The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 719

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 719
they be served with the Gospel. The one missionary eign house was “stripped of everything.” But no

who is trying to take care of the most urgent pleas
that come from the Iravas has so many calls that
he does not know where to turn first. There can
be no doubt that in this insistent pleading of the
Iravas, who number many thousands, a great respon-
sibility is being placed upon our Church. While
many of the Iravas have no more than social and
economic reasons for breaking away from Hinduism,
there can be no doubt that in this movement God
is opening a door to us that we should try to enter.
Possibly a dozen or more experienced workers could
be used to great advantage in this wonderfully
promising field at this time, if only we had the
men and the means.

Maplesville, Ala. — On November 10, 1927, our
Church began its work at Maplesville, and on
April 1 this year the first harvest of souls could
already be gathered in; for on that day twenty-
five persons were added to the kingdom of God,
twelve by confirmation and thirteen by baptism.
On the night of the same day five persons were
confirmed at Kings Landing, fifty miles away.

A Modern Missionary Journey.

Rey. L. Lompland and Rev. George Holm, China
missionaries of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of
America, completed a journey from Hankow to
their east field as far as Suiping, which is believed
to be the first visit to the field since the missionaries
left their stations early last year. The trip from
Hankow to Kioshan took thirty hours, the passengers
being crowded, “like sardines in a tin,” in one pas-
senger car, attached to a long freight train. Arriv-
ing at that place, they found that all five of the for-
eign residences, the church, and the schools had
been occupied and looted by soldiers during the
intervening months. Three of the missionaries’
houses had been vacated when Pastors Lompland
and Holm arrived. It was found that practically
everything movable had been stolen, and revolu-
tionary posters had been attached to the walls.
Ceilings had fallen, walls were scratched up,
window-panes were broken, and doors were missing.
Even the cistern at Dr. Nathanael Fedde’s house
had been demolished in a search for guns.

From Kioshan to Chumatien the trip was made
by freight train, and there, the engine having
broken down, rickshas were hired to take the mis-
sionaries to Suiping. Here they found soldiers in
full possession of the mission-station, and the for-

damage had been done to any of the houses in
Suiping. Chinese workers had saved some of the
books from Rev. Skepstad’s library. The mission-

. aries found quarters in the boys’ schoolhouse; but

soldiers crowded in there too. A meeting was held
at the-schoolhouse, attended by about thirty of the
native workers and Christians, who were much
heartened by the visit, and plans for return to the
field were discussed.

Reporting to the Foreign Mission Board of the
Norwegian Lutheran Church, the missionaries
wrote: “Do not worry; we are both well and know
that our God is strong enough to protect us even

in danger.”

Wife Beater’s Change of Heart.

This happened in the Kameruns, West Africa.
She was a wife of a polygamist and wanted to
become a Christian, but her husband told her very
plainly that he did not want her to do so. However,
she persisted and became a member of the mission
church in her village. She attended church regu-
larly and made good progress in Christian life. This
brought great trouble to her at home. Her husband
threatened her with all kinds of punishment if she
did not give up going to church. During her absence
from her home, while she was attending the services,
her husband used to go into her house, take what-
ever food he found there, and bring it to some of his
other wives, hoping thereby to make his Christian
wife jealous. Besides this, he made it a regular
practise to beat her every time she returned from
the services.

The strange thing in the eyes of the villagers
was that this Christian wife showed no kind of
resentment toward her husband. Though she was
flogged again and again, she never complained of
the ill treatment she received. One day the woman
went fishing and brought home a great number of
fishes. Upon coming home, she took a portion of
her catch and prepared a dainty meal for her
husband. The surplus fish she suspended from
a rack over a specially prepared smoky fire in order
to dry them for later use. During her absence from
home her husband went into her hut and took all
the fish. Still other mean things he did in order
to induce his wife to give up Christianity; but all
without ayail. ;

Finally, one Saturday he told her that she should
not go to church the next day without first calling
him. The wife did as he had told her to do, and