# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1959_S10
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10 PRESIDENT’S TRIENNIAL REPORT

may be rightly attuned to the great importance of this responsi-
bility, your President invited Dr. Paul M. Bretscher to deliver
an essay on the topic: “Take Heed unto the Doctrine.” He will
speak to us in four one-half-hour periods. May these lectures
grip our hearts and prove to be a blessing to every one of us.

Every session of the convention will begin with a brief period
of worship. The over-all topic is: Redeemed to Serve. These per-
iods of worship begin at 8:30 A.M. and 1:30 P.M. All delegates
should arrange to be present promptly.

Synod’s Board of Directors encouraged your President to
accept the urgent invitation which our sister church in Australia
had extended to pay it an official visit. This visit took place shortly
after our 1956 convention. A brief stopover in Honolulu presented
an opportunity to visit most of our flourishing churches on Oahu
Island. What a marvelous privilege, to meet with brethren in the
faith whose forefathers settled in Australia about the same time
that the Saxons came to America! The brethren had made ar-
rangements for a meeting of the general conference; for a joint
conference of the two Lutheran bodies; for attending the conven-
tion of the Luther League, the young people’s organization of our
sister church; for a visit to the place where the immigrants first
settled and where they erected their first school of the prophets —
all somewhat of a parallel to the history of the Saxons in Perry
County. Of course, the brethren gave us an opportunity also to
visit the present seminary in Adelaide, some of their mission
churches, as well as some of their larger churches. We enjoyed
the privilege of preaching in some of them. All in all this was
a truly beneficial and unforgettable experience.

Synod’s Board for Missions in Foreign Countries insisted that
on this trip to the Southwest Pacific your President must not pass
by our mission fields in the Orient. The Board had prepared an
itinerary which would make full use of the time allotted for the
trip. Since a visit to New Guinea did not fit into the schedule,
the Board asked Missionaries Erwin Spruth and Ian Kleinig to
come to Australia, to get acquainted and to report on the work
and the needs of the field. What consecrated and enthusiastic in-
terest in New Guinea missions these young men manifested!

After leaving Australia your President visited Ceylon, India,
the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan in the order named. Every-
where there could be only glimpses into the work of our faithful
missionaries, but it afforded opportunity to witness not only how
“the heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone,” but
also the power of the Gospel which prompts us to sing, “See hea-
then nations bending before the God we love.” There was oppor-
tunity to see our first church in India, to meet small congregations

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