The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 163

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

163

Native Christians in India.

Rambhau was nothing but a simple village Chris-
tian, rugged of body, but with a serious impediment
in his speech and knowing little beyond his neigh-
borhood. His modest little home was right in the
middle of the maharwada, or outcaste quarter. It
was in such degrading surroundings that he had
grown up. As a boy he had attended the village
school; occasionally a native pastor or a missionary
had held a religious service among his people;
beyond this, few of the higher in-
fluences had touched his life. Yet,
somehow, this sturdy villager was
not like the people around him.

Perhaps it was partly because a
great sorrow had come into his life.
Although he and his wife were a
little more comfortably off than most
in the outcaste quarter and could
have given children a better chance,
no children had come to bless their
home and continue their name.
They were heartbroken, but they
talked it over and decided that they
would adopt a child. Their choice
was strange and novel; they took as
their adopted child nothing less than

the Khandala church. It was a very unattractive
little church, with no enthusiasm and no warmth of
life. In fact, it was almost dead. Yet in his steady,
common-sense way Rambhau started to nurse it to
life again. First he set about to see that the little
Christian school was made a success. The teacher
was rather careless and lazy, and the school had been
run down so far that we were talking of closing it.
Rambhau encouraged the teacher by bringing in
pupils. He also, in a kindly way, kept him up to
the mark. There was a demand for a night-school ;
but they had no clock and no lamp. A day-school
could go by the sun, but a night-school needed a
clock. Rambhau, out of his limited funds, secured
both lamp and clock and got the night-school under
way. The teacher became ill, and it was this simple
villager who nursed him and saw that his family
was kept from all want during his sickness.

Next he started what was for him a large
project — nothing less than to get for his village a
worthy building which they could use for a church.
He induced all the Christians of Khandala to give
a few days’ work in the off-season. Rambhau him-
self gave all his time and whatever money was
needed for the work until the foundations were all
laid and the mud walls built. Then he came to me
and said: “Sahib we need a church-building in
Khandala. We have built, the walls, but we haven’t
enough money to build the roof. Can you help us?”
I helped him to secure a small sum, and he went off
triumphantly. By shrewd buying and careful work
he put a thoroughly good roof on the little “church,”
as he lovingly called the Indian structure.

To the dedication he invited people from all the
region, and when they knew that he was planning

Lutheran Mission-School in’ India.