The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 158

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

158

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Parish School Achievements. — Among the 161
eighth-grade graduates of Iowa County the second
and fourth places were won by pupils from the Lu-
theran parish schools. The averages were 96.8 and
94.6 per cent. In the Iowa County spelling contest
for national-championship honors a pupil from -the
Lutheran School captured fifth place from about 50
of the county’s best spellers.

Towa District Messenger.

18,000 Deaf Children. — There are at least
18,000 deaf children in our-country. Of these about
17,000 are of school age. It is supposed that there
are about 250 deaf children in our Synodical Con-
ference. Our Lutheran Institute for the Deaf at
Detroit is the only Protestant school for deaf chil-
dren in the United States. It is open to all; in fact,
it is the Synodical Conference’s Christian school for
its Children of Silence. The faculty of this school
is wholly Lutheran. Two new members have recently
been added to the faculty. May God bless the
teachers and pupils of this school!

A Helpful Mission. — Last year the Lutheran
Immigrant Mission of the Missouri Synod in New
York helped 6,238 immigrants and aliens in some
way or other. Its representatives met 152 ships
during that time, greeted 3,164 immigrants upon
their arrival, and helped them by word and deed
upon their way to their final destination, conducting
them to railroad-stations, ships, hotels, and lodging-
places. ‘The missionary made 1,198 pastoral and
bedside visits on Ellis Island, and 475 immigrants
(special cases) were discharged to the care of our
missionary by the immigration inspectors, who held
our workers responsible for their welfare. The office
of this helpful mission received and sent 7,629 let-
ters, cards, and telegrams and handled $100,261.59
in the interest of these immigrants during 1930.

Our Missions in China.— The Chinese angry
dragon, the Yangtze, for weeks has been raging up
and down its valley for hundreds of miles, destroy-
ing lives by hundreds of thousands and property by
millions. Our mission-stations are in the heart of
the devastated region, and it is probable that our
missionaries and native Christians have lost all their
earthly possessions. But we thank God that our
missionaries and their families are unharmed; for
just at the time the flood began to rage our workers
were attending a conference on the mountains at
Kuling, where through the kindness of our Walther
Leaguers we have a number of summer houses. But,
alas! we have no right to hope that our native

Christians in Hankow, Ichang, and Shasi, nor that

our chapels, schools, and residences of missionaries
have fared similarly well. Three thousand dollars
already have been put at the disposal of our mis-
sionaries for relief work, and plans are in the
making to send further relief. Other relief agencies
are functioning with great efficiency, among them
particularly the American Red Cross and our
American Government.—It is probable that the
flood will not cause any change in the time of depar-
ture of our new workers going to China, though it is
likely that they will stay in Shanghai or Kuling for
some time after their arrival, where they can devote
themselves to language-study till the time arrives
for them to proceed to their several stations.

Vigorous in Missions. — The Church of the
Lutheran Brethren is a small body of twenty-nine
congregations with 2,000 communicant members.
It was founded thirty-one years ago as a protest
against the alleged worldliness of the other Nor-
wegian Lutheran bodies. It has always been noted
for its missionary zeal and high giving per capita. It
has a mission in China with eight mission-workers
and one in the Sudan with about the same number
of missionaries. This body is also very active in the
Home Missions field. Besides, it supports a Bible-
school with over a hundred students and an old
people’s home.

A Ringing Appeal. — President Janssen of the
Oregon and Washington District recently sent the
following appeal to all the pastors and teachers of
his District: “Dear Brother: — Ten years ago we
prayed: ‘O God, give us more boys for our colleges.’
And God gave us boys — hundreds of them, till our
colleges bulged out. Again we cried: ‘Give us money
to enlarge our colleges.’ And He gave us money —
millions of dollars. This year we prayed: ‘Lord, give
us fields for the many candidates.’ And He opened
a door for every one; not one stands idle. And
now — what? Send less students? Close some of
our colleges? God forbid. As in other years, so in
the coming weeks we want to scan the list of our
boys to see who is fit to enter our colleges, and then
do our best to get them there. ‘Lord, I will not draw:
back from Thy work. ”

Protestant Churches and Missions in Brazil. —
“The Protestants in Brazil number about 300,000:
according to a German missionary magazine, of
whom about 250,000 are credited to the Germans.
Regular mission work has been carried on for more:
than a quarter of a century by the Southern Method-
ists, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, English Con-
gregationalists, Swedish Baptists, and the Missouri