The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 69

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 69

the pastor himself, while the school under Baptist
auspices is conducted by a Mrs. Bennet. Our
school had an enrolment of forty-two pupils at the
time of my visit, the Baptist and public schools

‘each had thirty-five children, and the Methodist

pastor had twenty-five pupils in his charge. I was
informed that the Methodist preacher had tried to
increase the enrolment of his school by promising
to teach the older pupils Latin and Greek! Teacher
Demouy very sensibly showed the people the im-
portance of first speaking English correctly before
taking up the study of the old dead languages. —

From Napoleonville my journey took me to
Johnson, where I arrived at about one o’clock on
Friday afternoon. I.found Pastor Berger hard at.
work teaching his pupils in an old, dilapidated hall
about one mile from the station. The hall is poorly
adapted to school purposes, since it has only two
windows. The desks are even worse than the
building. I found thirty pupils present. Though
somewhat noisy, the children were not ill-behaved,
and all made the impression of being above the
average in intelligence. ‘The prospects for our
work, however, are very poor, since practically all
the people are Catholics and want to remain such.
The children attend our school up to a certain age,
and then go to New Orleans to make their first
Communion. After that is done, they come back
to our school. One lady frankly told me that while
she appreciated the good work Pastor Berger was
doing among them for their children, she was
a Catholic and wanted her children to be the same.
“Of course,” she added, “if I couldn’t have a Catho-
lie church, I would prefer the Lutheran to any
other.” Under such circumstances it seems plain
that it is a waste of time to have Missionary Berger
remain at Johnson any longer, and the Mission
Board has therefore decided to transfer him to our
promising field in Alabama. —

Tt was in the midst of a blinding rainstorm
that I boarded the train at Johnson that evening,
and it was still pouring down when I arrived at
New Orleans two hours later to attend an interest-
ing and highly satisfactory conference of our mis-
sionary laborers in the Crescent City, thus bringing
to a happy close my visit to our Colored mission-
field in Louisiana.

May the good work among the Colored people
of Louisiana and elsewhere grow and prosper in
the face of all obstacles, and redound to the blessing
and salvation of many! Ears:

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Concord, N. C.

Judging from a program sent us a few days
ago by Rev. W. G: Schwehn, they had “big doings”
at Concord, August 5—12. During those eight
days the, Silver Anniversary of Grace Colored

Lutheran Church was celebrated, and Immanuel .

Conference held its seventeenth convention there.
The silver anniversary services were held August
5—?. Three services were held on Sunday, and
one each on Monday and ‘Tuesday evenings. ‘Ihe
anniversary preachers were the pastor, Rev. W. G.

Grace Church, Concord, N.C.

Schwehn, Rev. J. Alston, of Mount Pleasant, N. C.,
and Rey. F. Foard, of Gold Hill, N. C., on Sunday;
Rev. W. O. Hill, of Yonkers, N. Y., on Monday;
and Rey. H. H. Gallmann, of Danville, Va., on
Tuesday.

Immanuel Conference was opened on Wednes-
day evening, August 8, with a special service in
which Rey. John McDavid, of Charlotte, N. C.,
preached the sermon. On Thursday evening Rey. C.
Stoll, of Atlanta, Ga., filled the pulpit, and on Sun-
day, August 12, Prof. J. Ph. Schmidt, of Immanuel
College, Rev. W. H. Lash, of Salisbury, N. C., and
Rev. F. D. Alston, of Spartanburg, 8. C., preached
in the morning, afternoon, and night services.
Prof. F. Wahlers, of Greensboro, N. C., submitted
a paper bearing the title: “Why Was the Reforma-