# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S804
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

802 CONVENTION MINUTES

ical Conference. The Lutheran Institute for the Deaf has been
serving Synod for 83 years. It is one of the best-equipped schools
for the deaf in America, fully accredited by Michigan and the
United States Government. The operating costs, which average
$2,000 per child per year, are met by fees paid by the parents,
about $50,000, and by freewill offerings of about $160,000 annually.

The charitable work of the Walther League appears in the
Lutheran Sanatorium, Social Service, and the Medical Mission
program. Financed chiefly through the Wheat Ridge Christmas
seals campaign, the Sanatorium has for 50 years offered free care
to all Lutheran tuberculosis patients. The Wheat Ridge Founda-
tion grants scholarships to prospective social workers in church-
related agencies. Its Medical Mission program assists our mission-
aries in caring for thousands of tuberculosis victims in foreign
mission fields. All of this is evidence of the sincere determination
of our young people to serve Christ in word and deed.

The Lutheran Laymen’s League, now numbering more than
90,000, works in Christian education through Valparaiso scholar-
ships and seminars. It has promoted Bible Study Advance, stew-
ardship, evangelism, youth leadership, and the Senior Citizens’
program. In addition to four feature motion pictures, the films
One More Man, and Into All the World, tell the story of the League
and the Lutheran Hour. The League conducts church-related tours
into various missionary areas. Founded in Milwaukee in 1917, the
League will next year observe its 40th anniversary.

The Lutheran Hour continues “Bringing Christ to the Nations.”
Beginning July 1, it will begin to broadcast over the National
Broadcasting Company network as well as the Mutual Broad-
casting System. The two networks will place approximately 800
stations in the United States at our disposal. In foreign coun-
tries the program is broadcast over approximately 500 stations in
60 countries in 56 languages. Broadcasting will be resumed in
Argentina. The free Bible correspondence course has been com-
pleted by 14,000 in Japan, of whom 60 per cent. requested Baptism,
while another 20 per cent requested more instructions before re-
ceiving Baptism. Three hundred of 1,300 blind folk enrolled in
the Braille Bible course have graduated.

The Family Worship Hour is currently heard on 150 stations
in 36 states, Canada, Alaska, and Hawaii. It is used in 17 hospitals
and sanatoria in 14 states.

On recommendation of Committee 11, Synod adopted the me-
morial on page 564 of Reports and Memorials, imploring the bless-
ing of the church upon the work of the Council of Lutheran
Agencies and commending the auxiliary agencies to our congre-
gations, urging generous support (TB:168,6). Synod expressed