallas County, the services of Mr. U. S. Young
have been secured for the three months beginning
with February 1, to continue the school of 146
pupils now being conducted by him and another
teacher. About a month ago Superintendent Bakke
preached here to a congregation of 500 Negroes
and a number of whites. It was an open-air meet-
ing, no house large enough to hold all the people
being obtainable.

The mixed feelings of the Board may be easily
imagined: joy and gratitude because of the won-
derful prospects, anxiety and fear lest the men and
money needed to take care of the enlarged field will
not be forthcoming. Dear reader, several times in
the past it has happened that promising harvests
were lost to us because the means to gather them
were not at hand. But never was the harvest in
any locality so promising as it is just at the present
time in Southern Alabama.

What will we do about it? Let it go to waste?
For God’s sake, let us not do that! Let us not
for the love of a few dollars leave these poor souls
to perish. Let us put our Mission Board to shame
because of their lack of trust in our love for the
great cause of Missions, and by our gifts make it
possible for them lo gather in the waiting harvest!

Friends, 1r 1s ur vo us!! F. J. Li.

Items of Missionary Interest from
South America.

Ecuapor. — ‘I'wenty years ago a newspaper cor-
respondent touring South America reported that
Ecuador was the most bigoted Catholic country
in America, and the one that had absolutely closed
its doors to all thought of religious liberty. He
also wrote that it was the most backward country
on the continent, physically, intellectually, and
morally. What was written then concerning the
situation in Ecuador holds good to-day in every way.

Perv. —In Peru it was impossible two years
ago for a Protestant organization to build a church
or chapel. Services had to be held in rented halls.
Neither was it permitted to announce a preaching
service, even though a man hung the notice on the
doorpost on his own property. It had to be simply

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