The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 146

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146

Twenty-Third Report of the Board
for Negro Missions.
July, 1924, to July, 1926.

“Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto
God.” Thus the Holy Spirit prophesies by the
mouth of the royal singer David, Ps. 68, 31.
Ethiopia is the native land of the Ethiopians. The
Ethiopians are the people of dark, black skin. Their
home is in the so-called Dark Continent, Africa.
When David says that Ethiopia will stretch out her
hands to God, he means, of course, that the people
of Ethiopia, the Negroes, will do this. When the
psalmist says that they will stretch out their hands
to God, he means that they will call on God, the
true God. Thus, then, this expression of the
psalmist is a beautiful prophecy, a missionary
prophecy, since it is through the work of mission-
aries, the messengers of the Gospel, that the Negro
learns to know God and is induced to call upon Him.

Not a few Ethiopians, in the wider sense of the
term, live in the United States of America. The
Negro population of our country probably reaches
twelve million at this time. An incalculable number
of them do not know the true God. Sad to say, this
must be said even of many who are members of
colored sectarian churches. Booker T. Washington,
that great Negro leader, spoke the unvarnished truth
when he declared that many church-members knew
as little of true Christianity as did the heathen of
Africa and. Japan, and that they stood in need of
mission-work to be done among them as much as
did the pagans of foreign countries.

Our Ey. Luth. Synodical Conference of North
America has labored among the Negroes of our
country for the past forty-nine years. The Negro
Mission enterprise was launched in October, 1877.
And this labor has not been in vain. God has
richly blessed it. Our faithful missionaries have
experienced the truth of the divine prophecy:
“Wthiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God.”
By their services in church and school during these
forty-nine years thousands upon thousands of
Negroes have learned to know the true God.

The two past years, which this report is to cover,
were likewise years of divine blessings in our rescue
work among our Negroes. And this divine blessing
should fill us with enthusiastic zeal.

__ New Mission-Stations.
During the past two years mission-work has been
| begun, or has been taken over, at the following
_ twelve places: Atmore, Camden, Flatwood, Ham-

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

burg, Rockwest, State Normal at Montgomery,
Lamison and Tuskegee, Ala.; Pensacola, Fla.;
Los Angeles, Cal.; Pomona, near Greensboro, N. C.;
and Jacksonville, Il. Work has been temporarily
discontinued in Brooklyn, N. Y., Pailets Land in
New Orleans, La., and Greer, S.C. From this
will be seen that the past two years show a net gain
of nine stations. The above statement does not
include the new Negro Mission enterprises at
Jack Pines, Mich. (24 persons served by Rev. H. J.
Storm), Buffalo, N. Y., and other places. If there
had not been a dearth of men and means, work
would probably have been begun in Oklahoma,
Texas, and other States. At present our work among
the Negroes is carried on in these States: Alabama,
Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia.
Gains.

Two years ago the number of baptized persons
in our care was 4,110. To-day the baptized member-
ship is 4,917, a net gain of 807 persons in two
years. ‘This is probably the greatest gain within
a period of two years that our Colored Missions have
experienced in their whole history. During the past ~
decade there has been a net increase of 121 per cent.,
which means that the baptized membership has been
more than doubled in the last ten years. Ten years
ago there were 2,222 baptized members; to-day
there are 4,917. For this wonderful growth let us
humbly thank God; for it is He who must give the
increase to the sowing and planting which our
good missionaries are doing in church and school,
day after day.

Besides the baptized membership of 4,917 in the
spiritual care of our missionaries there are about
3,000 Negro children, who in our day-schools and
Sunday-schools are instructed in God’s Word and
Luther’s doctrine pure. ‘Then, there should also be
added the strangers who attend our services more
or less regularly and the persons with whom our
missionaries come in contact during the week.
A very conservative estimate is that at least 10,000
persons are every week spiritually served by our
Negro Missions. (It is very probable that no less
than 25,000 Negroes are directly and indirectly
being favorably influenced by our Mission. — ED.)
Thus our work among the Negroes is gradually be-
coming a most extensive work. —

We shall now proceed to tell about our several
mission-stations in detail.

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