The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 69

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

69

“Besides the classes and the school-work men-
tioned above, I teach a Bible class each Tuesday
and Wednesday night at Piney Woods, This class
is composed of members of the junior college as well
as of some adults on the campus not attending

White Congregation at Sullivans Hallow,
Served by Pastor G. A. Schmidt.
The colored man shown in the picture asked Pastor Schmidt to

preach to the colored people there. First service attended by
four colored persons; but many white people came. For the
past year Pastor Schmidt has served this white community.
Services sometimes attended by twice as many as shown on pic-

ture; held outdoors in favorable weather.

school. On nights when committee meetings or
other activities do not keep away those who wish to
attend this Bible class we have approximately thirty-
five persons in attendance. Friday nights a meeting
with the entire student-body and a Sunday-school
teachers’ meeting are held.

“This will give you an idea of the work being
done at Piney Woods. I leave home at eight o’clock
on the four days mentioned, and usually it is nine
o’clock at night and often later when I get home.

“Yesterday, Sunday, was spent as follows: I left

my home in Jackson at nine o’clock and drove to™

Piney Woods for Sunday-school. Sunday-school
lasts about one and a half -hours; for after the
classes have been taught by teachers in the class-
rooms and after I have instructed my Bible class,
the entire Sunday-school assembles in the chapel for
a review of the lesson, which I conduct personally,
making applications and asking questions.
“Following this I had a Communion service with
the Lutherans on the campus from twelve to one
o’clock. This service is held in one of the larger
classrooms, not in the general assembly, for obvious
reasons. After this Communion service I drove to
Sullivans Hollow, where I have Sunday-school and
preach to about sixty white persons. I call atten-
tion here to the fact (as I have done before) that
the Mission Board is paying for this trip of thirty
miles. The people at Sullivans Hollow, as I have

told you, are extremely poor, and there is in the
State of Mississippi no place with a worse reputa-
tion. I have let some of the Board members see
newspaper clippings about the terrible reputation
this place has, a reputation which includes smoking
pistol barrels and a trail of murder and bloodshed.
Yesterday it was a touching sight to see some mem-
bers of the primary Sunday-school class there
(taught by a young lady, living at the Hollow)
stand before the congregation and with closed eyes
and folded hands pray a number of prayers, among
them : —

“Now I wake and see the light;

Lord, Thou hast kept me through the night.

To Thee I lift my voice and pray

That Thou wouldst keep me through the day.

If I should die before ’tis done,

O God, accept me through Thy Son. Amen.

“After Sunday-school and service at the Hollow
I drove back to Piney Woods and got there in time
to gather a few remnants, about 250 persons, for
a sermon which I preached in the chapel at seven
o’clock. At eight o’clock I had another instruction
with two members of my catechumen class who are
somewhat behind the others and then left for home.
I was home about ten o’clock.

“You will note that in this report I have said
nothing about the blind class at Piney Woods nor
about the classes from Grades 1 to 6. It would have —
been altogether impossible for me, with the number
of classes I have and the length of those classes, to
have done anything in those departments were it not

Class Confirmed March 26, 1983.
Five of the class are missing. The lady holding the baby is

the matron of Piney Woods School (not a Lutheran). The
first and the third young men from the left are blind.

for the fact that my brother-in-law, John Rische,
a member of the Seminary class, on enforced vaca-
tion this year, came down here to live with me. He
could find no work in Milwaukee, so he came here to
spend the year. He is teaching in the primary
grades at Piney Woods and is also instructing the
blind class.”