10
THE LUTHER.AN PIONEER
This hall is flanked by n room which is fifteen feet square. Racks against the walls will accommodate the boxes and tin trunks which the boys bring from borne. A. 9-foot-wide Yerandn extends all along tbe front ana on one side. This veranda serves as dining-room, unless there is too much wind. Walls are of solid brick construction, plastered, and whitewashed, while doors and windows are of the world's most durable wood, teak. The floor is of tiles. The xoof also is tiled, and the tiles are protected against J1eavy winds by Yertical strips of mortar. A.t present we have nearly forty Lutheran boys in boarding, some of whom come from as far as Negnpatam, four hundred miles distant. We have no less than tweZ.Ve castes represented - Reddiar, Velallar, M~1daliar, Naidu, Naicker, 1\foapillai, Chettiar, 1\Iaravar (or Kallar), :Moopar, Paravar, Nadar, and Panchamar. The last-named is an outcaste, of whom we have just one; but of Marnvars (robber caste) we have nine. May God grant us His further benediction for success among all castes, even Brabmins ! T. H. MEINZEN.
Pastor Paul F. Heckel. The name of the Re,•. Paul F. Heckel, 1\i. A., who was called home by our Lord on the 16th of August, will be remembered long not only by his many friends and fellow-laborers in the United States, but also in India, where he served with great distinction as a. foreign missionary from 1921 to 1931. Born in New York City (Brooklyn), September 18, 1891, he received his elementary and secondary education in our Lutheran schools near his home. in 1914 he was graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis, and after a year of postgraduate work at Columbia University, New York, became associated for two and a half years ,vith the Rev. 0. Sieker at St. Matthew's Church of that city. During and immediately following the World War he ser,•ed as chaplain in the marine of our country, where he had special opportunity to declare the Word and to meet people of this or that as well as of no religious conviction. Under the dispensation of God all the foregoing ,vas only preparatory training to Brother Heckel's life-work, which was that of a foreign missionary. In the late fall of 1920 he accepted a call into Foreign )fission service and arrh•ed at N agercoil, India, in Febru~ry, 1921. Highly gifted linguisti-
cally, he mastered the Tamil language of bis field nry rapidly and soon engaged in active work, first rls manager of the Boys' Boarding-school and later as supervising missionary of the recently formed South India · Evangelical Lutheran Church. In order to be nearer to the churches in his charge, he removed to Madras and later to rranjore. In 1928 he returned to the United States ior his first home furlough and again engaged in postgraduate work at Columbia University. His second term of service in India was far shorter than he and his friends had hoped it would be. Af ter returning to his field of labor in :March, 1930, he was allocated by the Boa1·d to Ambur, where he was to become the headmaster of the local high school. But in 1931 he broke down with a severe heart trouble and very much against his wishes was forced to return to our country on sick-leave. On his return .journey he was met nt Naples by his parents, Dr. and 1\irs. F. Heckel of New. York, who had gone to Europe for the express purpose of bringing him home. Here his recovery was far more rapid than had been expected. Already in the winter of that year be was pronounced well and strong enough to accept the call which had been extended to hini by Concordia. Ev. Luth. Church of Bronxville, New York, where be was installed as pastor on January 10, 1932. It did not please the Lord, however, to permit him to labor longer than seven months iu his new congregation. But in this short pe1·iod of time he had already indeared himself so much to his people and to the h.culty and students· of Concordia. Institute~· whom Ii~,\ senred as pastor, that all felt his death as a direct p\!rsonal loss. He was given Christian burial in a L\\'tberan cemet'ery on Long Island. Pastor Heckel was united in marriage in India. on December 16, 1924, with Miss Gertrude Emily St:tl.~ter of Seward, Nebraska, who had gone to Ind.th in 1923 as an educational missionary and had beet\ stationed at N agercoil as superintendent of the lar~\Girls' Boarding-school in that city. The married life of Brother and Mrs. Heckel was exceptionahy happy, the more so since both of them had a very keen desire to bring Christ, the Savior of the world, to the inbabitan.ts of India. The union was not blessed with children. Mrs. Heckel· was therefore far more foot-loose and able to back up the work of her missionary husband among women and girls than is frequently the case with wives of missionaries who are blessed with large· families. Mrs..Heckel survives to mourn the early death of her beloved husband.
