The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 108

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108

should be for all He has done for them and will
cantinue to do for them and their children. May
the rivers of blessings continue to flood the little
congregation at Kings Landing! In some eighteen

First Confirmation Class at Kings Landing.

months this congregation has grown from nothing
to fifty odd members and a flourishing day-school.
Let us read Is. 55,11 once more and then increase
the mail of our good treasurer at St. Louis, Mo.

The Black Belt’s Thanksgiving Services.

On May 24, the day of dedication at Kings
Landing, all the congregations of the Black Belt
held a thanksgiving service and thanked and
praised God for calling them out of darkness and
enabling them to provide a place of worship where
their starving fellow-men may feast on the Bread
of Life. Will the wonders of God never cease?
Nine years ago the first colored Lutheran congre-
gation ‘was organized in Alabama; to-day the
colored Lutheran congregations in this State have
built a chapel in India, China, at Kings Landing,
in their own midst, and are gathering their forces
for a drive on Africa this fall. It is indeed true
that the Gospel is the power of God, for it makes
glad the heart and fills it with love towards God
and its fellow-men.

Taits Place Celebrates.

On May 31 the congregation at Taits Place cel-
ebrated its fifth anniversary. The pastor, Rev. E.
A. Westcott, Prof. P. D. Lehman, and the under-
signed were the speakers for the occasion. Pastor
Westcott spoke from 1 John.3, 1.2, Professor Leh-

man from 1 Cor. 16, 13a, and the undersigned from
Ezra 4, 1—3.

Taits Place is but one example among thou-
sands illustrating the power of the Gospel of Christ.
Five years ago the spiritual condition of the people

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

at that place beggared description; to-day there are
fruits of the diligent preaching of the Word by
faithful pastors and teachers manifested in the lives
and conduct of the people. When the first Christ-
mas program was held there five years ago, the
uncompleted chapel smelled like a bar-room, the
improvised benches broke down, the laughter which
this occasioned and a subsequent dog-fight in the
chapel all but broke up the services. After the
program the people “celebrated” Christmas by mak-
ing the woods resound with the reports of their
revolvers and shotguns. ‘To-day the children are
baptized, parents walk in the light of the Gospel,
and all services are held decently and in order.
Parents are sending their children to our Christian
day-school, and they themselves attend the mid-
week services even though they have spent a hard
day in the fields toiling over cotton, the fruits of
which they know they will not reap.

Rock West.

The very name of the place sounds “hard-
boiled.” This place is an old plantation settlement.
The spiritual and moral condition of the people at
this place is nil. The settlement has been accu-
rately described as a “regular hell-hole.”” Some
months ago a white man made an urgent appeal -
for the Lutheran Church and school to come into
that neighborhood and help the poor Negroes. He
pointed out that preachers who were there were

Church and School at Taits.

ignorant and unfit for religious leadership and re-
quested that the Lutheran Church come with her
pure Gospel-preaching. The cry from this strange
quarter was answered, a school was opened in an
old shack, and preachers went through dust, mud,
rain, sunshine, and darkness to carry: the light of