The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 189

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. |

for making the native Africans work. They seem

to wish for nothing that is not free and under their

hands. They wear practically no clothing, live in

grass and mud huts, and find amusement in having

 , children, hunting, fishing, frolicking, singing, danc-
ing, and decorating their bodies. These natives
have evolved a school of arts and decorations for
the human body that excites wonder. The varia-
tions are multitudinous. They wear teeth and bone
bracelets, metal anklets and nose rings, curious
amulets and charms, and odd bits carved from
ivory. Meanwhile the land and civilization lan-
guish....

“We passed into the Sudd, the high-grass coun-
try, whose swamps grow the papyrus’ grass from
which was made the writing material of the ancient
Egyptians. These papyrus growths once blocked
the channel of the Nile and made navigation im-
possible. At various interior stations we lost our
fellow-passengers, one’ at a time. The English
major went into a district which was a real ‘killer,’
with all the fevers and plagues. The year he spends
there counts double on his service record; so he
will be retired that much sooner. If he lives, he
wins. If he dies—vwell, Kismet! One quickly

- becomes a fatalist in Africa. Here we began taking
a daily dose of five grains of quinine.
on shore told us that he had taken five grains every
day for fifteen years, ‘and I’d not like- to see that
quantity all in one pile,” he added... .

“Qne night, just as the dark descended on us,
the boat stopped at a clearing. We were in a
malarial country. The damp rose from the ground
like a mist. The mosquitoes swarmed. We went
ashore for exercise, but the body odor of the mul-
titude of blacks was sickening and drove us back
on to the boat. At that point an English mis-
sionary came alongside in a big war canoe manned
by twenty native paddlers. He was a splendid type
of man, who had spent more than a dozen years
among the blacks of Africa. ‘The canoe he had
brought overland from the Congo on wheels. There

_ are no trees in the Sudan of sufficient size to make
these great boats. Perhaps the transportation over-
land of this canoe took a whole year. With it and
his native paddlers he traveled the principal rivers
and the side streams and visited the inland blacks.
He ate native food and slept when and where he
might. Only a very exceptional man, inspired by
the work he was doing, could survive this kind of
life. This missionary attempts to teach the natives
peace, morality, the respect for property rights,

A missionary.

189 ~

personal cleanliness, agriculture, and, just inci-
dentally, religion.”

So much is clearly seen from this record and
from our past experiences in India, in China, and
other heathen lands that, when a beginning is made
in Africa, our missionary efforts must be combined
with medical missionary work in order to gain the
confidence of the natives and to open the door of
the Dark Continent for our Lutheran missionaries.
F. W. G. M.

Items of Missionary Interest.
By the Eprtor.

Mansura, La. — Pastor Berger sends us the fol-
lowing: “On October 8 the Lord summoned John
Thompson to his eternal rest. He was born Octo-
ber 10, 1832, at Moreauville, La., the slave of
Yelvery Moreau, and thus attained the age of
almost ninety-three years. His master had him
baptized-in his infancy. In 1864 he married Mary
Normand, of Cocoville, La. Of the fourteen chil-
‘dren of this marriage nine mourn the death of their
father, the others having died in their infancy. His
death is also mourned by fifty grandchildren and
thirty-one great-grandchildren. He lost his wife
thirty-one years ago. In 1902 he became a member
of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Mansura, La. The
word of Paul to the jailer of Philippi was his
favorite text: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Even in his last hours
this passage was often on his lips. ‘Just as I Am,
without One Plea’ and ‘Abide, O Dearest Jesus,
among Us with Thy Grace’ were his favorite hymns.
As an evidence of his love for the Savior he gave
two of his sons to the Church to serve in the min-
istry. On the night of his death, just before the
end, he said with a loud voice, ‘Jesus, I am ready;
take me, Lord Jesus, take me!” © Pastor. Berger
officiated at the funeral and based the words of his
address on Acts 20, 31. 32.

New Orleans, La. — Teacher Peter J. Robinson
informs us that on Reformation Day the Lord made
him the proud father of a boy. The son is to bear
the name Martin Luther. May young Martin Lu-
ther be a source of great joy to his parents!

Buffalo, N. Y.— Rev. C. R. March has gone to
Buffalo at the request of the brethren in that city
to begin a colored mission there if conditions prove
favorable. He is to spend two months in Buffalo,
and the white Christians of that city are bearing the ~
expense. A most commendable missionary spirit!