The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 98

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98

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Ways and Means to Help Missions.

“I should like to be assigned a special mission
task. Could you mention some special mission-
work that a person of moderate means could take
over as his particular care?” Thus a recent letter
to the Editor.

We are pleased to notice the warm spot this
Christian has in his heart for missions. (Or it
may be a “she” for all we know, since the name
did not indicate whether the inquirer was a man or
a woman.) We know from experience that, when
a person makes himself responsible for a certain
task, he will take greater interest in the work and
very probably do more than if he did not have the
special assignment.

We shall be pleased
in the following to make
a few suggestions in an-
swer to the above in-
quiry. :

I. Prayer.

First of all comes
prayer. Jesus tells us
Christians, one and all:
“Pray ye the Lord of the
harvest that He may
send forth laborers into
His harvest.” And He
bids us pray: “Thy king-
dom come.” Prayer must
be the life-giving power
behind every missionary
endeavor if it is to be suc-
cessful. Ifthe Lord with-
holds His blessing, all our work, even our mission-
ary work, will be in vain.

By all means, pray for our missions. Pray for
laborers, pray that God may bless the labors of the
laborers. Yes, be zealous in prayer.

II. Adopting a Child.

Jesus, while on earth, took a great interest in
_ children, and His followers should do likewise. He
tells us: “Suffer the little children to come unto
Me and forbid them not, for of such is the king-
dom of God.” He expresses His severest displeasure
with those who offend children and stand in the

way of their coming to Him.
Now, why not make yourself responsible for the
care of a little orphan child in the Foreign Mission
field or in the homeland? We understand that

five dollars will keep a child a whole month in
China or India, possibly even less. And in our
Colored Missions we also have such poor orphans
that are in need of our help. A letter addressed to
Dr. F. Brand, 2637 Winnebago St., St. Louis, Mo.,
or to the Board for Colored Missions, 3558 S. Jef-
ferson Ave., St. Louis, Mo., will bring you par-
ticulars. What do you think of this way to help
our missions to bring souls to the feet of Jesus?
Does it not appeal to you?

III. The Native Student.

One important objective of all our missions is
to establish a force of native mission-workers in all
mission-fields. All things being equal, a Chinaman
prefers a Chinese pastor; a Negro would rather

A Missionary Society that has Subsidized a Native Catechist in India
for a Number of Years.

have a spiritual teacher of his own race. In order
that the Church may strike deep roots in mission-
fields, a native mission force is a necessity. And
when the Church, by furnishing its own missionary
force, has become self-propagating, it may be ex-
pected to become self-supporting also in the not-
distant future. And upon self-support will follow
in due time the stage of self-government. To bring
about these desirable objectives in our various mis-

sion-fields, we must rear a competent, faithful, self-

sacrificing native force of laborers. We suppose
that the annual cost of training and maintaining
a student preparing to become a mission-laborer is
from $80 to $125. The income from an endowment
fund of $2,000—$2,500 would be enough to keep
a native student perpetually. Write to above
addresses.