The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 29

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

A Mountain Mansion and a Mountaineer Making Hominy.

The Southern Mountaineers.— Among the
more than three million mountaineers of the South
there are few churches and schools, little knowledge
of what is going on in the outside world, but still
less knowledge concerning spiritual things. The
few churches are of the emotional type, and little is
the knowledge of religion dispensed by the pastors,
who for the most part are volunteers of little edu-
cation and training. Large portions of the South-
ern mountain country have no religious services
at all. Here would be a Home Mission field which
our Synodical Conference has so far left almost
wholly untouched.

Our Cities as Home Mission Fields. — Rural
emigration in great numbers, foreign immigration,
and the natural increase by birth have made the
great cities of our country challenging Home Mis-
sion problems. Large sections of the working
groups in these cities have become estranged from
the Church, and these working men and women
openly declare, and in a practical way show, that
the church is less attractive to them than the show,
the dancing-hall, the club, the lodge-hall, and
similar social institutions, so-called. While many
of these working people claim that they are not
hostile to the Church, they are, to say the least,
very indifferent. Not a few of the home mission-
aries of the Missouri Synod and the other synods
affiliated with it are trying to meet the challenge of
the cities in an increasing number of places; but
worthy as the work is that is being done, it is only
touching the fringes of the task. The bulk of the
work is not only unfinished; it is barely begun.
The task that confronts the Church —our Church
—in the industrial centers alone is a most stupen-
dous Home Mission problem. ‘To help these mil-
lions of men and women who live in our great and
growing cities, surrounded by the distractions of
life and often face to face with the problem of

gaining a livelihood, —to help these find Christ, .

the only Source of peace and satisfaction, is in-

deed a task beyond our own ability, but not beyond
us if we join hands with God, who is ready to
strengthen us.

Home Mission Opportunities among the Mex-
icans. — The Texas District of the Missouri Synod
has begun work among the Mexicans of the great
State of Texas. And the success that has so far
attended the labors of the missionaries holds out
the promise of a harvest. Since the revolution of
1913 in Mexico, which has only been the fore-
runner of other political upheavals in that poor
country, vast hordes of Mexicans have swarmed into
our country, especially into the mines of Arizona,
the orchards and vineyards of California, and the
ranches of Texas. It is said that to-day an eighth
of Mexico’s population has sought a haven under
the Stars and Stripes. Though many of these new
Americans were brought up under nominally Roman
Catholic auspices, they are practically heathen in
knowledge. Most of them have cast aside whatever
faith they may have had, and their hearts are spir-
itually empty. Unless Christ can be brought into
these empty hearts, the last state of these poor
people will be worse than the first. Our Church
is now reaching a few hundred, possibly even a few
thousand; but there are about three millions of
them in our country. To these Christ, the Savior,
should be preached; and the business of the King
requires haste lest it be too late.

A Suburban School at St. Louis.