The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 35

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer. 35
———??3.nnmaaeamae@ajaowqw#wwowxswwot0S 0 <—OooqoyoqWNsSaosoOoO oOo

have given their names and, God willing, will be
received into membership-on Easter Sunday.

Dear friend, pray for the glorious work your
Lutheran Church is doing here in the Southland
among this despised people. So much, so very
much, depends upon your prayers.

And don’t forget —we are in need of chapels
al Selma, Birmingham, and Kings Landing.. Will
you not, before you forget it, write a letter and
enclose a gilt? ;

With greetings from the Black Belt,
G. A. 8.

Alabama Experiences.

While on his recent trip of inspection, Rev. C.
I’, Drewes, the Director of Colored Missions, wrote
a letter to one of the members of the Board, from
which we bring some extracts : —

“T arrived in Selma quite unexpectedly last Fri-
day evening. Superintendent Schmidt received my
letter informing him of my intended coming only
half an hour before my arrival, and he barely had
time to get to the station to meet me. From the
station Rev. Schmidt took me immediately to the
rented “lecture-hall” of our Teachers’ Training-
school, where a mid-week service was to be held
that evening. Student Paul Eckert preached the
sermon, basing his discourse on Rom. 1,16: “I am
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,’ ete. During
the sermon Miss Rosa Young had a mild attack of
heart trouble and had to be taken to the rented dor-
mitory of the training-school, of which she is the
matron. The incident caused no appreciable dis-
turbance in the service. After the sermon I gave
a short address. Aside from the twenty-two
students, the professors, resident missionaries, and
their families, there were present members living in
the northwestern part of Selma and a number of
strangers.

“On Saturday I viewed the lots recently pur-
chased for the training-school and had a conference
with Professors Lynn and Lehman, which will be
continued to-day. All the students of the training-
school are Lutherans. Their deportment is most
commendable. It is remarkable what a change takes
place in Negroes after they have united with our
Church. ‘The Lutheran Church brings them the
truth, and the truth makes them free. John 8,31. 32.

“Yesterday (Sunday) my experiences were such
as to give me an idea of what our mission-workers

do and suffer down here. I arranged to go with
Missionary Westcott to Possum Bend and Taits
Place. It rained all Saturday night, and it was
still raining at eight o’clock when we left Selma
in the new ‘Mission Ford? I had been previously
informed that the trip would be 115 miles long.
In Dallas County, a distance of about twenty miles,
the roads were pretty good. Then we crossed
a bridge and were in Wilcox County. ‘Here the
good roads come to an end,’ said Pastor Westcott.
He certainly told the truth! We remained on the
‘Mobile Highway’ — rather ‘Low-way’ — till we got
to Catherine. From Catherine to the Alabama
River, a distance of seven miles, we went over
a road that filled me with horror; but Missionary
Westcott, who during the past three and a half
years has traveled 50,000 miles with a Ford and
has gained much experience, guided our vehicle with
remarkable dexterity. An ancient ferry-boat took
us over the swollen Alabama. The colored ferry-
man receives $20 a month and half the fare he
collects after dark. The Alabama is about 300
yards wide where we crossed. A further ride of
nine miles brought us to Camden, the county-seat
of Wilcox County, a village of only 425 inhabitants.
The diminutive size of Camden, however, does not
prevent some of its inhabitants from thinking that
their hamlet is the very center of the universe. Our
Possum Bend chapel is situated about three miles
beyond Camden, some distance from the highway,
in the forest. There is no external reason why our
church should want to hide itself amid the trees,
for though it is but a small building, it is clean
within and without and is set in a tidy yard, which
is even beautified with flower-beds.

“Despite the rain the service was well attended.
So was the Sunday-school, which was held before
the service. In the service proper I preached on
‘Christ Our. Sin-offering. The service was over at
half past two. The people had been sitting for
almost three hours. A woman who was recently
confirmed, and who told us that she was not sorry
that she had joined the Lutheran Church, brought
us a box of lunch before we left. The hearty invi-
tation extended to me to come back in the near
future was seconded by a Mrs. Emma Moore with
the words, ‘We will kill a lot of chickens for you.’
Old ‘Aunt Maria Dockery expressed the naive wish,
‘Please help that my old husband there will join
the church too!’ I wish the friends of our Colored
Missions had been privileged to hear our members
at Possum Bend sing, ‘All Glory Be to God on