The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 130

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130 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Twenty-Fifth Report of the Board
for Colored Missions.
July, 1928, to July, 1930.

Our Lutheran Church is this year celebrating
the quadricentennial of the Augsburg Confession.
As we observe this anniversary, humility, gratitude,
and a zeal for missions fill our hearts.

We acknowledge and confess that we are not
worthy of being possessors of this glorious treasure
before others and that we have in no way deserved it.
Because of our many sins we have deserved the very
opposite. This precious jewel, the Augsburg Con-
fession, is a token of pure grace and an outright
gift. For this reason we owe God our humble
thanks. But the knowledge that the Augsburg
Confession, this rich treasure, is an unmerited gift
must awaken in us the desire to impart this jewel
to others; it awakens in us a zeal for missions.

It is now fifty-three years ago that the Ey. Luth.
Synodical Conference began to communicate the
precious contents of the Augsburg Confession to the
Negroes of our country. God has blessed our mis-
sion among the Negroes. As a result of divine
blessing we have to-day sixty-two colored Lutheran
congregations and fifteen preaching-stations. In
these congregations and preaching-stations thou-
sands of colored Lutherans are this year thanking
and praising God for His precious gift of the Augs-,
burg Confession.

We have also experienced God’s blessings in the
past two years. Two years ago there were 5,885
baptized members in the spiritual care of our mis-
sionaries; to-day the number of baptized members
is 6,980. ‘This shows a net increase of 1,045 per-
sons. The growth, stated in percentages, was 1714
per cent. in the past two years. What this increase
of 1714 per cent. means may best be realized by
means of a comparison. Though comparisons are
said to be odious, yet when they have the purpose
of making a matter plain, they are permissible.
Here is the comparison we wish to make: Our
Missouri Synod grew by 3 per cent. in the last two
years, while our Colored Missions enjoyed an in-
crease of almost 18 per cent.

This steady and truly astounding growth of our

_ Negro Missions clearly shows that the Lord is with
"us in our work. To Him be praise, honor, and

thanks for the blessings which He has so richly
poured out upon our enterprise and upon the sowing
d planting of our missionaries.

The growth of our Negro Missions as indicated

by numbers, of course, does not fully show the whole.

richness of divine blessings brought to men by our
work. God’s blessings have been experienced by
thousands and tens of thousands not indicated by
these figures. For instance, there are the 2,500 un-
baptized pupils in our mission-schools, who, though
not enumerated among the 6,930 members of our
Colored Missions, are daily receiving instruction in
God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine pure and taking
this treasure with them into their homes, to their
fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. Then, too,
our services are attended by strangers, and our mis-
sionaries visit many outsiders during the week and
speak to them of.the one thing needful. We may
safely say that about twenty-five thousand persons
are directly or indirectly influenced and benefited
by our Colored Missions. Only the Last Day will
reveal how many souls have been rescued by our
missionaries, though not enumerated in their statis-

tical reports.
New Mission-Stations.

In the past two years, work was begun at the
following seven places: Bashi, Ala.; Union Springs,
Ala.; New Bern, N.C.; Baltimore, Md.; Piney
Woods, Miss.; Chester, Pa.; Kirkwood, Mo. Work
might have been begun at other places, in Texas,
Oklahoma, Alabama, etc., had men and means been
at the disposal of the Board. The station at Elon
College, N. C., has been definitely discontinued ;
the few members there have been advised to attend
services at Greensboro, which is near by.

How Our Missions Came to Mississippi.

Twenty years ago C. P. Thompson, a young can-
didate for the ministry, was sent to a place near
Merigold, Sunflower Co., Miss., there to open a
mission-station. However, conditions were so very
discouraging that after a few months the Board
was compelled to transfer him. Some years later
a young colored pastor was called to labor in Gulf-
port, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian, Miss.
This second attempt also proved a failure, and the
missionary was dismissed. Since then the Board
has been waiting for an opportunity to begin work
among the large colored population of the State.
Quite unexpectedly God recently opened the door
of opportunity for us in the very heart of the State.

Winter before last Mr. C. Johann, a member of
the Missouri Synod congregation at Collinsville, Ill.,
came to our Director of Missions, Rev. C. F. Drewes,
to ask him whether we had a Lutheran congrega-
tion in Piney Woods, Miss. He and his brother,
he said, had received a splendid offer to serve there