The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 63

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Moravian Missions Among the Eskimos.—The
Eskimos are scattered over “magnificent distances.”
They are a short-lived people; tuberculosis and
epidemics of influenza carry them off in large num-
bers. Their language is so difficult that it is hard
’ for the missionary to make himself understood.
This twenty-nine lettered word, luyoglsiligulkinril-
Ikunigtnga, means, “If they do not gather with me.”
The heathen has great difficulty in grasping Chris-
tian ideas; they are so far removed from his ordi-
nary thinking. The Moravians began mission-work
among them in Greenland, in 1733; in Labrador,
work for them was put on a permanent basis in
1771. In Alaska, where their population is densest,
five Moravian workers established a station on the
Kuskokwim River in 1885. This is exclusively a
Moravian field. The entire membership in this
mission, extending from the Mushagak River north-
ward to Nelson Island and 150 miles eastward, now
numbers 2,323. — Jiss. Review.

An Open Door. — Speaking of the difference in
the accessibility of the town people of South America
and the poor Indians of the interior, a mission-
worker writes thus: “The people in the towns and
cities are already rejectors of the grace of God.
They have been widely evangelized, but are hard-
ened, given over to Spiritism, Theosophy, low plea-
sures, and Romanism. With the Indian it is dif-
ferent. Here the evangelist is quickly surrounded
by people who cannot themselves read, asking all
sorts of questions and forcing him to sing a hymn
until they know it by heart. Many times the writer
has been constrained to remain with them, singing
and giving the sense of the Word under the glit-
tering stars till the cock-crowing announced that
it was past midnight.” Of the great willingness
and aptitude of the young Indians to learn the same
missionary writes: “We have had pupils who in
six months’ time were able to read the New Testa-
ment tolerably well, who have brought into the faith
their parents and relatives. Boys and girls come
from long distances to school in rain* and heat.
They have a perfect passion for learning. I do
insist upon this as the most urgent need of the In-
land Amazon Valley — the enabling of these Indian
young people to read Scripture. And I feel led to
commend the field here as an ideal one for unmarried
missionaries.”

Foreign Missions of the American Protestants.
In a table recently prepared in the offices of the
International Missionary Council, the aggregate
annual income of Foreign Missionary Societies in

63

different countries reveals a total of sixty millions
of dollars spent annually on foreign missions
throughout the world. The churches of the United
States and Canada lead with an annual expenditure
of thirty-five millions. Great Britain spends eleven
millions each year, while the Protestant churches
of Germany, Norway, and Sweden each average
slightly over a million. The Protestant churches
of South Africa are giving, on an average, half a
million annually to the extension of the Christian
faith in the hinterlands of that great continent.
Outlook of Missions.

American Baptist Missions. — These were be-
gun with the arrival of Adoniram Judson in Burma
in 1813. The first Baptist woman missionary in
Burma sailed for that country in 1871. Northern
Baptists now maintain missions in Burma, Assam,
South India, Bengal, South China, East China,
West China, Japan, the Belgian Congo, and the
Philippines. On these fields they have 126 stations
and 4,784 outstations, manned by 255 missionaries,
233 missionaries’ wives, and 223 unmarried women,
who are assisted by 9,756 native workers. The na-
tive membership of these missions totals 289,255
communicants. Of the 2,406 Baptist churches in
non-Christian lands 61 per cent. are self-supporting.
Among the Karens of Burma 98 per cent. are self-
supporting. Of the foreign missionaries 430 are
supported by individual churches or persons as their
foreign representatives. The American Baptists
support thirty-three hospitals and fifty-nine dis-
pensaries in their foreign fields. Among their
workers in foreign fields they have seventy-six medi-
cal missionaries. Year before last they treated al-
most 400,000 patients. They are supporting 3,666
schools, among them eight colleges and twenty-one
seminaries and training-schools. Their schools have
an‘ enrolment of 132,946 pupils. In their 2,787

‘Sunday-schools 124,165 pupils are enrolled.

American Philanthropy. — It is estimated that
in 1929 American gifts to all benevolent enterprises
Indicate a total of $2,400,000,000. ‘This is an in-
crease of about $200,000,000 over the amount given
in 1928.

Soda-Fountains and Churches. — We people of
the United States last year spent $700,000,000 at
our soda-fountains. It is thought that this will in-
crease to the extent of $250,000,000 in this present
year. The total amount spent on all churches and
for all religious purposes last year was $950,000,000.
And yet there are people, also in our circles, who
are ready to say that we are expecting too much
from the people for the work of the Church!