The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Sheet 91

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

“That the result on and in Stephen was thorough
and lasting was proved by the way he conducted
himself during the time he lived after that. He
rode with his father through the Eastern States im-
mediately after his confirmation and then back to L.
Everywhere he showed his Lutheran consciousness
by pointing out all the Lutheran churches by the
way and their number delighted him. Every night
and morning he knelt by his bed and prayed with
fervor and devotion, and it is as certain as any-
thing human can be that he was taken hence, on
‘August 10 following, in the true Christian faith.

“He had come to know his sin and to feel its
sting, and he rejoiced to find the only Savior from
sin and clung to Him in faith.

“Without our Lutheran School for the Deaf at
Detroit there would have been no chance for Ste-
phen. Even the rather loose contact of our mission-
aries for deaf was apparently ineffective for him.
It took the school with its daily and sanctified at-
tention to accomplish the desired result.

“Parents of deaf children and of hard-of-hear-
ing children mostly do not know what a tremendous
task it is to bring such children to a knowledge of
the saving truth. Examples are all around us of
the failures in this respect; but mostly the parents
do not see them or, if they do, they feel utterly help-
less to remedy the situation, while a remedy, and
a most effective one, is near at hand.

“Tt is hard to bring a normal person to be a
thoroughgoing Christian and to walk the straight
and narrow path through youth to middle age and
on to old age and glory. How much harder it is to
do this for the defective no one knows but he that is
enlightened by experience, and experience teaches
that it is probably twenty times harder to gather in
the deaf than the normal.

“Thank God for having given us this blessed
agency for the salvation of our deaf children — Our
Evangelical Lutheran Deaf-mute Institute at De-
troit!”

Just at this time the brethren at the head of-

this wonderful school are putting forth strenuous
efforts to provide the institution with adequate
buildings. When this reaches our readers the cam-
paign for funds will be well under way. May we
ask you, dear reader, if you have not yet made your
contribution to this worthy cause, to do so now?
The story of Stephen, as related above by Stephen’s
father, we believe, ought to convince us all of the
great need of this Lutheran School for the Deaf and
show us the wonderful missionary value of this in-
stitution. -

89

American Lutheran Foreign Missions.

The American Lutherans have six fields in
China. The Augustana Synod is working in the
Honan Province; the Lutheran Brethren, in the
Provinces of Honan and Hupeh; the Lutheran Free
Church in the Honan Province; the Missouri Synod,
in the Province of Hupeh and Szechwan; the Nor-
wegian Lutheran Church, in Hupeh and Honan;
and the United Lutheran Church, in Shantung.

Only one American Lutheran church-body is
working in Japan, the United Lutheran Church.
This same body is also working in two fields on the
South American continent, namely, in Argentina
and British Guiana. In a certain sense the work
of the Missouri Synod in Brazil and Argentina
might be called foreign mission work, at least
some of it.

In India three American bodies are working, the
United Lutherans among the Telugus; the Joint
Synod of Ohio, also among the Telugus; and the
Missouri Synod, among the Tamils and Malayalim
in the Madras Presidency, in Travancore, and in
Cochin.

On the mainland of Africa and on Madagascar
five American mission agencies are at work. The
United Lutheran Church is working in Liberia; the
Sudan Missionary Society is in the Sudan; the
Augustana Synod opened a mission in Iramba, ad-
jacent to the Leipzig field; the Norwegian Lutheran
Church is laboring in Natal, Zululand, and in Mada-
gascar; while the Lutheran Free Church has a field
in Southwestern Madagascar.

The Iowa Synod has a large mission in New
Guinea. In Kurdistan, Asia, the Orient Society is
carrying on its work, and in India and Anam we
find the laborers of the Santal Mission.

Dr. George Drach gives the following summaries
of American foreign missions: India, with its 200
foreign workers, including wives, has 150,000 bap-
tized Christians; China, with 175 foreign mission-
aries, has 17,000 Christians; New Guinea, with 105
foreign laborers, has 23,180 Christians; Africa,
with 75 missionaries, has 11,000 members; Mada-
gascar, with 45 missionaries, has 10,800 members;
and Japan has 40 missionaries and 2,500 Christians.

The same authority has the following to say
concerning the annual expenditures for foreign mis-
sions of our various American Lutheran missionary
agencies: United Lutheran, $895,000; Norwegian
Lutheran, $355,000; Missouri Synod, $222,000;
Augustana Synod, $162,000; Iowa Synod, $60,000;
Joint Synod of Ohio, $53,000; Iutheran Free