The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 36

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36 The Lutheran Pioneer.

High’ and ‘O Lamb of God Most Holy,’ clear
women’s voices blending in wonderful harmony with
the men’s tenor and bass. It was truly a touching
and uplifting experience for me.

“Just as we were leaving, I saw near the chapel
a large lumber-wagon, drawn by two large mules,
which was literally covered with its human freight
of men, women, and children. “That is our church-
wagon, said Pastor Westcott. ‘Many of our mem-
bers have to come to church a great distance, and
for this reason the congregation has rented this
wagon.’ <A plain proof that there is such a thing
as progressiveness also in the Black Belt.

“We had no time to eat our lunch before pro-
ceeding on our journey, but that did not prevent us
from eating it. Pastor Westcott guided the Ford
with one hand while he held a sandwich in the other.

“Taits Place, our next objective, is situated
in the river bottoms. The Sunday-school was
already out when we arrived. The service, which
began soon after our arrival, lasted three hours.
I preached, Rev. Westcott delivered a confessional
address, confirmed a man, and distributed Holy
Communion. J never found hearers more attentive,
and their faces plainly indicated their genuine ap-
preciation of the Word of God brought to them by
the Lutheran Church. After the service I was
gratified to have these simple Christians tell me,
‘You made my heart feel good to-day.’ No wonder
that our faithful missionaries forget all their hard-
ships when they are permitted to preach the Gospel
to such hungry souls.

“Tt was about six o’clock when we turned our
Ford toward Selma for the homeward journey.
When we arrived at the river, it again began to
rain. Half a mile farther on we found Prof. O.
Lynn standing in the rain at the roadside. He had
preached at Midway, four miles distant and was
now waiting for us to take him back to Selma,
where we arrived at nine o'clock.

“To-morrow (Tuesday) Missionary Westcott will
drive to Longmile, sixty-one miles from Selma,
where he intends to make visits during the day
and preach in the Lenten service in the evening.
On Wednesday and Thursday he will do the same
thing at Possum Bend and Taits Place, returning
on Friday morning. Then he will have two ser-
mons to get out for Sunday. It is truly a continual
grind. How our faithful missionaries are able to

do this year in and year out is a mystery to me.

One thing, however, is clear to me: we must do
more than we haye done, in order that their self-

sacrificing labor's here in the Black Belt in the ser-
vice of the Gospel may be lightened, if possible.

“When I arrived in Selma on Sunday night at
nine o’clock, neither Superintendent Schmidt, nor
Student Eckert, nor Missionary Weeke had returned
from their preaching trips. At eleven o’clock Pas-
tor Weeke arrived and asked to be admitted. He
had stuck in the mud at Joffre. His shoes were
literally covered with mud, — black mud, gray mud,
and red mud! Superintendent Schmidt and Stu-
dent Eckert did not return from Kings Landing
and Tinela till three o’clock this morning. Kings
Landing is 15 miles distant from Selma. They
had also had bad luck, and Student Eckert had been
compelled to get out and push. On his shoes he
carried not a small portion of Wilcox County real
estate! When we entered the Fords this morning,
I, for one, was not surprised to find in each car
a card directing us to a man who would be willing
to clean autos for a reasonable remuneration! That
man is surely not blind.

“All in all, we have here a corps of missionaries
whose equal it will be hard to find. May God pre-
serve them unto us and richly bless their unselfish
labors !”

Our New Mission in Chicago.

A Colored mission was recently opened in
Chicago. As yet it has no home of its own, and
the services are therefore temporarily held in the
Y. M. C. A. auditorium, Wabash Ave. and 38th St.,
at 10.30 a. M. and 8 Pp. o., every Sunday. The mis-
sionary is giving regular instruction at the same
place every Sunday morning at 9.30. The opening
of this Colored mission had been contemplated for
a long time, but there were always difficulties that
could not be overcome, until now a determined
effort has had the above-mentioned result. ‘We hope
that in the near future kind friends will be found
who will make it possible to give our Colored mis-
sion in Chicago its own home.

While we are not able to state exactly how many
Colored Lutherans there are in Chicago: at the
present time, we have reason to believe that if all
the former members of our Southern Colored con-
gregations now living in Chicago would regularly
attend Pastor Carter’s services, he would have a fine
nucleus to begin with.

Our missionary is Pastor M. N. Carter, formerly
of Alabama, but more recently engaged in making
the work of our Colored Missions known through-

J