The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 85

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 85

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mission-work in the sense defined above. That is
why the reapers shout for joy, because we of little
faith are so thankful to the Lord when He permits
us to see results.

Personal Mission-Work.

The importance of personal mission-work when
practised even by children is illustrated by an in-
cident told by Pastor L. Winfield Wickham, who is
in charge of our Niedringhaus Mission in St. Louis.

One of the little girls who attended services at
this mission heard the pastor say that it was the
duty of Christians to help win others for Jesus. And
so this little girl invited her little unchurched friend
by the name of Florence to attend the service at the
mission. Although Florence was eleven years old,
she had never gone to Sunday-school and had not
been baptized; but she came and soon brought her
sister Hattie, aged nine. They, in turn, persuaded
their brother Roy, thirteen years old, to join them.
Roy liked the Sunday-school so well that he induced
Milford, his fourteen-year-old brother, to drop his
paper route and come. After the necessary instruc-
tion the four children were baptized, and Milford
was confirmed. During the year and a half which
has elapsed since then none of the four has missed
a single session of the Sunday-school or a single
church service unless kept at home by illness.

But the missionary conquest of these children
was not yet complete. The mother was the next to
be brought to church. Strange to say, she had been
confirmed in a Lutheran church, but for fifteen
years had not been inside of a church. She, too,
was moved by the message and was happy to know
that her Savior would receive her again. The
mother and the four children now began to plead
with Arthur, the twenty-one-year-old son, who was
entirely out of touch with the church. Arthur was
persuaded to come along and from the very outset
* took such an interest in the work that he soon re-
ceived instruction and is now a member of the
church. The prayers of the six now pleaded for the
one unchurched member of the family, the father;
but after months of invitation and promise he was
still as far away from the church as he had ever
been. Then God stepped in. The father lost his
work, and the family was reduced to destitution. It
so happened at this time that the mission required
the services of a sexton, and the pastor gave this
employment to the father, so that he might have
food for his family, but especially in order that he
might be near the church and its services. By the

work of the Holy Spirit the janitor became a lis-
tener, and the more he heard of the message, the
keener was his conviction of sin and grace. Now he
asked to be baptized and confirmed. Thus an entire
family, eight precious blood-bought souls, were led
to Jesus in one of our missions through the work
of one little girl.

And to show their gratitude and to prove that
their love for Jesus is genuine, they have offered
their gifts, poor though they are, in a way that puts
many of our more bountifully blessed Christians to
shame. From the time they joined the church the
little girls gave five cents every Sunday, the boys fif-
teen, the mother thirty-five, and the older brother

Rev. E. Mueller and the Twenty-Five
Children Baptized by Him May 5.

forty cents, an amount, considering the circum-
stances of this family, which, in the average family,
would be equivalent to a figure ten times as great.
And even in the period of destitution, when the father
was without employment, these gifts never faltered,
but were brought even before food was obtained.
Oklahoma Lutheran.

St. Philip’s, Cleveland.

The twenty-five children on this picture were
baptized by the undersigned at the Sunday morning
service, May 5. Most of the Reformed churches do
not realize the importance of Baptism. After the
parents of our Sunday-school children had Baptism
explained to them according to the Word of God,
they also wished to have their children baptized.