Church Basements and Children’s Homes: Danish-American Missions Here and Abroad
The exhibition is supported by a grant from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views and opinions expressed by this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Church-based missions can take many forms: schools, hospitals, orphanages, retirement homes, and – of course – new churches. In the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, before state governments provided comprehensive social services, churches often filled the need to care for vulnerable children and adults. But the churches did not limit themselves to caring for their neighbors; many churches looked beyond their own communities to more distant places. From Iowa to Oklahoma, and from Nigeria to Japan, Danish-American churches were involved in missions that created global connections – connections that reached all the way back to the churches and church basements in which congregations organized their mission support.
For many Danish-American churches, missions offered a window into distant places and different cultures. While on furlough back “at home,” many missionaries would visit congregations to describe the history and culture of the people they served. Sunday School lessons, Women’s Missionary Society meetings, and other organized events could include a description of a particular mission as well as an introduction to the geography, food, and cultural traditions of far-away places.
This publication, Our missionaries Far and Near, offered suggestions for Women’s Missionary Society meetings: what to read, which hymns to sings, how to decorate the room, and what topics to discuss that would further an understanding of seven different UELC mission fields.
Children's Homes
Before day care centers were widely available, before foster care was organized by the states, church-sponsored Children’s Homes often provided care for children who had lost one or both parents – or whose parents were either physically or financially unable to care for them. Many churches across the United States organized children’s homes in different communities. Danish-American churches supported them in: Chicago; Elk Horn, Iowa; Waupaca, Wisconsin; Tyler, Minnesota; and Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
While the staff and boards of the Children’s Homes were Danish-American, they welcomed children of all backgrounds. Children attended the local public schools and everyone had chores to keep the home clean. In small towns like Elk Horn and Tyler, the Children’s Homes often had several acres to provide their own vegetables, eggs, and milk. The Danish Children’s Home in Chicago usually sent their children to spend the summers with farm families in Danish-American communities in Michigan, Iowa, and other rural areas.
In our exhibit video: Growing Up at Children's Homes. you may see interviews with former residents of the Elim Children's Home and Chicago Danish Children's Home, recounting memories of everyday life.
Healing at Eben-Ezer
It was not only the children and elderly who were cared for by the churches but also the sick. The Eben-Ezer Sanatorium in Brush, Colorado, specialized in treating tuberculosis. It also was a Deaconess Home, a center for Lutheran women who dedicated their lives in service to the church. Eben-Ezer continues to be a church-sponsored nursing home for seniors.
Lutheran deaconesses were women who dedicated their lives to the church and usually received training as nurses or teachers. Like Catholic nuns, they wore special clothing and lived together in a shared home. Unlike nuns, they had the option of leaving the deaconate if they chose to marry.
A Bridge to Japan
Protestant mission societies in Europe and America were active all over the world. As Western nations expanded their economic and military interests to other lands – especially in Africa and South Asia – foreign missionary societies sought to bring a Christian message to new peoples. Foreign missionaries, banned for over 200 years, were allowed back into Japan in 1859.
In 1898, Dr. J.M.T. Winther arrived in Japan to begin the “Danish Mission” of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (UELC) based in Blair, Nebraska. The “Danish Mission” combined the efforts of Danish-American missionaries and Japanese pastors to organize new churches, Sunday Schools, kindergartens, and a theological seminary, among other services. Kindergarten was a special focus of the Japan Mission. The Mission provided a valued social service to young children, while openly promoting Christian education and values.
Rev. J. M.T. Winther continued to serve the Japan mission until his death in 1970. His daughter, Maya, also served the Japan Mission until she retired in 1969. J.P. Nielsen and his family arrived at the Japan Mission in 1909.
Among Danish-American churches, the visits from Japanese church leaders and missionaries in Japan were occasions for special programs and events. A visiting speaker from Japan might be met with Japanese-themed decorations such as cherry blossoms (made of crepe paper), kites, and gold fish in bowls. Menu suggestions for a 1935 Luther League event include rice pudding, tea (hot or cold), and sponge cake cut into squares.
In our exhibit video: Interview with a Missionary from the Japan Mission former missionary Lloyd Neve describes his calling and his decision to go to Japan. He also talks about his experiences there in the late 1940's. He served at the Japan mission for almost 40 years.
Efforts in India
The Santal Mission in eastern India was an example of several church synods collaborating to support a single mission organization. The two major Danish-American Lutheran church bodies (UELC and AELC) contributed to the effort, as well as other Scandinavian-American churches and the churches in Denmark, Norway, and Canada. Health care was a major component of the mission work, sending medical missionaries to hospitals and leper colonies among the Santal people.
American support for the Santal Mission was headquartered in Minneapolis. The Mission provided published books, slide shows, films, and other learning aids that churches could use to better understand life among the Santal people and the work being done by the Mission. The Santal Mission also owned and operated a tea plantation in Assam, India, marketing the tea for sale to churches and individual supporters of the Mission.
The Northern Baptist Conference also supported efforts in India. The Danish-American congregation of Bethel Baptist Church in Harlan, Iowa, provided significant support for a member of their community to be a missionary in Tura, India. Trained as a teacher, Fern Rold spent 32 years teaching girls in kindergarten and grade school under the auspices of the Women’s American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. She died in Harlan on November 13, 1988.
Oaks Indian Mission, Oklahoma
In the midst of the Cherokee Nation, Danish-American missionaries established a church, school, children’s home, and a circuit of “preaching stations” that brought Lutheran services to a radius of communities around Oaks, Oklahoma.
The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (UELC) established the Oaks Indian Mission in the early 1890s – and it still is active today. The Oaks Indian Mission continues to be “a child care and community services ministry in the heart of the Cherokee Nation.”
The Mission started a school in 1903, which was incorporated into the public school system by mid-century. Publications like "The Little Lutheran" brought stories and photos from Oaks to Sunday School students throughout the UELC synod.
As of Fall 2010, there were 40 children of various tribal backgrounds living in the four cottages at Oaks.The Mission continues to be supported by gifts from individuals and Lutheran churches across the United States, including some churches that have had a relationship with the Oaks Indian Mission for over a century.
In our exhibit video: A Danish Missionary at the Oaks Indian Mission, Philip Larsen talks about his mother Abelone Larsen who worked at the Oaks mission in the 1910's. He also talks about his own work as a former board member at Oaks and the children's home then and today.
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