# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1117
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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442 MISSIONS

Concurrent with the moving of the Library to St. Louis w,
also transferred the publishing of our Messenger (monthly pub.
lication) to the American Printing House of Louisville, effectin,
a substantial saving in the publication cost. While the subscription
to the Messenger and the Herald has remained rather stable, jt
does reflect a considerable change in the number of readers, For
example, in 1952, with a subscription list of 1,248 readers, we added
132 and removed 75. The Herald, published in Moon type, now has
520 readers, compared with 510 in 1949. In spite of the fact that
Moon is read less, we have enjoyed this slight increase in the
number of readers,

One complication has arisen in both our transcription work
and also in the publication of books, namely, that State schools
are now teaching children to read Grade 2 (a more advanced)
Braille instead of Grade 1% (which contains fewer abbreviations),
Since 90 per cent of our books are transcribed in Grade 11%, we
shall soon have to increase substantially the number of Grade 2
books to prepare for this new demand.

While in 1950 we had but one Talking Book we have slowly
been increasing the number of these books available to the blind
through our Library. A set of four of Dr. Maier’s sermons, entitled
Living for Christ, has been placed in Talking Records, as well as
Beiderwieden’s Heaven, Gockel’s This Is the Life, and Kramer’s
Happiness Can Be Yours. We have also acquired several sets of
the entire Scriptures on Talki ag Records for our Library to make
the Scriptures available to our readers in Talking Book form. We
are entering this field of service to the blind rather slowly to see
what demands will be made, and also because the production of
Talking Records is a rather costly process.

Teen Time is our Church’s new magazine in Braille for chil-
dren of the ages of 13 to 19, to bring the light of the Gospel to
the growing generation of the blind. This mission endeavor reaches
toward 6,500 children in State schools all over the country, with
approximately 3,000 children within the age group of Teen Time’s
aim. As editor the Board has temporarily engaged the services
of Pastor Harold Storm, son of our Executive Secretary, and
assistant to his father, a graduate in journalism, who has been
giving freely of his time through the generous interest of Concordia
Church, Cleveland, to visit the various State schools to learn to
know better the problems of blind children and then to edit this
magazine in line with their interests.

With this magazine we are working under several handicaps.
First, we are writing for children who, except for blindness, are
completely normal with all the desires of normal children intensi-
fied. As in other children’s magazines, we find it necessary to cater
to these desires. .

MISSIONS 448

;,.. Secondly, the children who read Teen Time are members of all
Yenominations or of no church, Lutheran children of our Missouri

- “gynod .constituting a very small percentage.
“*"”. Accordingly, to make this magazine appealing to children and
“to overcome these handicaps, Teen Time adds to its religious ar-

ticles, stories of general interest to the blind children. The maga-
gine reports the intramural sporting events of the blind, fiction
stories, and stories about the various State schools, highlighting
a.different school each month. Thus Teen Time is attempting to
be all things to all children that it might gain some for the Savior.

The Board is happy to report that this method has, met with
outstanding success. Teen Time is becoming well known and well
received by the students and the superintendents of the schools.
As a result, its subscriptions, in three months, have grown from
234 to 450, even though the magazine is being sent only to those
children who ask for it. This is better than 10 per cent of all the
children of that age group. Three State schools have also intro-
duced Teen Time into their regular classroom instruction.

Another phase of this work should include the sight-saving
children, children who are not totally blind, but whose vision is
definitely impaired. The number of these children is almost ten
times that of blind children. In Ohio alone there are 1,033 sight-
saving children in 35 schools. These children require printed mate-
rial of eighteen- and 24-point type in order to read. This type of
printing is very costly, but as an experiment Teen Time is also
being published in this large type, the only magazine religious or
secular which has entered the field.

In the near future the Board must consider re-editing the
Concordia Sunday school material in Braille, and later on in large
type for the blind children to participate in regular Sunday school
classwork. Also the Catechism and Prayer Book shall be re-edited
and reprinted.

During the course of the past triennium a number of requests
have come to the Board to establish a Home for the Blind, espe-
cially for aged blind in our Church. As a result. a survey was
made of all our Homes for the Aged to inquire whether they would
receive blind and integrate them with the residents of the homes —
since such procedure is generally encouraged rather than to isolate
the blind in specific homes. The response of all our Lutheran.
Homes for the Aged, except one, indicated a definite willingness
to accept the blind, and, accordingly, the Board has felt it in-

advisable to consider this thought further for the present.

In conclusion we wish to acknowledge the splendid work done
again during the past three years by our volunteer workers, who
have given freely of their time for the transcribing of. books for
our Library and other Braille literature. Especially commendable