The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 28

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

28
his wife’s health. A number of confirmation
classes have been formed on the field. Pastor

Mueller has a class of thirty catechumens; Pastor
Werling is also instructing a class. A women’s class
has been begun at one of the Hankow chapels. At
Wanhsien there is a class of fifteen, of whom seven
are being prepared for confirmation. In Hankow
another catechumen class is being instructed be-
sides those mentioned above. Rey. Klein has a
regular attendance of fifty-seven in his catechumen
class. Rev. Mueller is conducting services regularly
an @ prison every Saturday. The seminary students
are given much regular opportunity to preach to
large audiences at the San Hsin Kai Chapel.
Several exploration trips were recently made by
missionary workers into country districts with
promising results. At the dedication of the new
seminary in Hankow the students sang “Lord Jesus
Christ, with Us Abide.” The congregation sang
“Now Thank We All Our God” and “Christ, Thou
the Champion of the Band who Own.” The ded-
icatory services were attended by a large and at-
tentive audience. — The missionaries are in good
health, and the military conditions at all our sta-
tions are peaceful.

An “Expensive” Mission.— Messiah Mission
was founded at Inwood-on-Hudson, New York City,
in 1916 and was subsidized by the Atlantic District,
Missouri Synod, till October, 1932. In the first
year the mission was housed in a vacant store under
the elevated railroad, the next two years in another
store under the elevated railroad; the following
two years it had its home in a kosher meat market;
the next three or four years it was located in a
vacant store nine feet and eight inches wide, from
which it moved to make room for a coal dealer;
the next three years it was housed in another store,
now turned into a confectionery. In 1927 a “church
house” was completed. Since the mission moved
into its real home, it has enjoyed a fine growth and
has now become a self-sustaining congregation.
Its pastor during the past ten years has been the
indefatigable Rev. F. P. Wilhelm. Humanly speak-
ing, Messiah would have become a self-sustaining
congregation years ago if it had had its own home.
Moral: Let us remember our Church Extension
Fund with our contributions.

Buffalo Institutional Missions. — Our institu-
tional mission-workers in Buffalo regularly visit
twenty-two institutions. Last year they visited
these institutions 808 times and ministered to 7,468
patients and inmates. They aided fifty-two pris-
oners, made twenty-two calls at their homes, and

held 209 interviews with officials and others in their
behalf. They looked up 117 missionary prospects
in their homes, received seventy-one at their office,
and referred five families and eight’ individuals to
local churches. They conducted 259 services in in-
stitutions and gave 114 periods of instruction. They
communed 332 persons and baptized forty-two;
they conducted sixteen funerals and solemnized two
marriages. They distributed 16,004 copies of Chris-
tian literature, including 808 copies of the Bible or
its parts. No fewer than 542 persons were provided
with clothing, 111 with lodging and meals, and
fifteen families were aided for longer periods.
Twelve jobs were secured for men and women,
2,642 Christmas presents were distributed, mostly
in institutions, thirty-nine families were provided
with Christmas dinners, eleven Thanksgiving baskets
were carried out, and 746 people were remembered
with gifts at Eastertide.— Much was also done
along child-welfare lines. Eighty-five children were
aided during the year, homes were found for ten,
127 visits were made at homes of needy children,
206 interviews were held, and sixty contacts were
made with child-welfare agencies. — Three persons
were received in the old people’s home. The chaplain
made seventy sick-calls in the home and conducted
services there every Sunday and holiday. In the
hospice twenty transients were accommodated with
rooms, thirty-two were given night lodging, and
thirty-three meals were served. — Our readers can
see from these statistics that the days of an institu-
tional missionary are busy days, and they can also
sense that countless stories of misery and destitu-
tion, of spiritual and physical need, are behind these
figures. Thank God that we are privileged to help
relieve much of this want! May the simple, but
touching story told in the above lines awaken many
among us to give a helping hand to those in need!

Our Omaha Colored Mission. — Pastor Weber
writes us that an increased interest in the colored
mission is being shown by our white Lutherans.
Our colored people were invited to attend the New
Year’s Eve services at the First Lutheran Church.
A general meeting in the interest of our mission is
planned by the Lutheran Welfare Society of Omaha,
and the intention is to have a member of the
Colored Mission Board present as speaker. The
various aid societies are helping the colored mission
in a financial way. Pastor Weber reports that the
services of the colored people are being held at the
home of Mrs. McIntosh. The average attendance is
about twenty, and strangers are present in every
service.