# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1949 08 30_S289
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

289

cities are bombed out; thousands are unemployed; what the future will bring no one knows; almost everything is unaffordably dear; people fear a new, severe war. Let us by all means pray that God in His great grace may once more grant the world a lasting peace. Surely we will all keep loving Germany for the sake of God's elect.

In London

On our journey home we visited London in order to acquaint ourselves with the important work of our pastor there, Edward Pearce. Pastor Pearce, with his assistant, Vicar Norman Nagel of our seminary in St. Louis, not only has the two congregations in Kentish Town and Tottenham under his care, but he has also founded several Bible classes in other places in Greater London, through which he is extending his mission work.

His work also includes the care of the many Polish refugees who have gathered in England

Main Building of the Kurhaus at Bad Boll
In the center (tall windows) the assembly hall where the sessions were held

and who confess the Lutheran faith. To these are added many Estonians and Latvians and other Lutherans from the eastern countries which Russia has taken into its possession. Our important work in London and in other parts of England must truly lie close to our hearts. Pastor Pearce directs it with great skill and much diligence and self-sacrifice.

In Switzerland we were in the churches where once Zwingli and Calvin preached, the former in Zurich, the latter in Geneva. In Geneva the National Lutheran Council, as an active member of the Lutheran World Federation, has a spacious headquarters office, which we were permitted to inspect. Here work especially P. Martin O. Dietrich and Dr. Michelfelder, who has become known far and wide through his zealous work, under whose direction other men are now also working over there.

The thought came to us whether the Missouri Synod too should not have at least two permanent representatives in Germany in order to follow further the so important developments there. The work at Bad Boll surely holds a great blessing. But in our opinion the Missouri Synod will not come into its own unless it has at least two capable, zealous representatives in Europe in this so important time. We cannot close this report without having called attention to this.
J. T. M.

Recollections from the Life of an Old Teacher

My First Call

Place: Teachers' Seminary in Addison, Ill.; time: the end of June in the year 1885, close of the school year. — The examinations had been happily gone through and passed. All 22 members of the graduating class had received their diplomas, and now everyone was eager to know where he was going. Then at morning devotion the announcement is made: "This morning at 10 o'clock the distribution of calls will take place before the assembled student body." Everyone is full of expectation of the things that are to come.

At ten o'clock all were assembled in the auditorium, and with the call documents in his hand our Director Krauß mounted the platform. At that time our faculty was at the same time the committee of assignment. Since my name begins with the letter W, I expected to be the last on the list. But this time the alphabetical order was not kept; for already at the third or fourth call came the words: "Wegener, you are going to Pastor Damm's school in West Bloomfield, Waushara County, Wis." The diploma of vocation was handed to me, and so my fate was sealed. — In this way all 22 candidates were distributed over all regions of the country.

After these ceremonies were over, the various calls could now be studied and compared. As is customary, the letter first set forth to what the congregation binds its newly called teacher, namely, to the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, and then also to faithful service in the school and to an exemplary life. Then followed to what the congregation binds itself toward its teacher, namely, that he would be respected and honored as a servant of God and of the Church. With regard to salary my call read: $370 a year, free dwelling, free fuel, and pasture for a cow. (I have never had a cow in my life.) On comparing them it turned out that mine was probably the best-salaried position of all.

At the close of the assembly it was further remarked that the letter of acceptance must be in the hands of the Director by the evening of the next day. A form for it circulated from hand to hand. That the call would be accepted was taken as a matter of course, and it occurred to no one to raise any objections. — After some days the summer vacation began, and the whole body of students was dismissed. Most went home to their parents, I to my washing people in York Centre.

In the meantime $10 had been sent to me from West Bloomfield as travel money. At the same time I was informed that my arrival there was not expected before the end of August. The reason for this last communication was, as I learned later, that the salary was to begin only with the installation.

At the end of August I set out on the journey to my new home. Since the Wisconsin Central railroad at that time ran only as far as Milwaukee, I had to use the Northwestern railroad as far as that place. At Weyauwega I was met at the station and received in the friendliest way. To West Bloomfield there were