The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Sheet 118

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- @ month;

_ Saye in order to provide the funds needed to
bring over their families, whom they left

___ self-supporting congregations. To carry on
=

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Seward, Alaska.

District has forty-one missionaries in the field; but
two mission parishes are vacant. The District raises
$2,400 for missions itself. Home missions are carried
on at a great cost because of the great distances to
be covered by the missionaries in reaching their
places. In some cases missionaries travel 800 miles
for one serving of their parishes. It must not be
forgotten that Alberta has an area of 250,000 square
miles, while the area of British Columbia is 363,000
square miles. Some of the parishes are 100 to
200 miles in length. Alaska is also included in the
territory of this District.

Most of the places are very small, and because
each missionary has charge of a number of these
scattered places, the work is not as effective as it
should be. Sixty per cent. of the places cannot have
more than one service a month. In spite of this
handicap the number of souls has doubled in many
places. ‘The average number of places served by
@ missionary is five. Because of lack of funds five
new parishes could not be opened, though the fields
were very promising. Ten parishes were amal-
gamated into five for the same reason. In
one large territory, where three men were
working hard, a man was taken away, to the
great sorrow of the two remaining men, who
cannot do the work.

The salary of the missionaries is $80
surely, low enough! A large
number of the members are recent immi-
grants. They are penniless when they
arrive and can do nothing during the first
year. They must pay as high as 20 per cent.
on their ‘ ‘grubstake.” ‘Then, too, they must

behind. The whole District has only eight

sept most necessary work, the representatives

of the District asked for a subsidy of
$40,000.

The
Home Mission opportunities.
Borough, for instance, there are twenty
sections without a church. The United Lu-
theran Church has seven field secretaries on
the ground, whose sole work consists in
opening new stations. In Bronxville, the
home of one of our colleges, we have no
church. A college classroom serves the stu-
dents and a number of our people living in
the vicinity as a chapel. The United Lu-
theran Church has erected a church in the immediate
neighborhood of our college. The District has twenty-
eight missionaries in the immense field with its un-
limited opportunities. The District needs help from
without if the work is to be done, since the District
is limited in its resources. Synod should help to the
extent of $15,000 at least.

The present California-Nevada District will soon
be divided, the congregations of Southern California
forming a District of their own. The representa-
tives asked for an annual subsidy of $35,000 for the
whole territory, $6,000 of which is to be used for
schools. The members of the District, numbering
only about 9,000 communicant members, bring up
almost $29,000 annually for Home Missions. Forty-
four missionaries are serving sixty-six places in the
District. In Northern California and Nevada the
distances to be traveled by the missionaries are very
great in many instances.

Los Angeles, with its rapid growth, is a constant
challenge because of its vast mission opportunities.
The present population of Los Angeles is 1,250,000,

Allantic District has wonderful
In Queens

Dedication at Haxtun, Colo.