The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 101

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

101

the past. The number of names in our prospect
files is large enough to keep several missionaries
busy should they devote their entire time to the
work. Recognizing the almost unparalleled oppor-
tunities of our congregation, the Ladies’ Aid for
Colored Missions of St. Louis has engaged a can-
didate of theology to do mission-work in this con-
gregation during the coming year. According to
the present outlook this venture should be a means
of adding to our number perhaps fifty souls during
the coming year.

St. Philip’s is well organized to carry on the
work of a fast-growing city congregation. Its con-
gregational meetings are well attended. The morn-
ing services find the church filled almost to capacity.
The evening services enjoy an average attendance
of about sixty. The Sunday-school, with an enrol-
ment of about one hundred and ninety-five, has
an average attendance of one hundred and sixty-five.
It is to be deplored that St. Philip’s is not blessed
with a Christian day-school as yet. However, all
other means are being used to indoctrinate its chil-
dren. In addition to a Sunday-school, with a
faculty of sixteen members, a Saturday-school, with
an enrolment of fifty-nine, is doing effective work.
A group of seventeen boys and girls meets twice
a week for confirmation instruction. This class
will meet two years before it is confirmed. Then,
too, there is a choir; a newly organized senior
young people’s society; a junior young people’s
society, with an active membership of more than
twenty; and a faithful ladies’ aid society, which
has aided the congregation materially, both finan-
cially and otherwise, in the past five years.

In conclusion, Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone
be glory! False modesty almost persuaded us not
to have these lines printed. However, the suppres-
sion of this news would have been false modesty
indeed. For all that has been accomplished in
St. Philip’s (recognizing the instrumentality of men
used in God’s service) God alone is to be exalted.
It is His work, and it is marvelous in our sight
indeed. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto Thy name give glory.” A. ScHvUmzeE.

From a Missionary’s Letter.

“A little more than two years ago I was re-
quested by one of St. ‘Paul’s (New Orleans) mem-
bers residing at Pass Christian, Mississippi, to open
@ mission there. With the consent of the Mission
Board I have done so. Since I began work in

Pass Christian, I have done all I could for the
people there. I have preached there once every
month, and I have spent at least one day in each
month in visiting the people. My efforts have met
with little success, and several times I became very
discouraged, seeing only a handful come to services
when the building should have been filled with
worshipers. Still, I also recall days when my dis-
couragement vanished during the service and I set
out with new zeal to serve the people.

“The 18th of December, last year, was such a
day when I returned home determined to continue
my work at Pass Christian, although I had felt
miserable before I reached the church in Pass Chris-
tian that morning. I can still see myself walking

——————
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Rev. E. H. Wildgrube.

along the railroad-track from the station to the
old church-building that looks more like a barn
than a house of worship. The wind was strong,
damp, and very cold, and I had not felt so cold
for many years as I did that morning when I walked
along the track. The thought of getting into a
building without a stove seemed to make me feek
colder still. Within me a voice said over and over
again: ‘You should have remained with your con-
gregation in New Orleans on a day like this. The
people here do not come to church on good days,
and you should have known that they will not come
on a day like this.’ But upon reaching the church,
I was happy to see two men in their overcoats
pacing up and down in the building to keep warm.
The one was the member who two years ago had
requested me to open a mission, and the other was.