The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 125

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

125

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The Fakir’s Grave.

The power of the fakir extends beyond death.
When he dies, he is generally buried in some con-
spicuous public place, where the faithful may visit
his grave and bring their offerings. Long after the
people have forgotten his name they will continue
to make their pilgrimages to his grave, decorate it
with flags and lights, and thereon place their gifts.
It is said that the flapping of a flag placed on the
grave of a fakir will be accounted as a prayer to
the credit of him who placed it there — every single
flap a prayer! Such being the case, can it be sur-
prising that the graves of the fakirs are decorated
with many colored bits of cloth that’ wave with every
breath of air? F.J.L.

Items of Missionary Interest.
(By the Eprror.)

Latest Statistics. — Our Colored Missions now
number 6,930 baptized members. This is a gain
of 1,045 members in the last two years and shows
a growth of nearly 18 per cent. Surely we have
good reason to thank God for having so richly
blessed the labors of our faithful missionaries.

A Fine Example. — The congregations affiliated
with our Synodical Conference and located in Sibley
County, Minn., intend to observe the quadricenten-
nial of the Augsburg Confession in a joint service.
The offering to be lifted in this anniversary service
is to be used to erect a chapel somewhere on our
Colored Mission field.

Piney Woods,’ Miss. — The work in the Piney
Woods school gives promise of such good results
that Rev. George A. Schmidt expects to locate there
permanently this fall.

A District’s Extensive Home Missions. —'The
South Nebraska District of the Missouri Synod is
subsidizing thirty-seven workers in church and
school. ‘This includes the seven new men who are
just entering the field. The annual Home Mission
budget of the District is $27,000 for salaries and
$3,000 for church extension purposes, @ total of
$30,000. :

The Home Missions of Another District. —
During the past two years the Central District has
opened nine new Home Mission stations and greatly
enlarged. three others. A number of stations are
no longer-in need of subsidy, and not a few have
so grown that their subsidies could be reduced. No

less than fifty-nine stations are under the fostering
care of the District Home Mission Board. The
annual budget is over $50,000.

Lutheran Women’s Missionary Endeavor. —
To date ninety-two ladies’ aids and women’s mis-
sionary societies of the Central District have joined
the Endeavor Movement, and the outlook is bright
that others will soon adopt the program of this
enterprise, whose main purpose is to increase among
our people knowledge of the glorious work of mis-
sions. The Lutheran Women’s Missionary Endeavor
Quarterly, under the enthusiastic editorship of Rev.
Fred Wambsganss, the aggressive chairman of the
Central District Home Mission Board, has provided
the inspirational and educational features necessary
for this Endeavor Movement. ‘The mite-boxes dis-
tributed among the members of the congregational
women’s societies and by them among others have
supplied enough pennies to erect a portable chapel
in Frankfort, Ind., at a cost of about $3,500, and
when the Central District recently held its conven-
tion, the Mite-box Fund was able to give $2,015 for
chapels and medical centers in our India Missions
field. This fall the Mite-box Fund will probably
have another $3,500 gathered for a portable chapel
in Willoughby, O., and by Christmas it is hoped
enough pennies will have been gathered to build a
combination chapel and school in our Colored Mis-
sions field in Alabama. Here again we have an
instance of what great things may be done by co-
operation. We wish that many such Lutheran
women’s missionary endeavor movements might
arise in our Synodical Conference.

Giving in Mission-Congregations.— The average
contribution of a communicant member of one of
the many mission-congregations of the Southern
Nebraska District, Missouri Synod, is $26 a year.
Mark well, this includes all communicant members,
men, women, and children. In some mission-con-

. gregations the average contribution is much higher.

In one small congregation of the District the
average annual contribution is almost fifty dollars.
How do the contributions of our old congregations
compare with the gifts of these new members? —
We attended the convention of the Northern Illinois
District a few weeks ago and found the contribu-
tions of the mission-congregations similarly liberal.
Upon the whole, we go safe in assuming that ordi-
narily our mission-congregations are earnestly striv-

ing to become self-supporting as soon-ias ‘possible

and for this reason show a higher average’ in’ their”
contributions than do our older” churches.-** 77% ~~

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