The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 95

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

95

A Home Missionary.

Recently we received a letter which is so interest-
ing and instructive that we asked the writer to grant
us permission to give our readers the benefit of read-
ing a part of it. We withhold the writer’s name,
since by doing so we detract nothing from the value
of the letter. The writer says : —

“T have been quite ill since 1930 has come in. It
has been a continual up and down, my nerves, heart,
head, and eyes, all suffering. Some attacks were so
severe that I was led to believe that soon all would
be over. Like Job, I am surely sorely afflicted. Like
Paul, I have my thorn in the flesh. But I know it’s
all for my own good; for all things must work to-
gether for good to them that love God.

“But even during my aflliction, with all its dis-
comforts and its worries because of big doctor bills,
God comforts and refreshes me by giving me open-
ings and opportunities to do something for my Lord
Jesus. I am not able, at my best, to get farther than
from my house to church, which is less than half
a mile from my house, and to the doctor. And yet
hardly a day passes that I am not given the oppor-
tunity to tell some man, woman, or child about
Jesus. God sends these to my humble home by day
and by night for the express purpose of hearing His
Word, and He so blesses my words that I have suc-
ceeded in gaining a number of souls for His king-
dom. Some of the older members of our church who
are not able to read come to me after their working
hours that I may read to them from the Bible. Thus
Jesus enables me to work in His vineyard even
though I am’sick and often confined to my bed of
pain. And if none come to see me, I can still work
for the spreading of Christ’s kingdom by praying
for His cause.”

This, Christian lady is truly a home missionary,

is she not? What if many more of us were thus con- .

cerned about sharing our joy in the Savior with

others. Should not a like passion for winning

souls for Christ dwell in every Christian’s heart?
F. J. L.

The Largest Lutheran Missions in
’ the World.

In the Lutheran Year-book of Foreign Missions,
published in Leipzig, Germany, under the editor-
ship of Dr. W. Gerber, complete statistics of all
Lutheran Foreign Missions are given. It will be
interesting to know that the mission of the Rhenish
Society in the Dutch East Indies is listed as haying

a baptized membership of 333,145, which makes it
without doubt the largest foreign mission in the
world. It can hardly, however, be called a distinc-
tively Lutheran mission, though perhaps predomi-
nantly so. Many of its missionaries are confes-
sionally Reformed.

The largest all-Lutheran mission in the world
is that of the United Lutheran Church in the
Telugu country of India, which reports a baptized
membership of 140,000, and the next largest are
those of the Gossner Society in Chota Nagpur,
India, with 118,000 baptized members, and of the
Norwegian Missionary Society in Madagascar, with
101,000. — P. B. N. L.C.

Automobiles and Missions.

However different in other respects, there is in
our day an intimate relationship between these two:
motor-cars and mission-work.

“T could do much more mission-work and could
take on two more preaching-stations if I could only
use my car more,” said one of our pastors to me on
my synodical tour.

“Tow is that?” I asked. “What prevents you
from using your car?”

“Lack of funds,” was the reply. He explained
that his salary, out of which he had to pay his car
allowance, did not permit him to spend more on the
car and on mileage than he was already paying.
Out of a salary of £200 per annum he paid a mileage
of over five thousand miles and kept his wife and
family.

“How can you possibly do it?” I asked, well
aware of the fearful inroads my twelve thousand
miles of annual mileage make into my income.

“Well,” he said, “my wife gives music lessons
and manages to contribute sufficient to my purse, so
that we can make ends meet. But I am prevented
from extending my field, not for lack of time or
strength, but because I cannot increase my mileage
without neglecting my duty towards my family. As
it is, part of my wife’s earnings is used for defray-
ing my expenses in connection with the service of
the church.”

Allen Respekt/ These dear people are making
sacrifices for the Church which far outweigh and
surpass the great sacrifices of wealthy people, who
but give of their abundance.

But there are other lessons in this. Our people
should see more and more the importance of modern
inventions for the development of the Church. They