The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 6

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

JAPAN AND THE BIBLE. — Almost all the Bible
plates for more than twenty-five languages were de-
stroyed in the recent earthquake that did such great
damage all over Japan. Also the printing-plant of
the American Bible Society at Yokohama was com-
pletely ruined. But this terrible catastrophe has
not stopped the spreading of the Word. More than
500,000 copies of the gospels have been printed in
New York and shipped by the American Bible
Society to its representatives in Japan. — Prince
Tokugawa, at a recent Washington conference, esti-
mated that there were about one million people in
Japan who had accepted the teachings of Christ as
contained in the Bible.

Kutna, Cuina. — Kuling is the summer resort
of our missionaries in China. There one large and
two smaller houses have been erected with funds
gathered by the Walther League. While at Kuling,
the missionaries hold conferences and also perfect
themselves in the use of the Chinese language. At
- Kuling may be found the summer homes of many
other missionary boards, erected for the workers,
who must spend some time every summer in the
mountains if they do not want to break down.

F.J. 1.

A Blessed Missionary Enterprise.

_ The Missouri Synod’s Annual gives a list of
fifteen home-finding societies that are maintained
by members of that body. These societies receive
orphaned or homeless children regardless of race or
religion and find parents for them, who will either
legally adopt them or foster them during their child-
hood and youth. Thousands of children have been
aided by these societies in past years and no one
can fully estimate the blessings that have been
brought to helpless children by these benevolent
Christian agencies.

Among the most aggressive of these home-finding
‘Societies is the one having its headquarters in Buf-
_falo, N.Y. From its last report we learn that it
was ‘instrumental in aiding almost a hundred chil-
dren in the past year, and that it found Christian
parents for no less than sixteen homeless children,
fifteen of whom were little babies.

From Superintendent H. F. Wind’s annual re-
port we quote the following: .“Great care is taken
in placing children into foster homes for adoption.
All applicants for children are carefully investi-
gated, and only high-class homes are considered.

Prospective foster-parents must be of good repute,
their homes proper and fit for the reception and
care of a child, and their means ample for its sup-
port and education. But the homes into which chil-
dren are placed must above all be Christian homes,
homes where Christ, the Savior, is followed in faith
and life. Thus only can there be reasonable assur-
ance that the one thing needful will be taught the
children, and that they will develop into Christian
men and women.

“A notable feature of the work are the careful
tests and examinations made of children before tak-
ing them over as wards of the society and placing
them into family homes for adoption. ‘There is,
first of all, the physical examination, which is
usually made by one of our own physicians, and
which determines the bodily health and physical
perfection of the child. Blood tests are also made
in this connection to determine the child’s freedom
from inherited blood taints. ‘Then there is an
examination of the child’s ancestral tree. A _his-
tory of the child’s life and antecedents is obtained
from relatives or friends of the child, and as much
as possible this history is verified. This is done to
guard against taking over children who come from
notoriously immoral, criminalistie, or disease-ridden
families. Feeble-mindedness is especially guarded
against, and often mental tests are required of older
children or of the mother, if living, of a younger
child, to show that the child is not the offspring of
mentally defective parents or is not itself afflicted
with a feeble mind. Finally the legal aspects of
the case are carefully inquired into to make sure
that, when the child is given out for adoption, such
action is final, and that there is no possibility of
the child’s-ever being claimed by natural relatives.
Thus every possible precaution is taken, and foster-
parents are assured, as far as this is humanly pos-
sible, that the child they adopt will enjoy good
health and a normal development.

“As welfare cases we classify all work in behalf
of children who are not placed into family homes
for adoption. Seventy-six such welfare cases were
handled last year, which means that seventy-six
neglected, destitute, wayward, defective children
were aided in some way. Much of this work is
done in cooperation with other child welfare agen-
cies of the city. Some of the children served were
suffering because of neglect by their parents; in
other cases the parents were found mentally or
morally unfit to give their children proper care.