The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 84

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

84

The Lutheran Pioneer.

of our churches and schools. He is paying special
attention to the schools, hearing the teachers in-
struct and listening to the recitation of the pupils.
We have always been impressed with the Rev.
Drewes as a preacher, but the hints, suggestions,
and advice he gave the teachers show him to be
a preceptor of no mean ability.

The Director also visited Greer, S.C. He held
an informal meeting with some of the citizens of
that town, explored the place, and authorized the
Rev. J. W. Fuller to start a mission there. Miss E.
Johnson, of Charlotte, N. C., was appointed teacher
and opened a school there on October 1. Prospects
for our church and school at this place seem bright,
and we expect soon to have a second flourishing
congregation in South Carolina. May God grant
His blessings!

Several changes have taken place in our field.
The Rev. C. R. March, who was serving Mount
Pleasant, moved to Salisbury and is pastor of
St. John’s. The Rev. F. D. Alston took charge of
the congregation at Mount Pleasant and also of
St. Peter’s at Dry’s Schoolhouse, which formerly
belonged to the Concord circuit. The Rev. W. H.
Lash has reentered the work and will immediately
take charge of Grace Congregation at Greensboro
and St. Mark’s at High Point.

We noticed some improvements on the church
property at Salisbury, N.C. The street has been
boulevarded and paved, and the congregation has
erected a neat wire fence around the grounds.

Santa Monica, Cal.

Four years ago two little colored boys appeared
in our church one Sunday morning. On being asked
whether they were visitors or intended to become
regular attendants, and whether they had ever gone
to a Sunday-school before, the older proudly | an-
swered, “J am a Lutheran!”

On further inquiry it developed that a number
of communicant members of Bethlehem Church in
New Orleans had located at this beach resort. So
we began to reap what others had sown. This little
band of faithful Lutherans has since grown to
18 souls and 7 communicant members. i

At the request of the Los Angeles Pastoral Con-

ference the writer arranged to hold regular services

for these brethren in the faith. One member offered

the use of her home and piano, and 50 the little |

band gathers once a month to hear the Gospel-
message of our Savior, and to sing the grand old
hymns. The singing is wonderful; even the chil-
dren join in and learn stanzas by heart. One of
the women at one time was teacher in a Lutheran
school.

The other day the fruit of our labors became
apparent when little Louise Murray, just thirteen
years old, closed her eyes in death, after a weary
illness, with a confession of faith that would put
many of us to shame. ‘The use of our church was
freely offered for the funeral service. And it was
a great missionary opportunity. Nearly a hundred
Colored people of the finest type attended, and the
floral offerings and expressions of sympathy showed
the high esteem in which our Colored fellow-
Lutherans here are held. The pastor spoke on Rey.
21, 1—4, the theme being: “Beyond the Grave.”
Twenty copies of the Colored Lutheran, published
in Selma, Ala., were distributed, and an announce-
ment was made of the regular monthly service held
for Colored people in their section of the city.

It seems this would be a fruitful field for a
Colored missionary. He might make his head-
quarters in Los Angeles, from where he could reach
Santa Monica by trolley. With a nucleus of staunch
Lutherans, who are so well liked in the community,

-he could surely build up a large congregation by

the grace of God. And the congregation, no doubt,
would soon be nearly self-supporting. Some time
ago our seven communicants here raised $20 for
the missions of Alabama. WALTER F. Trorcer.

A New Mission in South Carolina.

Up to the present time we have had only one
Colored mission-station in South Carolina, a State
having one of the densest Negro populations in the
country. Now, however, we are to have another
station in that State. This new mission has been
opened at Greer, a town of about 3,000 inhabitants,
and lying approximately seventeen miles west of
Spartanburg; the location of our first mission-station
in the State.

The Negroes of Greer had heard of the good
work which our Lutheran Church is doing in Spar-
tanburg, and this prompted them to ask Pastor
Fuller to begin the same kind of work in their town.
On an extensive tour of inspection which he made
last month, Director Drewes visited Greer and
looked over the field.