The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 92

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92

The Lutheran Pioneer.

the Litany, “In the midst of life we are in death.
Of whom may we seek for succor but of Thee,
O Lord!”
Mansura, La., November 8, 1923.
W. J. TERVALON.

The Walther League and Missions.

The Walther League has now called a full-
time worker to take care of its hospice work.
Rev. Erwin Umbach, of Muskogee, Okla., has ac-

. cepted the call.

Hospice work is one of the most important and
blessed missionary endeavors of the League. The
hospice system of the Walther League provides for
the Lutheran travelers and strangers, as well as
for others. It may be said that the Church suffers
one of its greatest losses when thousands of young
Lutherans annually leave their homes to make a
better living or make the change for other reasons,
and, as it so often happens, get away from church
when they are away from home.

The fact that an ever-increasing number of
young men and young women are going to the
larger cities and thus are given into our care con-
stitutes a problem which calls for the best efforts
of the League and the Church. It has been esti-
mated, for example, that from two to three hundred
people annually go to Toronto, similarly, that one

‘thousand young people go to Detroit every year.
The international hospice secretary is at the head
of the entire system, which includes thirty-three
district hospice boards, hundreds of central com-
mittees, and about seven hundred local hospice
secretaries. Furthermore, the system also provides
for the establishment of hospices, and there are
‘now nine such institutions in the following cities:
New York City, Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee,
Omaha, Sioux City, Los Angeles, Washington,
D.C., and St. Louis.

_ It is safe to say that within a comparatively
_ short time six more such institutions will be estab-
lished. With the above-named new worker the
“League begins a new chapter in the history of
hospice work.

The Eastern District of the Walther League
very recently secured one of the finest hospices in
our system. ‘The property is valued at $43,000 and

is situated i in one of the finest sections of Washing-
ton, D.C. It is a three-story pms with four-

teen rooms. It will provide for from thirty to
forty guests. It is hardly necessary to state that
this hospice will serve its purpose well in our
nation’s capital, where so many interests center.

This hospice will be of national interest to the
League, as it will also provide for a memorial room
to the Lutheran boys who fell in the World War.
The international Walther League pledged itself
at its thirtieth convention to the extent of $1,000
for a memorial room. Friends and relatives of
the boys who fell in that war are urged to fur-
nish rooms in memory of them at the hospice in
Washington.

The Southern California District convention,
which recently met in Orange, pledged itself to the
extent of $1 per member toward the support of
a foreign missionary. Pastor Kuolt is the mis-
sionary who will be supported by the Eastern Dis-
trict. It is expected that he will shortly leave
for India.

Students’ work is receiving ever more attention
on the part of the League and will get a new im-
petus through the efforts of the newly called hospice
secretary. The Kansas District recently pledged
itself to the extent of $10,000 for a students’ home
at Lawrence. Similarly the Missouri District Ex-
ecutive Board pledged itself to cooperate with the
mission board of the Western District in establish-
ing a students’ home at the University of Missouri,
in Columbia.

The Western Pennsylvania District of the Wal-
ther League is one of the smallest districts of the
League, but by no means the most backward in its
missionary enterprise. One society belonging to
this district alone pledges itself to contribute $500
annually to the support of a foreign missionary.
This society is the Missionary Guild of Vice-
President Eckhardt’s congregation in Pittsburgh.
We take the following from the last Bulletin of the
district : — A

“We have now entered upon the third year of
our foreign mission endeavor.” Of the eleven soci-
ties in the district nine took part in the support of
‘our missionary,’ Rev. Max Zschiegner, of Hankow, -
China. Two hundred fifty-two members pledged
$1,107 last year, or $4.38 per member, and up to
October 1, $1,061.75 had been paid. The balance

~ due is $46. We cannot but thank God for having

made our young people willing to give of their
earthly goods to this extent. To our financial sup-
port let us not fail to add that of prayer. Our mis-