The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 78

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78

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

the German missionary Guetzlaff, though the latter
limited his work to the Chinese living there. In
1840 the American Presbyterians began to work
among the Buddhists in Southern Siam and among
the animistic Laos of Northern Siam. Numerically
the success has not been great, since Siam has only
5,000 native Christian communicants, but Christian

_ missions are exerting a far greater influence than
these numbers would indicate.

Need of Physicians in Africa. — In many parts
of Africa the death-rate among children is 300 to
400 per thousand, that is, three or four out of ten
children die before they are a year old. In certain
regions seventy out of a hundred people have the
sleeping sickness. In certain parts this terrible

sleeping sickness has killed four-fifths of the people. —

In 1911 French Equatorial Africa had a population
of about five million. Latest statistics tell us that
the sleeping sickness has reduced the population to
less than three million. In one part of Kamerun
67 per cent. of the people are the victims of
this dread disease. There are strong hopes that
Dr. Louise Pearce, of the Rockefeller Institute, has
found a remedy that will gradually eradicate
the sleeping sickness. Two German physicians,
Dr. Fischer and Dr. Eckhard, both connected with
the Berlin Mission in East Africa, have also dis-
covered a remedy, which they have called Germanin.
Experiments with Germanin indicate that the fight
against the sleeping sickness will in future be
crowned with success.

- Lack of Volunteers for Foreign Missions. — It is
reported by the Students’ Volunteer Movement that
the various foreign mission societies connected with
the Students’ Volunteer Movement are experiencing
a lack of volunteers for the foreign field. The
Students’ Volunteer Movement has at this time only
one-tenth the membership it had in 1920. The
societies referred to need about 1,200 new workers

this year; but the number at their disposal falls far -

below this figure. All this indicates a sad decrease

in missionary interest among the students of to-day.

A Large Gift. — Since the World War the Na-

_ tional Lutheran Council has at various times made

_ loans to the Finnish Missionary Society to carry on

_ its missions in China. The sum total of these loans

is almost $100,000. At a meeting of the Council

held in Columbus a few months ago, it was decided
_to make an outright gift of these loans.

_ 1852—1929. — The first Lutheran service in the

_ Bronx, the northern borough of New York City,

d in 1852. The service was conducted in

a hall. To-day there are twenty-eight Lutheran
churches in this borough. At present the Lutherans
occupy the first place in membership among Prot-
estant churches.

Chinese Christian Leadership.— Among Chinese
Christians of prominence may be mentioned the
consul-general in New York, who is the son of an
Episcopal rector in San Francisco, and the consul
at Toronto, Can. The representative of the Chinese
national government in New York is an ex-president
of the Shanghai Baptist College.

Seeks Permanent Control. — Since the World
War the Joint Synod of Ohio has served the Telugu
mission-field in India belonging to the Hermanns-
burg Missionary Society. In 1912 the Joint Synod
of Ohio purchased two of the ten stations of the
Hermannsburg Missionary Society in India, and
since 1920 it has accepted the responsibility for the
work on the entire field. Since taking over this
field, the Joint Synod has done much for it. Last
year over 1,000 converts were baptized. The Joint
Synod intends to spend $50,000 on carrying out an
extensive educational program, and a hospital will
soon be ready for opening. The mission conducts
a leper asylum, an orphans’ home for boys, a home
for old widows, a lace school, a dispensary, and
a department for orphan girls.

The Youngest Lutheran Body in India. — The
Schleswig-Holstein Mission last year organized the
Jaipur Evangelical Lutheran Church. This body
has 18,300 baptized members.

The Oldest Living Christian. — This is Mr. Yesu
Dasan, a native of Ankara, North Travancore, India.
He is 140 years old. He was eighty years old when
he became a Christian and changed his name from
Choli Andy to Yesu Dasan.

The Society of Christian Endeavor in India. —
The Union of Christian Endeavor societies in India
reports 2,000 societies, with 60,000 members. The
societies do practical work in the villages in which
they are located, such as cleaning streets, bringing
medicine to the sick and food to the poor, and
gathering money for stricken districts.

Every Christian a Missionary.

Every Christian should “show forth the praises of
God” by bringing the light of the Gospel to such as
are still sitting in darkness. We read of Stephen,
who was not a minister, but a layman, that he was
full of faith and power and that the Jews who were