The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 62

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62

The Lutheran Pioneer.

TaaMaNvEL Lurireran CoLircr, GREENSBORO,
N. C.— The crying need at this institution is to
be supplied, at least in part. ‘The girls’ dormitory
is to be enlarged this summer. ‘The Mission Board
has given orders to President Smith to begin build-
* ing operations at once, though sufficient funds are
not on hand to foot the bills. May God open the
hands of our Christians to help along the good work!

A Korean Cuurcn 1x New York Crry. —
Not long ago the first Korean church in North
America was dedicated in New York. ‘The mem-
bers of this church are mostly students and mer-
chants, numbering sixty communicants. The New
York City Missionary Society was helpful in secur-
ing the property.

Mormon Missionary Activities, — It is es-
timated that the annual increase of the antichris-
tian Mormon sect in our country is about 50,000.
These large additions are largely due to the aggres-
sive missionary activity of the more than 2,000
emissaries of Mormonism, who are devoting their
“ whole time to endeavoring to make converts. Were
the Synodical Conference to have ‘a proportionate
number of missionaries at work in the homeland
and in foreign fields, we should be compelled to
treble our present force of missionary workers.
What a pity that the children of darkness should

be more active than the children of light!
F.J.L.

News and Notes from the South
x Indian Field.

The Berghetm (mountain home) at Kodaikanal
has been well populated these months. Pursuant
to the resolution of the General Conference, a large
- number of the younger brethren have taken to the
hills for language study, either for the preliminaries
or for the polishing processes. March 1, however,

found three of the members of the broadly adver- .

tised 1921 India party returning to the plains for
their first taste of the actual work. All three of
them — Pastors Levihn, Schroeder, and Strasen —
have been assigned to the Nagercoil field. Little of
pomp and ceremony marked their departure from
Kodai, but the importance of the event should not
be underestimated. It-means that now, finally, our
mission is embarking upon days of greater man-
power, after the dreadful paucity of men during
. and after the war. The remaining three new men of

_ the 1921 party (Revs. Jank, Boriack, Oberheu) will
_ enter the field within the present half-year.

The strain on the Foreign Missions treasury has
been, and still is, acutely felt here across the seas.
It fills the missionaries with grave concern in the
face of the growing scope of our expansive oppor-
tunities. Our work is leading us beyond the borders
of the native State of ‘Travancore into the inviting
field of the Tinnevelly District of British India.
Round about Vadakkangulam and Ovari, two vil-
lages which have broken with the viciously veneered
Church of Rome, heathen villages of higher caste
people, are coming to us for instruction and preach-
ing. And this is a happy omen, indeed. ‘The out-
caste pariahs, among whom we have hitherto worked,
almost to the exclusion of caste Indians, do not
usually offer the. degree of intelligence required in
our native agents (teachers, catechists, and pastors),
while higher caste converts, as a rule, combine larger,
mental powers with greater character and independ-
ence; hence we cannot but welcome this intrusion
into the more elevated ranks of Hindu society. It
is chiefly Missionary Lutz, back from American
furlough only a few months, who is carrying on
this work. He has plunged into his work at Vadak-
kangulam with great zest. His shattered nerves
have been much restored by his year and a half at
home. By the end of the coming hot season (June),
he will have completed his new bungalow there in
the Tinnevelly District.

Of no small import is the opening of the new
theological seminary at Nagercoil. Realizing the
weight of many obstructive considerations, the men
immediately concerned are bringing to the task
a somewhat fearful heart, but the paramount
urgency of the school so vital for the future of

. our mission, makes them resolute in spite of appre-

hensions. God willing, the first lectures will be
given in June or July. ‘The course will embrace
practically all theological subjects; but the knowl-
edge of. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew is not to be
a prerequisite for enrolment. Students will be re-
quired to study at least three years. It need hardly
be added that the teachers of the seminary will
retain their respective fields along with their work
in the seminary. :

Two of the nurses of our Ambur hospital are
at Kodai for language study at present, compelling
Dr. Doederlein and Miss Ellerman to.double their
efforts. Yet the medical mission is working faith-
fully. In addition to his medical duties, Dr. Doeder-
lein has temporarily replaced Missionary Boriack as
head of the Ambur Boys’ Boarding School, while
Boriack is studying in the hills.

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