The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 142

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142

A Few Facts Concerning China Missions. —
America has about 800 evangelistic missionaries in
China. About 500 American missionaries are en-
gaged in teaching, while about 250 doctors are
serving American Protestant missions in the same
country.—In a certain section of North China
which had over 1,200 schools ten years ago there
are at present only about 900; 300 of them have
been closed for lack of funds and teachers. —
Chinese Christians are doing almost as much to
support mission-work in their country as we are.
Over a large part of North China the people were
giving twenty-four cents for every twenty-five
which came from America.— Boys are still the
thing in China, in spite of the fact that mission-
schools have done much to stimulate the education
of girls and to improve the condition of women
generally. At present all China has about 400
middle schools for boys and only ten for girls. The
enrolment for boys is about 70,000, while there are
only about 600 girls in these schools, which corre-
spond roughly to our high schools. China is said
to have 75,000,000 boys of school age.
Africa and Civilization. — “Civilization” has
reached Africa to the extent that the women have
“learned to add tomato-cans, bells, and safety-pins
as articles of adornment to the polished stones
which they wear in their elongated ear-lobes. But
the white man has taken more than these question-
able ornaments to Africa. He has brought the
Africans his diseases and vices as well. Mission-
aries say that fifty per cent. of the people are the
victims of preventable diseases and declare that the
physical and moral condition of the women is worse
than it was in the days of unrestricted paganism
and polygamy.
A Fine Missionary Opportunity. —Ten thousand
men and women from foreign countries attend
schools and colleges in the United States and
Canada. These thousands will here get an impres-
sion of Christianity. Will it be favorable?
A Missionary’s Anniversary.— Missionary Flierl,
the founder of the Iowa Synod’s mission in Nev,
Guinea, this year celebrates the fortieth anniversary
_of his service in the Papuan Missions. After
- serving among the aborigines of Australia for a
number of years, he came to New Guinea in the
summer of 1886. When he began his work at
Finchhayen, New Guinea, all the people were
heathen. For ten years he worked apparently in
_ vain, and then came a great awakening. To-day

- no less than 16,000 native baptized members are
"5 anne at in various stations of the Iowa Synod’s

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

New Guinea Missions, and thousands are being
prepared for baptism. A happy anniversary indeed
it must be for the founder of this blessed work!

China Inland Mission. — This mission now has
1,134 foreign missionaries, 1,515 paid Chinese
helpers, and 2,328 volunteer Chinese helpers. The
work of this mission is conducted at 260 stations
and 1,927 outstations. Services are held in 1,755
chapels. The mission has 12 hospitals, 93 dispen-
saries, and 609 native schools. Its annual income
is about $840,000. The last annual report states
that about 6,000 were baptized in one year. Its
present communicant membership is over 67,000.

What College Students are Doing.— We recently
read somewhere that the students of Princeton
University maintain a permanent mission staff of
fourteen men in China and annually contribute
$25,000 to the cause of missions.

Where Great Patience is Demanded.

We refer to the task which missionaries have in
translating the Bible into a tongue that has no

expressions for certain Biblical thoughts. We

know what a task it was for Luther to find German
words and expressions for Oriental customs, tools,
plants, and the like. He tells us how he sometimes
searched for weeks to find an adequate expression
and how he listened to the people in the market-
place and on the streets in order that he might
possibly hear out of their mouths the word or expres-
sion he was looking for.

Below we give our readers a few instances of
the difficulties modern missionaries haye in finding
in the language of heathen, words to express Biblical
thoughts.

Chidzi or Ch’idzi? :

In a certain provincial dialect the words for
“wife” and “chicken” are practically the same.
A chicken is chidzi; a wife is ch’idzi. The differ-
ence in pronunciation is so slight that only the
initiated can tell which is which. But all the
Chinese are initiated, and woe unto the missionary
who fails to get the distinction! But there are
missionaries who have sadly failed.

One time a missionary was traveling through
the canals on a native houseboat. As he was talk-
ing with the boatman one day, the man announced
that he was going to kill a chicken for dinner.

Later in the day the missionary was again
having a conversation with the native.