The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 5

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 5

eee
OOOO S!”EE0T08000"=0—00—OoTS 00 ee

Missionaries Come to Hawaii.

“God moves in a mysterious way His wonders
to perform.” If ever the truth of this word was
proved, it is by the way in which the first Christian
missionaries were led to Hawaii. Obookiah was
a native of Hawaii. There his father, mother, and
brother had been killed, and to escape a like fate,
he had fled for refuge to an American ship, whose
captain kindly permitted him to work his passage
to this country. The captain took him to New
Haven, his home, where all that Obookiah saw
made a deep impression upon him. At the time
he was about seventeen years old. The buildings
of Yale College awakened within him a desire for
an education, and one day a kind gentleman found
him weeping upon the college steps because there
was no one to teach him. His education was pro-
vided for. Not long after, he made the acquain-
tance of Samuel J. Mills, one of the founders of
the American Board, which has done so much for
foreign missions. Obookiah had the one desire to
bring the tidings of Jesus, the Savior of sinners,
to his native islands. Tis whole education was
shaped with this end in view. But when he was
about to sail, he was stricken with typhoid fever
and died! THowever, there were those upon whom
the young Hawaiian had made a deep impression
and who at his death were willing to take his place.
A missionary party of seventeen left Boston, Octo-
ber 23, 1819. In the company were two ordained
missionaries, Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston,
a medical missionary, Dr. Holman, two school-
teachers, a printer, and a farmer. All these were
married and took their wives with them. arly
in April of the next year they landed at Kailua,
on the island of Hawaii. What was their surprise
when they learned that idolatry had been destroyed.
They had expected to see heathen temples standing,
to be shocked by the sight of shameful idolatrous
rites, and to see poor human victims led to the
slaughter. And now they heard that the new king
had broken with the old religion, that the temples
had been burned, the idols destroyed, the priest-
hood abolished, and an end put to human sacrifices,
and thatthe nation, as it were, without a religion,
was waiting for the messengers of the Gospel!

(To be concluded.) F. J. L.

—_—_-o—————————

A Cuuttp in London, asked by the teacher to
repeat the Lord’s Prayer, said: “Forgive us our
Christmases as we also forgive them that Christmas
against us.” It is a very suggestive prayer and
ought to set many of us thinking. :

Missionary Opportunities.

A few weeks ago we were permitted to listen
to an address by one of our missionaries. This mis-
sionary is located in one of our large and rapidly
growing industrial centers. Some of the facts he
brought out seem almost incredible, and yet we
know them to be true. This is what the missionary
had to say :—

“As you know, I am located in the city of O.
The particular ficld that I am working is two miles
square and has a population of more than 30,000,
though not half of the lots are occupied. Hundreds
of houses are going up every month. A few days
ago a builder told me that this year [1928] he
erected no fewer than two hundred houses within
the area in which I am working. His intention
is to build at least two hundred and fifty houses
in the same neighborhood in 1929. Most of the
houses he intends to build will be erected in a
section just opposite to our present place of worship.
Another building contractor has informed me that
no fewer than five hundred houses will be erected
in the territory referred to in spring. There can
be no doubt that hundreds of Lutheran families
will settle in this territory. Here, then, is a vast
field lying open and waiting for the workers; for
there is not a single church to be found here.

“The men and women of our mission are sys-
tematically canvassing the whole territory to get in
contact with all families in the shortest possible
time. Our members are giving several hours a week
to this work. Personally I have made 1,500 calls 5
in the past two and a half months and have come
in contact with one hundred Lutheran families
which have signified a willingness to identify them-
selves with us. I have also found a hundred or
more unchurched families in this section which give
me reason to hope that in time they will unite
with us. Most of the children that we now have
in our Sunday-school come from unchurched fam-
ilies. It may be of interest to hear that in my
visiting I met a Jewess who is married to a man
who was brought up a Roman Catholic and that
this woman has promised. to send her children to
our Sunday-school when they are old enough.
I have also found families with Lutheran tradi-
tions, which, when they left their rural communi-
ties to come to the large city, seem to have suffered
complete spiritual shipwreck in making the change.
People who, it seems, were earnest members in their
home church, have not approached our altars for
years just because, upon their arrival in the city,