The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 67

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don’t picture to yourself even the smallest gather-
ing of houses that could be designated a village.
Numberless gullies and yawning gulches, the latter

A Gully on the Way to Holy Ark.

miniature Colorado canyons; straggling pines and
scrawny oaks; cotton, corn, sweet potato, and pea-
nut fields; one- and two-room log and board shacks
scattered here and there on the hills — that is the
sort of country of which Holy Ark is a little spot.
And sand, sand, deep, treacherous sand, everywhere!

More than eight miles away, at Joffre, the
sainted Pastor Bakke had founded a Colored Lu-
theran congregation. ‘To its teacher a man from
Holy Ark wrote, asking for Lutheran service.
Superintendent Schmidt answered the call. That
was on the night of January 15, 1922. From the
very start the Word of God gripped the hearts of
a number of families, so that by June 4 a class of
twenty persons was confirmed, and thirteen were
baptized. Since then the congregation has grown
to a total membership of forty-nine. And more are
coming, so the members optimistically affirm.

But all this has not happened so easily as it
reads. -Hatred, persecution, slander, opposition of

every description- from both races tried and tested
the little band of people into whose midst the pure
Gospel had come. Yes, even threats were made
against the life of the missionary. Still, all these
“fiery trials’ have been weathered, and another
Colored Lutheran Zion was established. Now the
name Tfoly Ark means more than its donors had

even faintly guessed —a place, where in a board
shack, graced, for the time being, by the terms

“.

“chapel” and “school,” the Lord’s honor dwells
every Thursday night and Sunday morning; a spot
to which, over the trails and paths of the sand-hills,
young and old head to hear the sweet Gospel-
message of God’s love in Christ, even as thousands
of years ago the Jews gathered around the Ark of
the Covenant to worship the Lord, their God.

In this shack, with its three holes in the walls
for windows, twenty-two Colored teachers, five Col-
ored pastors, and three white missionaries gathered
August 1 for the annual Teachers’ Institute. Super-
intendent Schmidt, in his opening address, pointed
out that, whereas almost all schools round about us
were teaching evety conceivable doctrine contrary
to the Bible, the Word of God still reigns supreme

“Chapel” at Holy Ark, Ala.

in our schools, encouraging us to be more faithful.
and to show still more zeal in instilling into the
hearts of our little charges the precious divine
truths. Burlee Durden, a member of the congre-,