The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 11

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

secretary; Superintendent Schmidt, treasurer. In
the afternoon conference heard a paper and a cat-
echization, both of which were thoroughly discussed
and enjoyed by all. In the evening a short memo-
rial service was held for our two departed coworkers,
Mrs. Mary Pilkington Bradford and Mrs. Nettie
Moore. ‘The undersigned delivered the memorial
address. Conference then heard and discussed an-
other paper.

The other two days of conference were given over
to business, the reading and discussion of some very
good and interesting papers. Wednesday night
Superintendent Schmidt delivered the closing ad-
dress, basing his remarks on Josh. 13,1. Teacher
P. C. Dumas then, in a few well-chosen words,
thanked the members and friends for their kind-
ness and hospitality during our stay in their midst.
God willing, conference will meet next August at
Oak Till.

In spite of the mud and threatening weather
we all had an enjoyable time at Buena Vista, and
we heartily thank the good members of St. James’s
and the people of the community for their kindness
and faithfulness in attending the meetings so well.
We hope to visit good old St. James’s again in the
near future. May God bless her and her faithful
members!

- ‘The proceedings of the conference will again be
published. Copies may be had from Rey. E. A.
Westcott, Box 683, Selma, Ala. Send’ Pastor West-
cott 10 cents and secure your copy before the supply
is exhausted. We hope to distribute 2 number of
copies among the North Carolina and Louisiana

brethren this year.
* * *

Thursday after conference the, Alabama Sunday-
school Convention held its sessions. Mr. Nathan
Ramsay was reelected chairman, and Mrs. Lorena
Madison was elected secretary of the convention.
A number of short, but very interesting papers were

read and discussed with profit to ‘all who: heard:

them. A feature of the convention was the annual
address of Chairman Ramsay. Brother Ramsay

impressed all present with the fact that “the Lord
has need of us.” May. God bless our Sunday-school’

Convention in the future.as He has in the past!

The committee chosen to work out a program
for the next meeting consists of Teacher John
‘Thompson, Mrs. Minnie Bradley, and Mr. L. Mad-
ison. It is expected that the committee will have

a “spicy? program ready for the next convention.

R.0.L.L.

‘our white Christians.

11

The Progress of Our Colored Missions.

While statistics by no means tell the whole
truth, they are, for all that, of value. Especially
when gathered by the same person and compiled
on the same basis from year to year, the comparison
which they afford with previous years is very in-
forming. ‘The Director of our Colored Missions,
Rey. C. F. Drewes, has again compiled for the ben-
efit of Pronrrr readers his annual table of statistics
of our Colored Missions, and in submitting this
table to our readers, we shall take the liberty of
making a few remarks.

We must be thankful to God for having again
blessed the faithful labors of our mission-workers
and for permitting us to record progress in almost
every phase of our work. While this progress has
not been extraordinary in any case, it has, never-
theless, been an advance. The baptized membership
has increased by 159, the communicant membership
by 65, and the voting membership by 27: Our
mission day-schools had an enrolment of 70 less
than in 1922, due to more stringent rules in
consequence of overcrowded conditions in’ several
schools. But the Sunday-schools had 281 more
pupils in 1923 than in the previous year. The 1923
day-school enrolment was 2,614, while the Sunday-
schools had 3,010 pupils. Among the 279 baptized
persons were 22 adults, and of the 241 confirmed
143 were grown people. There were 5,303 guests
at the Lord’s Table, a gain of 490 over 1922. Every-
body will have to admit that our Colored Christians
are comparatively liberal contributors, since the
total contributions amounted to no less than
$25,256.72, an increase of $1,622.72 over 1922.
The average contribution for each confirmed mem-
ber was $11.69, surely not a small contribution in

comparison with the average church contributions.

of others and in view of the small income of most
of our members, especially of those in the rural
districts of the South.

Directors Drewes says that the number of com-
municant members has been more than coke in
the last nine’ years.

A perusal of the table will ‘reveal a number of

yery interesting and encouraging facts: Let us
notice that our Colored fellow-Christians more fre-
quently approach the Lord’s Table than do mdst of

member in-the past year, Also take notice that the

In several instances the ;
average is six or almost six communions foreach ~