The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 60

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60 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

on that ground; for in my dream I have all ready
seen a church erected there and heard the services
going on. And the tex was from Nebecanaza. The
Lord will make you eat grass like an Ox.... Iam
willing to take $50 less.” However, she did not wait
till our missionary got authority from the Board to
make the purchase, but sold it to another person. at
her original price! A pity that her dream did not
come true!

Non-Interest-Bearing Loans. — The treasurer of
the Mission Board for Colored Missions, Mr. Th. W.
Eckhart, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, Mo.,
would be pleased to make loans for the benefit of
the Mission at a low rate of interest or, still better,
without interest.

Philadelphia. — The work in -Philadelphia has
been carried on quite successfully in the face of
odds by the zealous and efficient young worker,
Rey. Paul Trumpoldt. Because we have no building
of our own, the mission had for its center a rented
home. Now comes the sad news that the owner
wants to sell his property. He has been prevailed
upon to postpone the sale till the end of this
month, but if friends of our colored mission in
Philadelphia do not by that time come to the rescue,

‘our little band of Negro members will be without

a home. Philadelphia has a colored population of
almost 140,000 and the missionary possibilities
are great.

A Concordia College is now being built by the
Missouri Mission at Crespo, Argentina. Argentine
Lutherans have appropriated $6,000 toward the
project. The new institution enrolled its first class
for the fall term, beginning March, 1926.

The Board of Foreign Missions of the Lutheran
Synod of Iowa is engaged in a special effort to raise
$100,000 to liquidate a debt resting upon the New
Guinea mission-field. 281 pastors have reported
from their congregations a total of $262,908.26 in
cash and subscriptions with more to come, 289 pas-
tors, more than one half, have not yet reported.

The Men’s Missionary Society of the Ohio Synod
of the United Lutheran Church in America has re-
cently received a gift of $25,000 from Mr. and Mrs.
Warren James, of Springfield, Ohio, in memory of
their daughter. Mr.and Mrs. James request that
this sum be used as an endowment fund for a

“Janice James” school for girls to be erected in

Japan,
Missionaries Made “Blood Brothers.” — A story
of how Catholic missionaries became the “blood

brothers” of the first native tribe they met is thus
related in a Catholic missionary periodical: When
the missionaries were exploring the country around
Kilimanjaro, they met a native tribe at Kilema.
The natives insisted that they become their “blood
brothers.” The ceremony was somewhat bloody, but

- the priests went through with it. A white goat was

killed, and a part of it was roasted. The arm of
one of the missionaries and that of the native chief
were bared, and incisions were made. Three pieces
of the goat were then smeared with the blood of the
chief, and the missionary ate them. Three more
pieces of roasted goat were cut off and received
blood from the priest’s arm. ‘These the chief swal-
lowed. Thus the priest and his companions became
“blood brothers” of the chief and his tribe.

Possible Early Christianity in South America. —
Prof. Dr. Kaufmann, an archeologist of Europe, re-
gards the numerous cross monuments found in the
northwestern parts of South America as a probable
proof that Christianity came to America before the
sixteenth century. Besides the cross, he calls atten-
tion to symbolic figures of the dove and the fish, and
the form of a praying man as it is found in the
catacombs. Dr. Kaufmann is-of the opinion that
Christianity came first to Central and South America
about the fifth and sixth centuries, starting in Peru
among the Mayas, and from there spreading to
Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia. Dr. Kaufmann
also claims that there are traditions among the
Indians of these countries which indicate that they
had heard of a Messiah centuries ago, long before
the coming of the Spaniards.

Exclusion of Japanese. — C. E. Woods, the for-
mer ambassador to Japan, some time ago declared
at a dinner given in his honor that the discrimina-
tion against the Japanese by our immigration laws
had put back the progress of Christianity in Japan
greatly. He said: “The Christian movement in
Japan suffered a staggering blow by the action of
Congress. That action has set back religious work
by twenty-five years.”

Japanese in Brazil. — During the last ten years
the republics of South America have received a vast
increase of population from the-Far East. The
number of Japanese in Brazil is estimated at about
40,000, and they are almost without exeeption in
the State of Sao Paulo. It is claimed that among
these immigrants from Japan are not a few Cath-
olics, and a priest has been sent from Japan to take
care. of these Japanese Catholics. ‘This priest is —
himself a native of Japan.