The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 93

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER | 93

Brazil. — There are at present about five hun-
dred missionaries (including wives) of various
Protestant missionary societies working in Brazil.
The native Christian staff numbers 713, of whom
250 are ordained men. The Protestants have 750
organized churches among the natives of Brazil,
with 122,000 communicant members, not counting
the 350,000 members of the German Evangelical
Church and the 10,000 members of our Church in
‘the southern states. The present population of
Brazil is more than forty million. There are said
to be literally thousands of towns, and even cities,
where the Gospel is never heard. The vast hinter-
land along the banks of the Amazon is practically
unreached.

American Missionaries in Foreign Fields. —
A total of 7,809 American missionaries are now sta-
tioned in eighty-seven foreign countries. Nearly
one-half of these are located in China, India, and
Japan. China has 1,846 American missionaries ;
India, 1,315; Japan, 515.

Tuscany, Italy. — In a village of Tuscany 110
heads of families have left the Roman Church, have
formed an organization, and are now asking Prot-
estants to give them a pastor.

The Roman Catholic Church in China. — The
Roman Catholic Church has obtained a strong foot-
hold in China, where it has labored, often violently
persecuted, since A. D. 1246. Its foreign missionary
staff, of all ecclesiastical degrees, consists by the
latest statistics of 2,582 persons. The present
Chinese church-membership is given at 2,502,979.
During 1930 conversions and baptisms numbered
50,086. No fewer than six of its clergy were mur-
dered by bandits. Thirty-six of its priests and ten
nuns were taken captive by brigands and held for a
longer or shorter period of time. Fifteen of these
were still in captivity in December last. The Cath-
olic Church conducts 13,597 educational institu-
tions, among which are three universities. It has
over 4,500 elementary schools. The number of
pupils and students is 286,132. In its 347 or-
phanages the Roman Catholic Church has about
19,000 inmates. All told, it operates some 1,255
hospitals, hospices, and dispensaries. In nine print-
ing houses it produces most of its literature. — Fz.

Korea.— Within the past forty years a thousand
Christian churches have been established in Korea.
Christianity has probably, all told, a half-million
adherents in this country. The Koreans contributed
over a million dollars to their churches. When the
extreme poverty of these people is considered, this
amount is very large. The Sunday-schools are at-

tended by 220,000 pupils and the adult Bible classes
by 110,000 men and women. The total population
of Korea is 20,0000,000, so that only one fortieth
of the people are as yet Christians.

King Prajadhipok Celebrates. — When Evan-
gelical Christians prepared to celebrate the hun-
dredth anniversary of mission-work in Siam in a
plain fashion, King Prajadhipok called upon the
missionaries to arrange for a great celebration. He
even placed his royal garden at their disposal for
this purpose and took part in the celebration him-
self by addressing the missionaries in a most friendly
fashion. Since Siam, which is a little bigger than
Germany and has a population of 10,000,000, has
only twenty-five Evangelical missionaries and about
16,000 Christians, the friendship of the King is all
the more notable. — Australian Kirchenblatt.

One of the “Uttermost Parts.” — With Tibet,
the regions of Peru and Brazil drained by the head-
waters of the Amazon have up to a few years ago
formed the last two regions of the world tightly
closed to the Gospel. During the last two years the
attitude of the Amazonian Indians has changed,
their hostility and distrust has been overcome, and
the beginning of Christian missions among them
has been made. Here and there in this vast region,
missionaries are itinerating up and down the thou-
sands of miles of waterways and bringing the Gospel
of Jesus to people that had never heard it before.
And this work is bringing results; for 645 converts
have been brought into the Church, and little
groups of Christians are forming themselves where
the missionaries have been.

1,350 Years Ago. — About that long ago
Gregory the Great made an appeal to Christian
Africa to help evangelize heathen England. He
wrote to Eubogius in Alexandria, Egypt, as fol-
lows: “The English race, situated in the far corner
of the earth, has up to now been steeped in unbelief,
worshiping idols of wood and stone. With your aid
I haye sent a monk there, and letters from him tell
us that he is at work. He is doing mighty works
among the English, with those who have gone with
him. At Christmas more than 10,000 English were
baptized. I write you this so you may know what
your prayers and help are doing at the world’s end.”

Church-Building. — A New York builder claims
that the building of churches in the United States’
requires the labor of 90,000 men for every working
day in the year. It is also claimed by the same man
that $180,000,000 is expended every year for labor
in the building of churches.