The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 22

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22

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Items of Missionary Interest.

Meruopist Deaconess Activiries.—'The dea-
coness work of the Methodist Episcopal Church has
become an important and beneficent factor in Chris-
tian work. According to the latest report, there are
now under the auspices of the general Board of
Deaconesses 56 homes and 25 hospitals, 23 missions
_ and “settlement” houses, 11 schools, 23 sanatoria
and summer homes, 6 old folks’ homes, 8 orphan
homes, 11 homes for girls, 1 school for boys,
2 schools for girls, and 1 for boys and girls. Their
value, including endowment funds, is $8,407,100.
The cost of operating for the past year was
$2,145,153, while the income was $3,213,783.
There are 877 deaconesses, 153 probationers, and
523 assistants. ‘The following is a summary of the
work in 1918: Visits to homes, 471,558; sick-visits,
98,411; helped by gifts, 26,782; free hospital care
given to 118,991; other hospital cases, 31,716;
children in industrial schools, 80,746; 12,301 chil-
dren were-given a vacation; there were 121 in the
homes for the aged; 106 in the homes for girls;
486 in the orphan homes, and 266 in those for
babes. Inasmuch as the deaconess work was not
officially recognized until 1888, the results are ex-
tremely gratifying. — Chrisil. A pologete.

JAPANESE CHRISTIANS IN AweErica.— Of the
one hundred thousand Japanese now living in the
United States, fifty-two hundred are members of
Japanese Christian churches, in addition to scat-
tered membership in -the various denominations.
They also support a strong missionary society for
the extension of their work on the Pacific coast.
and edit a number of Christian papers and maga-
zines in. Japanese.

CuurcHES In Montana:— At a missionary
conference, held at Miles City, July 8 and 9, 1919,
the following statistics were given for the State of
Montana: Lutherans, 12,543 (1916 census figures) :
Methodists, 11,500; Presbyterians, 7,000: Episco-
palians, 5,000; Congregationalists, 5,000; Bap-
tists, 4,800; Disciples, 3,000; Methodists (M. E.
South), 1,100; Evangelical Association, 150, mak-
ing about 50,000 communicants in the State. As-
suming that there are 50,000 additional -children
connected with these churches, and estimating that
there are 50,000 Roman Catholics in the State, we
find that out of a population of 750,000 in the
State, only 150,000 are identified with the churches.
One person out of every five belongs to a church.

~

In 1896, the Lutherans had only § pastors, 2 church
edifices, and 394 communicants in the State.
Lutheran Survey.
AFRICA AND Missions. — There are about
130,000,000 heathen in Africa. Among them labor
4,500 misionaries in 1,000 stations. ‘There are now
one and one-half per cent. professing Christians
won by Christian missions. The missionaries teach —
over 600,000 pupils in 10,000 elementary schools
and 350 high schools and colleges. What a mighty
foree for Christ! The Christian medical missions
cared for over one million cases last year, besides
the many cared for in asylums for lepers, orphan-
ages, and other institutions of Christian mercy.
But the war has sadly crippled the Christian mis-
sions. Nearly one thousand Protestant German
missionaries have been obliged to discontinue their
work. ‘Their missions have been turned over to
Swiss, British, or American missionaries, or are
carried on by the native Christians. The former
German territory in Africa is more than fifteen
times as large as New England, with twice as large
a population. — One man of rich experience thinks
the war will rouse the native Christians to greater
leadership in winning Africa for Christ. Already
thirty-five thousand native Christians are engaged
in evangelistic and Christian educational work for
their fellow-Africans. These will be the future
preachers and teachers of Africa. And they have the
advantage over white missionaries in that they are
fully. conversant with the language, are closely knit
together with the natives by kinship, are more
familiar with their conditions, and can sympathize

“more with them in their peculiar needs and con-

ditions. — Quoted in ‘American Lutheran, from the
Inutheran.

Ot

The Missionaries’ Defense.

The following occurrence was related by Mis-*
sionary Von Asselt, a Rhenish missionary in Bue
matra from 1876, on a visit to Lubeck: —.

“When I first went to Sumatra, in the year
1856, I was the first European missionary to go
among the wild Battas, although twenty years prior
two American missionaries had come to them with
the Gospel; but they had been killed and eaten.
Since then no effort had been made to bring the
Gospel to these people, and naturally they had re-
mained the same-cruel savages.

eitat it means for one to stand alone fone