The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 92

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92

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

The Deaconess: Movement.— Among modern
churches the Lutheran Church was the first to see
the importance of training women for church-work.
The first school for the training of such women
workers was at Kaiserswerth, Germany, founded over
ninety years ago. The Lutheran Church to-day has
probably almost 20,000 trained women in religious
work. They are found in every quarter of the globe,
doing duty in schools, hospitals, institutions,
parishes, and are valued in every line of work.
Within the Synodical Conference we have a splendid
corps of about fifty consecrated trained women
filling posts of responsibility at home and abroad.
Earnest, intelligent Christian girls anxious to make
their lives count for something should seriously
consider opportunities offered them as deaconesses.

Church Extension Funds. — Mission boards
realize the great value of church-extension and
building funds. Many a promising mission never
comes to anything just because the funds are lack-
ing to provide it in its infant stage with an adequate
building. The District Home Mission boards there-
fore-put forth strong efforts to enlarge their Church
Extension funds with the needed means to supply
promising missions with funds to build chapels and
schools. Among these District boards there is none
more active in this respect than that of the Atlantic
District. Members of this District have placed at
the disposal of the Atlantic District Home Mission
Board the sum of $94,500, all without interest, with
the exception of an annuity bond of $1,000. Funds
sufficient are always kept on hand to redeem out-
standing bonds on demand. This particular Home
Mission board is expecting to increase its Church
Extension Fund by issuing annuity bonds as soon
as the necessary plans have been completed.

Chicago as a Home Mission Field. — This city
offers one of the greatest Home Mission fields in the
world. No doubt every year thousands of Lutherans
are lost to our Church in Chicago through lack of
a sufficient missionary program and machinery for
keeping in touch with the shifting population of
this great metropolis. Thousands of children in
Chicago are growing up without receiving any re-
ligious training in home or in school. If anywhere,
our churches in the large cities should have aggres-
Sive missionary programs to successfully and sys-

tematically attack the heathenism that surrounds
* them.

Three India Mission Films. — The India Mis-
sion of the United Lutheran Church has completed
three new films of motion-pictures under the titles

“Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic in India,”
“Preparing Indian Youth for Christian Service,”
and “Training Christian Leaders in High School,
Seminary, and College.” These are supplementary
to the films which were previously prepared and
have been shown to many congregations in the
United Lutheran Church in America.

Still in the Hands of Bandits. — Rev. Bert N.
Nelson, missionary of the Norwegian Lutheran
Church to China, is still being held by the Chinese
Communists who captured him more than eighteen
months ago. He is at present in the communist
prison camp at Yang Chia-Gar, Hupeh. He reports
that he is allowed considerable liberty and that of
late he has been served a greater variety of foods.
Under date of January 21, 1932, he writes: “It is
wonderful how God cares for me in every little
detail. I get healthful food, or He makes it so. His
mercy endureth forever. He has through friends
even sent delicacies. I can digest bird-seed or parrot
food (sunflower seeds) or, in fact, anything because
He has made the weak strong. Of late I sleep as
I never have before. . He shelters me so the wind is
mild and rain or snow has not drifted through the
tile more than enough to remind me that I am
under His special protection. Then, above every-
thing else, He has let me keep His Word in a place
where it is not liked and, furthermore, gives me op-
portunity to witness.” — News Bulletin, N. L. C.

Catholic Colored College in New Orleans. —
The Catholics, some years ago, bought the old
buildings of the former colored State high school,
Southern. University, when the institution was re-
moved to Baton Rouge, the State capital. The
Catholics have quietly developed the school since its
purchase, and the former Miss Catherine Drexel,
now a Catholic nun, has furnished the funds to
erect a splendid building on Washington Avenue
near Carrollton Avenue, where the school is to be
telocated.

Advance of Catholicism in Norway. — Accord-
ing to Tidens Tegn the plans to reorganize the
Catholic Church in Norway are going forward as
expected. The number of Catholic priests to be
stationed in Norway will be increased to forty.
There are, according to a report, at the present time
four Norwegian Catholic priests in Norway, and
a fifth one will be added in the summer. Young
Norwegians are now’ being educated as Catholic
priests in other countries and are expected to return
to Norway upon the completion of their studies.

News Bulletin, N. L. C.