The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 74

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72

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Comparative Statistics of Our Missions According to Fields. 1930 and 1931.

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New Orleans, with its 629 baptized members, is still
the largest congregation in our Colored Missions,
and St. Paul’s, New Orleans, still leads with its
communicant membership of 304. Bethlehem, New
Orleans, has the largest day-school enrolment—256 ;
and Mount Zion, New Orleans, and Piney Woods,
Miss., are tied in the largest number of Sunday-
school pupils — 250.

St. Philip’s, St. Louis, leads with forty-three
persons confirmed; Mount Zion, New Orleans, with
eighty-seven persons baptized; St. Philip's, Chi-

cago, with nine marriages. The largest number of.

burials in any one congregation was four, and sey-
eral had that number.

The Editor heartily thanks the Board’s kind
stenographer for these “high spots,” and he feels
assured that the readers will find them very interest-
ing and gratifying. The forty-three confirmations
in St. Philip’s, St. Louis, and the eighty-seven bap-
tisms in Mount Zion, New Orleans, represent long,
arduous, and intensive work, we are sure.

F. J. L.

eo  —__

A Letter from China.

Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Shasi, Hupeh, China.
February 9, 1932.

DEAR FRIENDS IN THE HOMELAND: —
A happy new year to you!

strange to you to get such a greeting close to
[after — Ep.] Easter; but we are living in the New
Year spirit just now, as on February 6 the Chinese
had their New Year according to the old style. By
business men and in governmental offices the calen-
| dar as we know it is used, likewise in making all

business deals that are to’ be considered “legal.”

It might seem

But the people all observe their old lunar year.
Kindly compare this with the calendar used by the
Jews in the Old Testament.

How do the Chinese observe New Year? We
have spoken of that in previous letters, but if we
compare this with the way we prepare for our
Christmas, you may understand it better. A month
or two before New Year-all shops are gaily deco-
rated, and are stocked with all manner of good
things. Just at present the Chinese shops are
showing many things imported from foreign coun-
tries, rather, things they themselves have made in
imitation of things obtainable abroad.

During this time the Chinese shops all close
for at least three days. Those with a bit more
“face” remain closed five days. If possible, they
remain closed for a week, and some do not reopen
until after the fifteenth day of the first month.
Hence during the last days of the old year one must
lay in a supply of food enough to last one for at
least three days in the new year. During these first
three days, if one were to happen upon some one
selling something, one would be sure to find it to be
several times higher than it should be.

You all surely read of the terrible floods that
ravaged and devastated China last year. These
floods destroyed not only the homes of thousands
of people, but also their crops, so that they were
without home and food. There has been famine all
around us for some time. It makes one’s heart
bleed to see many poor people thronging the streets,
barefooted, hair unkempt, filthy and dirty, no place
but the flagstones of the street for a bed and no
cover save their own clothing or a bit of straw.
Within one block as we know it in America one
may see as many as fifty beggars, And the business