I wrote yesterday about the pamphlet that I found called “The Church at Work in The World at War”. I complained about the fact that there was no date in the document to give a hint as to when it was written. I have to retract my statement. I found a date and I believe, as near as I can tell that it was written in April 1944.
When I have time to read other things I’m fascinated with a history of World War II. One of the latest books I read is pictured above. It doesn’t just tell the tale of battles fought and one, but it talks about the unbelievable physical and emotional damage that was done during those years when the world was a war. Our little pamphlet talks about this as well. The National Advisory Emergency Planning Council to the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other states was interested in trying to find ways to help all over the world, especially where we already had missions. Here’s a fascinating quote.
“Our primary concern begins of course with our brethren of the Freikirche (what we would call the ‘free church’ and which I believe is today the SELK). We have heard that the Zehlendorf seminary in Berlin has been bombed out. Three of Pastor Willkom’s sons were killed in action. Two of these were pastors in the Freikirke. Even before the United States entered the war the printing of literature by the Freikirche was restricted. We shall have to rebuild the seminary and make it financially possible for as many qualified students as possible to enter the seminary. To build up a native German ministry must be the first objective. We shall have to supply German Christian literature to help counteract the great waves of communism which now already sweep over Germany and other European countries. We shall have to undergird the charitable institutions of our church in Germany – orphanages, old folks homes. We shall have to be ready to lend physical aid. We shall have to be ready to rehabilitate church buildings and schools.”
Sounds like witness and mercy to me.
