The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 189

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

189

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Work among the Mountain’ People
of Virginia.

A new piece of Lutheran mission-work in a
formerly untouched field has recently been attract-
ing considerable attention. The field is a parish
of more than 3,000 mountain people scattered over
a territory a hundred miles in length and fifty miles
in width in Southwest Virginia. The pastor, known
throughout the territory as “the mountain mis-
sionary,” is Rev. Kenneth G. Killinger. Rev. Kil-
linger was born and reared in the territory which
he serves and has for years devoted much of his
time and talent to the service of these people. His
work is supported in part by the Virginia Synod
and in part by the First Lutheran Church of Rich-
mond, of which Dr. J. J. Scherer, president of the
synod, is pastor. Relief work carried on through-
out the mountain district wherever there are families
in need is supported entirely by voluntary contribu-
tions of money and clothing. An interesting phase
of this work is the use to which worn-out clothing
is put. Used clothing not deemed suitable for
further wear is woven into rugs, which are sold for
the benefit of the mountaineers.

Rev. Killinger’s preaching has resulted in the
erection of a church at Mill Creek, a séemingly
almost uninhabited spot in the midst of mountain
ranges, where a congregation of 300 at a week-day
service is not unusual, and in plans for a second
chapel, which is now being built. The rug-weaving
project is carried on in a small building which he
constructed on land that he donated and which
provides part-time occupation for a number of
women and children.

Nation-wide attention was recently called to the
work of the mountain missionary through the pro-
posed establishment of a boys’ training-school at
Konnarock, Va., which will serve the boys of the
mountain families, as the Lutheran School for Girls
at Konnarock is taking care of the other sex.

Heathen Abominations.

Heathen abominations are found wherever people
still walk in the darkness of spiritual ignorance.
To what moral turpitude the race sinks when alien-
ated from God is seen in the aboriginal races of this
country that have not yet come under Christian in-
finence, but still live in the “vain conversation re-
ceived by tradition from their fathers.” Writing to

the A. C. W, Rev. Love of the Kunmunya mission,
Port George, W. A., says: “A few months ago a man
who had three wives lost his baby boy through bron-
chitis. One of the other wives previously had a still-
born child. The father, who was very fond of the
baby that died, conceived the idea that the unfor-
tunate woman who had had the still birth was
responsible for the death of the other baby. He took
his family away to the bush and killed this woman.
I am led to believe that the body was eaten by other
men, not including the husband who did the killing.”
Perhaps few Australians would think it possible that
such savagery could still be practised in this country.
The Rey. Love reports another case which shows how
devoid the uncivilized aboriginals are of all human
feeling. “Following this case came a report that an
old man who was a pensioner at the mission had
been taken away to the bush, carried on the shoulders
of his adult daughter, as he was infirm; and that
out in the bush a daughter and a son made up a fire,
placed a bucket of water beside the old man, and
left him to die according to aboriginal custom. They
tell me.that next year a party will visit the spot,
collect any bones they can find, and convey the bones
to a sacred place for final deposition.” Some people
are asking, Why send missionaries to the heathen?
Well, let them consider only this, that if it had not
been for missionaries coming to our forefathers over
a thousand years ago, we would probably be living on
that same moral plane. St. Peter tells those who had
formerly been heathen, but had through the preach-
ing of the Gospel been won for Christ, that they had
been redeemed from the vain conversation received
by tradition from their fathers with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and
without spot. Even the temporal blessings of Chris-
tianity are great indeed. But greater still are the
eternal blessings which it brings to those who truly
embrace it. — The Australian Lutheran.

Wheat Ridge Christmas Seals.

Our Lutheran Sanitarium at
Wheat Ridge, Colo., is celebrating
its silver jubilee this year. For
twenty-five years the Sanitarium
facilities have been available to
those of our people who have been
afflicted with tuberculosis. 1,579
patients have been cared for during this time.

As the
Lutheran Sanitarium is maintained chiefly by the pro-
ceeds of its annual Wheat Ridge Christmas Seals sale,
a silver jubilee thank-offering of $80,000 is the goal of

the present seals sale. Buy your Wheat Ridge Christ-
mas Seals through the young people of your church or
from the Walther League, 6438 Eggleston Ave., Chi-
cago, Ill.

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