The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 52

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52

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

At the beginning of the year St. Paul’s adopted the
budget system. Every member was asked to pledge
what he would give to the church this year. The
result showed that every member promised to double
or even treble his former contribution. That is
fine. The congregation voted to increase its former
contributions to be sent to the Board 50 per cent.

But not only in this respect have the members
shown a commendable spirit, but also in other ways.
One day, after a missionary call, the writer was sur-
prised to find a new fence around the parsonage and
cemetery. Because of lack of funds this had not
been attended to before. However, it was learned
that a sawmill near by was moving out on account
of high water and that it was selling lumber at a
greatly reduced price. Taking advantage of this
opportunity, Brother Laurent got busy, funds were
raised to procure the lumber, and Brother Porter
donated the posts. In a short while the lumber and
the posts were hauled to the place, and all the men
and boys of the congregation were hammering away.
We now have a good fence which is soon to receive
a coat of whitewash. A short time before this work
was done, a tin roof was put on the parsonage by
the members.

May the Lord ever increase our love for Him
and His kingdom! C. P. T.

Getting a New Mission under Way.

It was on the 30th of August, 1929, that the
present missionary for the first time was permitted

to see Plainview, Tex., the place where he was to ~

carry on the business of the kingdom of God.
A new field was being opened by the Mission Board,
and a new man was entering, in fact, a candidate.

Im a day or so the missionary and his wife settled
in a home. Then gradually, as the days went by,
further steps were taken to organize a mission in
Plainview. The missionary then began to walk the
streets to find a place in which a mission might be

‘started. He walked and talked, walked and talked,

and “jewed,’” but got nowhere. In fact, there was
no building to be had which might serve as a build-
ing in which to start a mission. The buildings

which we might have had were out of our reach

because of the high rent demanded. The missionary

“was just about ready to rent a theater to open our

mission in or give up as hopeless the task of finding

a building. It was then that he seemingly found
an answer to his prayers and paid a visit of respect

and business to the mayor of the city. Before this,
the missionary said, I had already come in contact
with the county judge, hoping to get the court-house
as a building in which we might start. My inter-
view with the mayor of the city brought some prac-
tical results. Usually the city auditorium was
rented out for revivals and other religious gather-
ings at $10 a day. When I told him who I was and
what I was up against, he let me have the building
for $5 a Sunday.

Our first service in Plainview was conducted
on the 6th of October, 1929. The attendance was
forty-seven. The following Sunday the attendance
dropped to fourteen because of bad weather. In the
mean time a cold spell had set in, and we could
not use that building without having heat in it.
But to have heat in that buildings would mean $10
a Sunday more. So even our city auditorium was
going to cost us $15 a Sunday. The missionary felt
that that was too much money and again dropped
the services in Plainview.

What now? Here I was in this city without
a building in which to worship. Daily I took the
matter to God in prayer, hoping in the mean time
something might turn up. And it did. A visitor
came one day, a pastor from a different synod, who
advised me to leave the city, since both of us could
not work this town successfully. . . .

In the first week of December I received news
that the Episcopal chapel could be secured every
Sunday afternoon. I immediately “nabbed” that
opportunity. We secured the use of that chapel for
every Sunday afternoon at $5 a Sunday. I felt that
was “steep,” but it was the best I could do. On the
8th of December, 1929, our second start was made
to have services in Plainview. We had services
regularly every Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock. This
is not the best time to have services in a new mis-
sion-place, but. it was the best we could do, and with
the help of some of my “live-wire” members we made
the best of it.

The work was never encouraging. But with
my few loyal “Lutherans” I carried on, laboring
and praying. In the spring the attendance gradu-
ally began to increase. Some more Lutheran fam-
ilies moved in, and that “boosted” our attendance
considerably. Usually the attendance stood well
over thirty, whereas before it seldom had gone
beyond twenty-two to twenty-five. We now decided
to organize ourselves into a congregation. A consti-
tution was written, and on May 25, 19380, it was
adopted and was signed by seven voting members. _