The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 185

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

185

as they sit perched on the tongue of the springless
bandy that crawls along at snail-pace, and at night
you will see them along the roadside preparing their
frugal dish or sleeping huddled under the wagon
with their heads well covered against the deadly dew.

Many people of South India also go to Ceylon
for work. Some will settle in the tea and rubber
estates, while most of them will remain in Colombo,
the modern metropolis of Ceylon. Here they will do
everything, from office work to drawing the jinri-
kisha. Some Christians from nearly every one of
our congregations in the Tinnevelly District are
working in Ceylon. At present six of our Anaikarai
congregation people are in Colombo. The wives,
who usually remain behind, then return to their
parents’ homes. Often these are in a distant village,

had faithfully instructed them in the Catechism.
This regular instruction must of necessity cover
several years ; for nothing is so necessary as thorough
instruction and regular review for such converts as
come direct from Hinduism. Even as Christians
they daily come in contact with Hindu customs and
manners, in fact, they are always surrounded by
them and are ever exposed to the temptations of
their Hindu friends and relatives. In the review
and examinations held with them the regularity and
thoroughness of the instruction soon became evident.
It was a real pleasure to note that the people had
come to understand the Lutheran and therefore
Scriptural teaching about sin, grace, prayer, and the
blessings and benefits of Baptism. They had studied
well and made a fine confession of their faith. On
April 5 these twenty-four adults were baptized,

Anaikarai Congregation.

and then attendance at our divine services automati-
cally drops. :

However, most of the inhabitants remain in the
village. After the harvest is over in their vicinity,
many with family and goods migrate to other places
for six weeks or two months to work in the harvest
that is there just beginning. When they return and
find it impossible to get any work, they will be given
to loafing, slandering, and all that goes with it.

Since such are some of the conditions, it is not
surprising that attendance at divine services is some-
what irregular. ‘

Though conditions like these play also an im-
portant part in our Anaikarai congregation, we are
glad to note definite progress. Our congregation is
small, but it is steadily growing. Easter Day was

a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving for Anaikarai. -

Twenty-four adults were baptized. Our teacher-
catechist Suvishamuthu and the previous catechists

bringing the total of baptized members to more

than fifty. May they increase in faith in the

Lord Jesus and in love toward one another!
Herm. J. Meyer,

Vallioor, Tinnevelly District, South India.

How One Congregation Did
Personal Mission-Work.

We take this from a congregational bul-
letin published by one of the churches in a
large Ohio city: — ; :

“We have always maintained that our con-
gregation was in a position to do mission-work
and that, if we wanted to justify our existence,
we should rise to the opportunity for personal
mission-work that is presented to us. An effort was
made to have all our people do some personal mis-
sion-work, so that mission-festival day would see our
congregation not only hearing about mission-work
and contributing for mission-work, but actually
doing some personal mission-work. A personal
letter had been sent out to a great many of our
people — families, young people, individual mem-
bers, or however we may have found them. In these
letters we supplied the name and address of-some
particular family or individual, with an outline of
the contact that had already been established with.
those persons, and then asked our people to visit
the parties assigned to them and to endeavor to
lead them into closer connection with our church.
One hundred and seventy-nine personal letters were
thus sent out. ‘To be sure, we could not reach
just every one of our members and could not assign
some special person to just every one of our com-