The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 83

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

83

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year he visited 248 ships and helped 351 seamen,
while he gave individual advice to 4,610 sailors,
wrote 905 letters in behalf of seamen and received
2,214 for them. During this period of a year he
made 177 hospital visits, 68 insane asylum visits,
and 15 prison visits.

Hospital Work.

In the hospital the missionary renders that fine
service to the sick and wounded in the hours much
given to meditation and reflection which helps to a
realization and an appreciation of the relative values
of the things of this life and the claims of Christ
upon their lives. The reports which our mission-
aries give us of the blessed fruits of their labors, the
remarkable experiences of conversion and

Work among the Deaf-Mute and Blind.

Every one of our States has its institutions for
the deaf-mute and blind. All in all, there are 160
schools for the deaf in our country. Of these, over’
sixty are state schools, nineteen are private (among
them also our Lutheran school at Detroit, Mich.),
and the rest are city schools. These schools are
attended by more than 14,000 pupils, of whom over
10,000 were in state schools, about a thousand in
private schools, and almost 3,000 in city schools.
There are about 45,000 deaf-mutes in our country.

The inability to participate in religious services
is one of the many deprivations that deaf-mutes
have to endure, and this fact should arouse the

quickening they are permitted to witness,
the touching words and other proofs of grati-
tude given by those to whom they have been
permitted to minister, ought to stir the
Church at large to more valiant efforts to
bring about the day when no patient in any
hospital of the land should suffer without
some Good Samaritan standing at his bedside
ready to pour wine and oil on his spiritual
wounds.

Similar in nature to the hospital work of
the institutional missionary is his work in the
convalescent homes, homes of the aged, and
county and city homes for the indigent.
Visits to these institutions and heart-to-heart
talks with the inmates, with public services
where possible, are never without their fruits.
Missionaries doing this work experience again
and again the truth that it is in trying days
and dark hours that man is more willing to
hear and accept God’s Word than in days of health
and prosperity. To bring the sunshine of Christ’s
presence to these aftlicted is a privilege indeed.

In this connection we might also call attention
- to the work which the institutional missionary is
permitted to do to the most deplorable of the sick
and afflicted, that is, to those who are insane, feeble-
minded, and epileptic. Difficult though his work is,
it has its rich rewards, as not a few instances prove.
The bountifully blessed work which is being done in
the state institutions for the feeble-minded and the
remarkable success that God has granted our work
in the institution at Watertown, Wis., and all the
cases where our missionaries have been able to bring
the light of the knowledge of Christ even to souls
that dwelt in bodies where reason was dethroned,
should be a strong encouragement for the Church to
increase her efforts also along these lines.

Lutheran Orphans’ Home, Des Peres, Mo.

Church to earnest action in their behalf. We are
pleased to say that the Missouri Synod has inter-
ested itself particularly in behalf of these afflicted
ones and that at the present time sixteen ordained
pastors are ministering to the spiritual needs of
thousands of deaf-mutes in our country. They are
at present serving 134 mission-stations, fourteen
of which are organized congregations, sixteen are
state schools for the deaf, and the remainder aré
preaching-stations.

There are possibly as many as 75,000 blind per-
sons in the United States, and 169 of these are also
deaf-mutes. Our Church has just begun to work
among those so afflicted. The Missouri Synod has
published Luther’s Small Catechism in Braille and
is putting out a monthly in their behalf. Insti-
tutiorial work is also being done at our state schools
for the blind.