The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 151

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 151

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Two Young Missionaries Ordained
and Commissioned.

On the evening of Sunday, August 31, two new
missionaries were commissioned for work in China,
Candidates W. Werling, of New Haven, Ind., and
LL. Buuck, of Fort Wayne, Ind. The solemn service
of commissioning was held in Zion Church, Fort
Wayne, Rey. P. Dannenfeldt, pastor. The capacious
church was filled, and the general interest indicated
by this large attendance must have been an encour-
aging feature for the young workers and their wives.
Surely the turning out of our good people in such
large number to witness the commissioning of our
messengers to heathen countries indicates deep in-
terest on their part in the work of Foreign Missions

_ and must assure our workers that their fellow-

Christians are beseeching the Lord of the Church to
bless and protect their work as well as themselves.
In such a lively interest our Board of Foreign Mis-
sions cannot but find a strong encouragement and
incentive to lengthen the cords and provide for the
enlarging of the Lord’s tabernacle.

Two addresses were held upon this occasion. In
the German sermon of Pastor C. B. Preuss, of Deca-
tur, Ind., the young workers were encouraged ever
to hold fast that they were called by the Lord Him-
self and in this thought to find strength in their
arduous work and comfort in the days of trial. In
a short English address the editor of the PIioNEER
emphasized the fact that China, too, was intended
by the Lord of the Church to be a field for Christian
mission-endeavor, that among its millions God had
His chosen, and that for this reason our missionaries
were sure of the Lord’s help and blessing in their
faithful efforts. :

The actual commissioning was done by Pastor
P. Dannenfeldt by authority of the Boardof Foreign
Missions. He was assisted by Pastor August Buuck,
the father of one of the young missionaries, Pastor
Ph. Ziemendorf, the pastor of Missionary Werling,
City Missionary E. H. Weber, Prof. Wm. Burhop,
Rev. Fred Wambsganss, and the two preachers.

The young missionaries and their wives left Fort
Wayne for their long journey and voyage on Sep-
tember 7 and took the boat for China from San
Francisco on September 13. May God grant them
a safe journey to their field of labor, hold His pro-
tecting hand over them during these troublous
days. in far-off China, and abundantly bless their
efforts in His service and that of their benighted
fellow-men !

In this connection we should like to append
a few remarks.

China has been tortured with civil wars for
a number of years, as we all know, much property
has been damaged, and many lives have been lost;
however, there can be no doubt that our newspapers
have been guilty of much exaggeration in reporting
on happenings in China and have often generalized
conditions which were actually only local in char-
acter. China is a very large country, and what is
true of conditions in North China may be wholly
contrary to actual facts in South China; just as
a statement of crop conditions in California could
not apply to New England. We Americans should
greatly resent it if Europeans would claim, in view
of a recent lynching in a city of Indiana, that there
was a general uprising among us against the colored
people of our country. Highly colored reports of
Communist gains in many instances are to be
attributed to Red propaganda. Many other alleged
Red triumphs, reports of which appeared in our
own papers, are just as fictitious as was the alarm-
ing announcement that Hankow, the great trade
center in interior China and the headquarters of the
Western Army of the national government, had
fallen into the hands of the Communists; for later
we learned that the report had nothing to do with
Hankow, but concerned a small, obscure town by the
name of Kanchu, miles away from the great city on
the Yangtze.

On the other hand, it is not to be denied that the
national government of China is intensely national-
istic, and the jingo motto “China for Chinamen
only !” is nurtured by it as far as it dare do so with-
out coming in conflict with European and American
governments. The national government of China
knows full well that its recognition by the Western
governments will depend very largely upon its
proper attitude to foreigners within its boundaries.
While Europe and America may not demand special
favors for Christian missions and missionaries, they
will insist upon the inviolability and safety of their
persons and their property.

America and Europe will insist that the Nation-
alists earnestly try to put a stop to banditry and no
doubt will strongly urge that further and continued
recognition will be largely dependent upon the
Nationalist efforts along these lines.

Let us not forget that the antiforeign spirit is
not a development of recent years, but the normal
state of the Chinese mind, though it has taken on
new forms, used new methods, and become more

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