The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 31

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

lated how one little chubby colored girl of only three
years, upon being asked by him, “Little girl, what
do you know of the Catechism?” replied, after fold-
ing her little fat hands, by praying the Lord’s
Prayer and also reciting: “I believe that Jesus
Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eter-
nity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is
my Lord,” ete., on down to the end of Luther’s ex-
planation of the Second Article. Indeed, it is true
what one listener said to the speaker while shaking
his hand after the close of the lecture. He said:
“Pastor, you are surely doing a great work.”

Oh, yes, it is the greatest work that mortal man
is permitted to do, this bringing of the Gospel to
poor, benighted souls in the Black Belt of Alabama
and elsewhere. We wish Pastor Drewes would be
“snowed under” with invitations to tell his story
of our blessed mission-work among our fellow-
redeemed of the black race.

Gro. BEIDERWIEDEN.

Native Evangelical Christians in the
Dutch East Indies.

We were much surprised to see that the Foreign’
Missions Y ear-Book of North America, while speak-
ing at some length on the work of the Dutch Re-
formed Church in the Netherlands East Indies,
does not even mention the extensive and very
successful German Evangelical missions in those
islands. ‘The Rhenish Society’s work in the East
Indian Archipelago has been more successful than
that of any society working in the field. From its
very beginning} in 1832, on the island of Borneo,
the most signal blessing rested upon the labors of
this mission’s work. To-day this society has 150,000
members in Sumatra, 15,000 on the island of Nias,
about 100,000 in Borneo, and several thousand more
on a number of smaller islands. Other Lutheran

Mission Societies are likewise working on these ~

islands with great success, so that the total native
Lutheran population’ of the various islands of the
East Indian Archipelago will aggregate almost_
300,000. On Sumatra the Bataks have an asylum
for lepers, who are very numerous on the island.
. The lepers are willing hearers of the Word, and
gladly gather in their church for divine service.
Among the Lutherans of Borneo are also a number
of Chinese Christians, who came there to better
their outward condition. ‘They have their own
* chapels. BIL.

Items of Missionary Interest.

Gracrt, Concorp, N. C.— In some inexplicable
way the types were made to say in the February
issue of the Pronerr that the very liberal Grace
Chureh had contributed only $803.13, when they
should have said that the good people of Grace had
siven no less than $1,185.13 in the year 1919. This
congregation numbers only 118 communicant mem-
bers, and therefore contributes annually an average
of more than $10 per communicant.

Wortny or Inurarron. — Almost regularly
there comes to our table The Missionary News,
a very newsy and informing monthly review of the
organized missionary and charity work carried on
by the St. Louis Ltitheran churches and affiliated
societies. ‘I'he publisher is the active Lutheran
Ladies’ Mission Aid Society. ‘The last number
that reached us brought interesting reports of the
St.Louis City Mission, the St. Louis Local Colored
Mission, the East India Mission Society, the So-
ciety for Homeless Children, the local Altenheim,
local Orphans’ Home, and the local Lutheran Hos-
pital. This is certainly a fine array of missionary
and charitable enterprises, and we feel certain that
the News does much to keep awake the interest in
all these endeavors.

Missionaries ror Inp1a.— Since the British
Government has withheld its consent to grant the
return of a number of the former East Indian mis-
sionaries of the Missouri Synod because of their
German birth, the work in India is suffering greatly.
The Board for Foreign: Missions has done all it
possibly could to induce the British Government
to depart from their stringent rules, because of the
great urgency of the case; but so far all endeavors
have been in vain. While the British Government
makes no charges against any of these missionaries,
but even speaks of them in the highest terms, yet
its officials will not recede from the position they
have taken in the matter. May God in His bound-
less grace show us a way of taking the proper care
of those that have put themselves into our spiritual
care in India!

Inpran Mission at GresHam, Wis. — This
mission is in sore need of a new building for its
boarding-school. ‘The estimated cost of the build-
ing will be $30,000, of which sum only a very small
portion has been contributed up to the present time.
One collection from every congregation of the Mis-
souri Synod would be sufficient.