The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 179

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 179

efforts end in failure? They did what all good
Christians do — they took it to the Lord in prayer.
Armed with prayer and their Catechism, they again
set out, and this time they were led by the Lord

Sunday-School Teachers of St. Philip’s, Philadelphia.

to one of the white Lutheran churches of the Mis-
souri Synod. Here the Catechism was still very
much in use. How happy and thankful they now
were! For a while they attended services here and
the children attended the Sunday-school. They
told others of this Lutheran church, and before
long services were being held in their home for
them and their friends. A Sunday-school was also
started, both the services and the Sunday-school
being conducted by the local city missionary,
Rev. E. Polzin. Their prayer now was that the
Lord would give them a pastor of their own. This
prayer, too, was heard. They now had their own
pastor. He then set about looking for other
quarters where services and Sunday-school might
be conducted. The store pictured here was found
and rented. Things went fairly well for a while,
but then seemed to come to a standstill. The
pastor was called away, and another pastor, Rev.
W. G. Schwehn, who was in charge of a congrega-
tion, served them for about a year, preaching to
them every Sunday afternoon. The Mission
Board, seeing that the field was a promising one,
then called the undersigned, who has served the
flock for the past five years.

God in His great mercy has abundantly blessed
our labors here. ‘Yes, His blessings are manifest.
At the first service at which the present pastor
preached there were only seven in attendance. Now
our ayerage is around forty-five. It could and
would be greater if we had more room, but that

is all that our store can comfortably seat. More
than once over a hundred crowded into this store,
but the people will not do that every Sunday.
A Sunday-school was then organized and started,
with the pastor and two young ladies as teachers;
but that was almost two teachers too many. Now
we have seven teachers, including the pastor, and
should have two more, but we have not the room
for more classes. Our teachers and our Sunday-
school are shown in the picture. We must add, how-
ever, that on the day the picture of our Sunday-
school was taken about twenty-five children were
absent.

In 1926 we were in danger of being put out
of our rented store, which was for sale. Vacant
stores or places suitable for services and Sunday-
school in our neighborhood were scarce and lots
still scarcer. Now, what were we to do? Again
we told it to the Lord, and He kept His promises
and heard our prayers. Again the Mission Board
came to our assistance by purchasing the property
and, as related in a previous article, later purchased
a small strip of ground from the adjoining school-
yard to make our lot even. The people then began
to collect for a chapel, which they and the Mission
Board realized would eventually have to be built if
the work here was to be carried on properly. And
many of them did not give just what they could
spare, but had to make a real sacrifice. One man
went without meals and then gave $10 for the
chapel. We might mention other instances of sacri-

St. Philip’s Sunday-School, Philadelphia, Pa.

fices that were made; but let this suffice. Our
people are still working for their chapel, and all
the more fervently since the Mission Board has de-
cided to build in Philadelphia. We sincerely regret
that we cannot carry the whole burden alone, but
we are yet numerically too small to do so. Though
" the Mission Board has appropriated the money for