The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 73

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 13

A Glimpse of Our Italian Mission.

By A. BONGARZONE, Missionary among the Italians.

When, in the year 1915, I began my missionary
work among the Italians, everything looked gloomy.
The majority of the people among whom I was
trying to sow the good seed considered me a false
prophet, a deceiver, and an agent of the underworld
gang. But, though I was looked upon with con-
tempt, I continued my work, and the result was that
a few people accepted my warm invitations. Relying
on the help of God, I enlarged the field of my
activity, and besides Union City, N.J., I opened
other preaching-stations in New York City, in
Brooklyn, in Jersey City, in Englewood, N. J., and
in Hoboken, N. J., and I tried, though without suc-
cess, to spread the Word of God in Passaic, Paterson,
and Secaucus, N. J. We have at present two organ-
ized congregations, one in Union City and another
in Englewood, and although we have not the means
bestowed on others, we are experiencing the blessings
of the Lord in an abundant measure. We have not
many members, but those we have prove by their
lives that their conversion has been genuine. They
consider it a privilege to be called Lutherans. They
have dispelled from their hearts any idolatrous
superstition, which was almost natural to them, and
now they rely for their salvation only on the merits
of Christ.

I was privileged to build a chapel for our mission
in Englewood, N. J., which we dedicated to the
service of the Lord on April 19, 1925. There we
placed one of our students, Rev. Messina, who was
ordained and installed on the first Sunday in Sep-
tember, 1928. I am now concentrating all my
efforts on Union City, where I hope to build a chapel.
Although a chapel in Union City would be a means
to increase our membership wonderfully, I think
that my vision cannot materialize so soon as I ex-
pected, for besides the fact that the price of real
estate in this city is very high, my people are poor.
I do believe, however, that the Lord will come to our
assistance in due time.

To help our Italian brethren to become thers
ans, I had another need to attend to, namely, the
issuing of Italian Lutheran literature. I translated
a few Lutheran tracts, Luther’s Small Catechism,
about fifty of our best hymns, the Order of Morning

Service, or the Communion, and the life of Luther ™

into Italian. Although this work partly covered our
immediate need, I believe an Italian monthly
bulletin is an urgent necessity. We must discard the
idea that we can evangelize Italians through the

means of the English language. Far from it. I be-
lieve that, if an Italian missionary is not conversant
with the Italian language, he cannot make substan-
tial progress in his work.

Although I must admit that our efforts of
evangelizing the Italians do not show results that
are in proportion to the money spent for this great
cause and to the sacrifices made, I believe that our
work among the Italians is progressing wonderfully
and that the day is not far when thousands of
Italians will accept Christ as their only Savior.

Home Missions in Minnesota.

KFUO Address, Delivered January 24, 1930,
by Rev. C. F. Kyavrt, of McIntosh, Minn.

In an address during the noon-hour broadcast
of Wednesday of last week we emphasized rather the
historical background of mission-work in the State
of Minnesota as it was carried on by the Lutheran
Church of the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other
States. Next year will mark the completion of
seventy-five years since the owners of Station KFUO
have been doing intensive mission-work in that
State. A booklet depicting the mission-activities
and growth of the District will be issued next year
and will have as author the Rev. H. Meyer, of Lake-
field, president of the large Minnesota District of
the Missouri Synod.

The Beginnings.

Since 1856, when Pastor Ferdinand Sievers set
foot on Minnesota soil as the first Evangelical Lu-
theran missionary, the Gospel of the crucified Savior
has been carried to practically every part of the
nearly 85,000 square miles of its area. Our mission-
activities are found in every county of the State
with the exception of two, Cook and Lake. Ten
and fifteen years ago we had but a very meager
representation in that great northern half of Minne-
sota. Where ten years ago we had only a few pas-
tors, who used all the powers that God had given
them to serve this vast territory, to-day in the
neighborhood of twenty-five pastors and mission-
aries are doing that’work, and every one of them
finds himself surrounded with an abundance of
opportunities for labor in the Lord’s kingdom.

An Extensive Field.

Graduating in 1924 from our Concordia Semi-
nary here in St. Louis, I accepted the call to serve
a portion of the extreme northwestern part of the
State. A field some 75 by 100 miles at that time