The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 109

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

109

Missouri Synod’s Mission in China. — The
baptized membership was recently augmented by the
baptism of 119 persons, of whom thirty seven were
adults. The communicant membership was in-
creased by the confirmation of seventeen persons. —
The schools have an enrolment of 1,390 pupils;
of these, 946 are in the Hankow schools, 142 in the
Ichang schools, 101 in the three Shasi schools, and
101 in the Shihnan schools. One of the latter is
financed by the native congregation. One mission-
ary reports that thirty-five pupils had to be turned
away for want of room. — At Shasi a new catechu-
men class for men has been started. Rev. Riedel at
Hanyang has a number of classes that he is pre-
paring for baptism. Rev. Seltz at Kweifu will be
able to baptize a class in the near future. Rev. Klein
is preparing a class of seventeen for confirmation
and a class of fifty-three for baptism at one chapel
in Hankow and is instructing smaller classes at two
other chapels. — At Shihnan there was some Com-
munist trouble several months back, but the situa-
tion has since cleared up, and there have been no
recent disturbances. The other stations all report
peaceful conditions.

A Book Mission.— The Norwegian Lutheran
Church of America is carrying on an extensive
Book and Tract Society. All told, it has distributed
millions of pieces during the twenty years of its
existence. Last year it distributed over 100,000
booklets and tracts. Due to the depression the in-
come has been decreasing for the past three years
at the rate of $1,000 a year.

Facts about South America.—Of the 50,000,000
people of South America 40,000,000 have probably
not heard the Gospel. Millions are taught to think
that the Bible is an immoral book, which will cor-
rupt the minds of those who read it. There is no
continent in which there are so few missionaries
for its size and population. In any of the ten
republics a missionary could have a city and dozens
of towns for his parish. In some of the countries
he could have a province or two without touching
any other evangelical worker.

The American Indian.—TIt is estimated that
sixty-one per cent. of the American Indians are still
non-Christians and that 45,000 of them are beyond
the influence of any Christian work. At its last
convention the attention of the Oklahoma District
of the Missouri Synod was directed to several very
promising opportunities to open up mission-work
among the Indians of that State, and with great
enthusiasm it was decided to take up the work. —

.

In this connection we must pass on to our readers
an interesting item of news that recently met our
eye. A woman missionary worker among the Da-
kota Indians has obtained such influence over them
that no important council is held without her and °
no lease or other important document is signed until
she has read it.

“Not One Cent!”— A pastor of our Church,
whose name we know very well, was greatly shocked
when the canvassers returned with their report that
a number of members had positively declared, “Not
one cent for missions; we have enough to do to take
care of ourselves.” We wonder, do such people ac-
tually realize what their refusal means? Not one
cent to tell others of a God whose love they daily
experience! Not one cent to tell lost sinners of
Christ, the only Savior! Not one cent for ful-
filling the very purpose of Christ’s life and death!
Not one cent for obeying the last command of
Christ Jesus, our Lord! To disobey God is always
sinful; to refuse to help our needy neighbor is al-
ways heartless. But to be deaf to the command of
God to bring the only-saving Gospel to sinners and
to be blind to our neighbor’s greatest need, this is
a crime that God must surely avenge terribly if the
guilty one does not repent.

Mission-Work in Reforestation Camps. — The
National Government is now opening so-called con-
servation or reforestation camps within its national
forests throughout the land. Men between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-five years are being gradu-
ally conditioned and equipped for work in these
camps at various military centers in all parts of the
country. We are pleased to learn that our Home
Mission boards are asking missionaries and pastors
living in the vicinity of such camps to get in touch
with them as soon as possible and to do what they
can to make proper provision for the spiritual wel-

* fare of those boys and men, especially of those who
come from our own congregations. It would he
well for all pastors and relatives of men in these
camps to forward their names to the Home Mission
Board or to the Home Mission Director of their
District, also giving, if possible, the name of the
camp such a man is in.

Are They ‘‘Heathen’’?

Correcting examination papers is not the most
thrilling item in the life of a missionary teacher.
And if there are about 150 papers to correct, each
covering several pages and written in a language