The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 5

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. b)

OOOO SEE

only now and then a light frost in the high-
lands.

Rio Grande do Sul is about the size of our State
of Minnesota. In 1824 the first German immi-
grants came to Brazil to settle in Rio Grande do

View of Porto’Alegre from the Top of Our School.

Sul. Their first years.in the new country were very
disappointing. The unaccustomed southern climate
brought them much sickness, and the general con-
ditions of the country were discouraging. One of
the most disheartening of their experiences was
the lack of spiritual shepherds. When our first
missionaries came to Brazil, about twenty-five years
ago, they found most deplorable spiritual condi-
tions. In one German settlement, in the southern
part of Rio Grande do Sul, having a population of
over 20,000, there-was not one ordained minister
of the Gospel before our men came there. The men
who served these people as pastors and teachers
were persons that had left their native country in
many instances for reasons that were not to their
credit. Not finding anything congenial in the way
of gaining a livelihood, these men took charge of
congregations and schools. Though men of a good
education in many cases, most of them were un-
believers, many of them were scoffers, and some
even openly led immoral lives. Drunkenness was
quite prevalent among these self-appointed shep-
herds. What wonder, therefore, that the Word of
God was at a premium and that the souls'in these
men’s care were famishing for want of apis!
nourishment !

In the central part of Rio Grande do Sul con-
ditions were better. In the decade of 1880—90
a synod had been organized thére by a number of

nominal Lutheran and some Reformed pastors.
The confession of this synod was that of the state
church of Prussia and, for this reason, not actually
Lutheran. However, there was no missionary spirit
in this synod. Some of the pastors were successful
business men, others were physicians, who, besides
their business or medical practise, were attending
to the spiritual’ wants of congregations of a thou-
sand or more baptized members. That their’ busi-
ness or their medical practise did not suffer is quite
certain, but it goes without saying that the poor
souls who were in their nominal spiritual care were
not properly served.

Now, there was a certain Pastor Brutschin, who
was wholly dissatisfied with conditions as they ob-
tained in this synod. Through the kind offices of
some friend here in North America who had sent
him some of the periodical publications of the Mis-
souri Synod, he became acquainted with, and ‘in- -
terested in, the work being done by the Lutheran
Synodical Conference of North America. _Some
time later he asked the officials of the Missouri
Synod to send him a pastor whom he wished to
introduce into the work in his congregation, as he
wished to return to Germany on account of his
health.

In 1899 the Missouri Synod decided to begin
mission-work in Brazil, and in the next year a
prospector was sent there to study conditions and

One of the New Professors’ Dwellings
at Porto Alegre.

make suggestions for the work to be taken up.
Following the favorable report ‘of the prospector,
the first missionary was sent to Brazil in 1901.
His first charge was a small congregation of only
fifteen persons in Rio Grande do Sul. Very soon
other congregations asked to be served, and so the