Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1926 · 33rd Convention, Holy Cross Church › Page 125
LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1926, Page 125

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1926. 125

The contributions of our colored Christians also are a source of’
gratification and inspiration. During the past three years the really
surprising sum of $85,482.22 was raised in our Colored Missions.
Last year every confirmed member, male and female, young and old,
contributed on an average $11.77. Crops were poor in the Carolinas
last year. Three years ago the average contribution was $16.30. And
be it remembered that our colored Lutherans are“hot prosperous busi-
ness men or well-to-do farmers; as a rule, they are poor. It is worthy
of note that they gave of their poverty to pay for a chapel each in
China and in India.

The members of our colored Lutheran churches ‘enjoy a good
reputation; for they endeavor to conform their lives to the rule of the
divine Word and to walk as it becometh the Gospel of Christ. Said
the tax-collector of an Alabama county: “The only good Niggers
around here are the Lutheran Niggers. They have less debts, pay
their bills more regularly, are more thrifty, and their morality is
better than any of the rest around here.” A North Carolina business
man had this to say: “If all the Negroes would be like your Lutheran
Negroes, they would be all right.” The colored men and women who
accept God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine pure undergo a complete
change, fulfilling the word of Paul written to the Corinthians: “If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”

During the past triennium the following buildings were erected ~
or purchased: A chapel and school (both under one roof) for $1,000
at Hamburg, Ala. (the gift of a Christian woman); a church and
school (both under one roof) at Holy, Ark, Ala., for $1,000; a chapel
and school (both under one roof) at Pine Hill, Ala., for $1,000 (the
. gift of a California friend of missions); an addition to the chapel at

_ Buena Vista, Ala., for $317.07; a chapel and school (both under one
roof) at Kings Landing, Ala., for about $950 (the gift of our colored
; churches in Alabama); a building site and two buildings for our
— Alabama Luther College in Selma, Ala., for about $48,766.42;

' a school at Selma for $2,800; a professor’s dwelling at Greensboro
for $5,470; a schoolroom added to the chapel at Rockwell, N.C., for
$132. 14° (the members did the work); a portable schoolhouse for
EF; St. Paul’s, New Orleans, for $1,739; a chapel in Los Angeles, Cal.,

-for $6,002.80; a portable chapel for Jacksonville, Ill., for $300;
a home for the mission in Cincinnati, O., worth $8,000, was bought
by the six churches in Cincinnati; a house and lot for the St. Louis
:_ school for $7,304.94 (remodeling will cost approximately $1,200). The

following -building sites were purchased: Alexandria, La., $1,897.10;
Chicago, $2,200; St. Louis, $4,046.78; Atlanta, Ga., $1,434 (includes
street improvements); Winston-Salem, N.C., $1,515. Repairs: Im-
manuel Lutheran College, $9,417.31; other repairs, $13,746.17. The
total value of all: mission-property is approximately $350,000. - The

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