The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 36

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lehem School consists of Mr. Lange and the Misses
E. King and L. Walters; and we found all three
of them very hard at work on the morning that
we visited them. The Carrollton Mission is in
charge of Rey. Peay, who is also teaching the
school. The enrolment of our school in Carrollton
has decreased, which the missionary attributes to
several opposition schools recently opened in the
immediate vicinity of our mission.

We were gratified to learn that our schools still
prove to be the feeders of the Church, and that
many of our best members are gained through
the schools. We spent some time in each of the

- thirteen schoolrooms of our missions in New
Orleans, and were everywhere pleased at the good
conduct of the pupils and their faithful prepara-
tion as shown by the ready answers given to the
questions of the teachers. It was a great source
of delight that the primary teachers, while not
neglecting the instruction in reading, writing, and
number work, had succeeded in imparting to their
pupils so great a treasure of religious knowledge —
Bible-passages, Bible-stories, and Catechism. The
lessons we attended were, in most cases, well con-
ducted, and with few exceptions the answers of
the pupils were loud and distinct. Just at the
time of our visit an epidemic of measles was raging
in the city, which cut down the attendance greatly,
and the fact that the trans-Atlantic trade had
practically come to a standstill had worked con-
siderable hardship among those depending’ directly
or indirectly upon this trade, and the children of
such families were in many cases unable to attend
because they lacked the necessary clothing” and

_ shoes.

The work which our Colored mission-schools
are doing is great, and their influence for good
in their several communities is inestimable. Only
Judgment Day will fully reveal the blessings that
haye been wrought by ‘these valuable. mission-

"agencies.

May God hold His protecting hand over them,
fill our mission-teachers with mercy, sympathy, and

_ love, and crown their faithful labors with abundant

- success, so that they may continue to prove nur-

¥ series and feeders of our Lutheran Zion! —

; Above I spoke of certain advantages the public

schools of New Orleans enjoy in the way of teaching
apparatus, and I desire once more to revert to the

_ subject. I saw only one globe in all the schools

The

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os “that aa eco and very, very few nae,

36 The Lutheran Pioneer.

primary teacher, were also lacking everywhere. In
one room I found the new Bible Picture Roll pub-
lished by the Concordia Publishing House of
St. Louis. The use of these beautiful pictures
greatly increases the interest of the children in
the lesson taught, as I could not help but see. As
I now, at the time of this writing, transfer myself
in thought to that Bible History lesson, and see
the sparkling eyes of the children as the teacher
was explaining the Bible narrative by the help of
the finely colored picture of the Roll, I cannot but
wish that every one of our Colored schools might
be provided with this excellent help. I had the
intention to lay the matter before my people upon
my return home, and ask them to subscribe for
a set of these Bible Picture Rolls for each of our
mission-schools in Louisiana, but other crying
needs, which seemed to demand attention even more
urgently, such as a bell and hymn-books for Trinity
Chapel in New Orleans and new, respectable-looking
Bibles for all our mission-chapels in Louisiana,
moved me to see to it that these more immediate
wants be supplied, as they now have been, and
I would earnestly ask that others grasp the fine
opportunity offered and assist our mission-schools
in getting the necessary teaching apparatus men-
tioned above, such as Bible Picture Rolls, reading-
charts, globes, and maps.

I don’t want the friends of our work to think
that our teachers are not resourceful and willing
to make the best of conditions. I know from ex-
perience that you will have to go far to find a more
willing band of men and women than our mission-
workers are. And they are resourceful, too. Neces-
sity is the mother of invention, you know, and our
mission-teachers have more than once proyed the
truth. of the adage. I know of one teacher who
spent weeks in making a set of reading-charts for
his pupils. I know of another mission-worker who
taught his pupils their geography lessons out in
the yard, where he made the maps on the ground
as they were needed. Sometimes a rain came and
washed the map away before it had been fully
studied, when he was simply obliged to make it
over. It was all he could do, for not a child had
a geography, and the school had not a single map,
not even a railroad map! I know of another mis-
sion-teacher who drew his own wall-maps on large
sheets of paper, which he paid for out of his own
pocket.

Oh, yes, our teachers are resourceful and willing
enough, but because they are that, we should not
pile too much on them. You know, of course,

Tera