The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 110

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110

and school are much needed, but owing to the laws
of Mexico, which forbid any foreigners from owning
real estate, it will be a difficult matter properly to
adjust things. In the State of Guanajuato there
are several new settlements of German-Russians,
who fled from Russia during the recent political
turmoils of that country. It is very probable that
these recent colonies will receive new accessions in
the near future. These bright prospects have in-
duced the Mission Board to call another missionary
for the Mexican field.

Work among Mexicans in the United States. —
The honor of beginning the work among Mexicans,
as far as the Synodical Conference is concerned,
probably belongs to Pastor Th. Claus, who opened
a Mexican mission Sunday-school in Indiana Har-
bor, Ind., several years ago. He has met with
gratifying success in his efforts and only regrets
that he cannot devote more of his time to the enter-
prise. — Another missionary effort among Mexicans
is being made at San Antonio, Tex., where the
Texas District of the Lutheran Missouri Synod has
placed a missionary, Pastor Sergio Cobian, a native
of Porto Rico. This work was begun in March and
is holding out good promises.

If You Were a Tibetan.—If you were a Ti-
betan, you would place your prayers with thousands
of others in a cylindrical prayer-wheel. Perhaps,
to make sure that your wishes will be granted, you
would also swallow pills of rolled paper printed
with prayers, and possibly you would hang prayer-
flags across the mountains from tree to tree. Over
and above this you might engage a stone-cutter to
carve prayers for you on stones for miles along the
roadside. You would share your mud-plastered hut
with your cows, mules, and pigs, and one room in
your house you would set aside as sacred to your
idols. Before two or three of these bronze or gold-
plated idols you would daily place an oil lamp and
a bowl of holy water.

Just Consider.—In China only four children
out of every hundred are in school, but in our
country eighty-eight out of every hundred go to
school. In India there are 110,000,000 children
with no chance to go to school. In Uruguay only

- sixty out of every hundred persons can read and

write. In Ecuador only fifteen out of every hun-
dred are able to read. There are no missions in
Ecuador. Where Protestant missions are strongest,
there literacy is the highest the world over. South
American business men are asking for boys who

~ have been trained in Protestant schools.

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Wise Selection. — At the triennial convention
of the Missouri Synod, held in St. Louis June 9
to 18, the editor of the PronrER was unanimously
chosen Third Vice-President. A wise choice!
C.F. D.

Chang Han’s Wish is Fulfilled.

Chang Han’s one ambition had been to get rich,
even if it had to be at the expense of unpaid or
underpaid labor. With the attainment of riches,
he felt, there would also come to him honors, such
as being the headman of his village. Of course, as
a good Chinaman he also wanted to be the father
of a number of boys who might take care of him in
his old age and do the proper thing by his spirit
after his death.

But now all this was changed. He had attended
a service conducted by the foreign missionaries in
the larger town not far away. And those foreign
men had told him and others strange things, so
strange that it had changed completely his way of
looking at things. These men had assured him —
and he believed them — that there is only one God,
who so loved the people that He had given His Son
for them that they might not perish. They had
told him that there are no gods that bear him
malice and whom he must propitiate to ward off
their vengeance. All this had brought great joy to
the heart of Chang Han; a joy that he felt com-
pelled to share with others.

He talked with his neighbors about his great
joy and its cause, but found it hard to impress.
them. Then the thought came to him that if they
had a church in his village and he could get one of
the foreign missionaries to come and tell the people
about the God of love, they would believe and also.
worship the true God with him. So he went out
among his neighbors and asked them to contribute
funds to build a church. Everybody listened to
him with great respect, since he was a man of
means, but of their money they gave him none.
They felt content to walk in the ways of their
fathers and grandfathers, who had never known
the God of whom Chang Han told them.

This indifference of his neighbors hurt Chang
Han; but after thinking the matter over a little,
he realized that he had expected too much of them
when he had asked them to give of their money to:
build a church in which to worship God before:
they knew this true God and the benefits of wor--

shiping Him.