The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 44

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44

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

—

whole time and effort on personal spiritual work
among women and on training native Bible women,”
said Miss Rehwinkel, superintendent of our hospital
in Ambur, before returning to India two months
ago. “At present we teachers and nurses in the field
are doing this most important branch of the work in
our spare moments, — and we haven’t much spare
time! It is hard work, but it strikes at the very
heart of heathenism.”

Mrs. F. R. ZucKER,
in Lutheran Woman’s Missionary Endcavor Quarterly.

Missions of American Lutherans.

We take the following paragraphs on the mis-
sionary activities of various American Lutheran
synods from a report written by Rev. G. L. Kieffer,
Statistician and Reference Librarian of the Na-
tional Lutheran Council (the report covers the year
1927) :—

That the Lutherans of America believe in the
work of missions, foreign, home, and inner, is
shown by the fact that they contributed more than
$5,000,000 for missions during the year 1927.

. Foreign Missions.

In the Foreign Mission field there is to be noted
among the Lutheran work the movement for
separately established native churches which mani-
fested itself in India in the organization of the
Telugu Lutheran Church and the formation of the
India Lutheran Federation, the latter at Rajah-

mundry, consisting of the Lutheran Church in the-

Andhra country, the Tamil Lutheran Church, and
the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church. The
autonomous character of the latter was developed
during the stress and trial period after the World
War while under the care and help of the National
Lutheran Council and the Lutheran Foreign Mis-
sions Conference of America.

In spite of unfavorable conditions in China,
where the work was hampered and many of the mis-

sionaries were withdrawn and returned home, the -

success of the Foreign Mission work of the Lu-

therans of America is evidént. In thirty mission- -

fields in thirteen foreign countries there was spent
over $2,000,000 in maintaining 700 ordained minis-
ters, 6,580 unordained workers, and in carrying
_ forth the effort to increase the 600,000,000 Chris-
_ tians of the world and to decrease the 1,200,000,000
» non-Christians of the world. This is the record of
_ the work of the Lutherans in America in the For-
ign Mission field.

In the United Lutheran Church is to be noted
especially the work in India. Here occurred the
organization of the Lutheran Church in the Andhra
country, the first meeting being held at Guntur,
India, October 83—5, 1927. This newly established
Telugu Lutheran Church begins its organization
with 140,000 baptized members and 55,000 adult
communicants. This organization became an as-
sociate synod of the United Lutheran .Church in
America. The United Lutheran Church established
the Andhra Christian College upon the completion
of a campaign for $300,000. During the year 1927
the veteran foreign missionary Dr. Anna S. Kugler,
already with a record of forty-four years of service
as a medical missionary in India, founder of
women’s medical work in the Lutheran mission in
Guntur, and one of the outstanding woman phy-
sicians of the world, although seventy years of age,
returned to the mission-field to continue her work
as medical missionary and superintendent of the
Lutheran Hospital in Guntur.

In the United Lutheran Church must also be
noted that the Luther League, at its convention at
Salisbury, N. C., in 1927, assumed a $12,000 obliga-
tion for educational work in Buenos Aires, South
America.

During the year 1927 the Iowa Synod sent
seven workers, four ordained pastors, one mechanic,
and two trained nurses to the New Guinea Mis-
sion-field.

The Augustana Synod acquired the mission-field
in Tanganyika Territory, East Africa, and received
a legacy from the late Mr. P. A. Peterson, Rock-
ford, Ill., of $500,000, the largest gift for Foreign
Missions ever made to that body.

The Missouri Synod reports a greater interest
and endeavor among its people, especially the
young people, with regard to Foreign Missions.

Home Missions.

The Lutherans of America, during the year
1927, experienced a more intense feeling of respon-
sibility for the evangelization of the unchurched.
This work, while naturally an attempt to reach the
non-churched, or unchurched, must be largely an
effort to care for their own people, especially the
immigrants from European countries. During 1927,
in the Lutheran churches of America, the Gospel
was preached in twenty-nine languages: Inglish,
German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic,
Bohemian, Slovak, Polish, Lithuanian, Wendish,
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lettish, Esthonian,
Finnish, Magyar, Yiddish, Persian, seven American-
Indian tongues, and the sign-language of the deaf.