# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1848_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...or, in any case, not to deign our letter worthy of any answer. Once
again proof that we can count for little on outside help — except from
Mecklenburg and a few other places — and must therefore make every
effort to carry on our mission work from our own resources, trusting
firmly in God; for which reason the commission urgently lays it on the
heart of every member of the synod to take up the holy cause of missions
most vigorously, and calls on the preachers to hold regular mission hours
in their congregations where possible, so that our treasury, which so far
holds only $160, may grow strong enough to meet the great needs of the
mission work.

To a request sent to the Reverend Löhe that he send a formal document
stating the transfer of the Frankenmuth mission to the synod, no answer
has yet been received. The secretary takes this occasion to recommend
this young shoot [of mission work] urgently to the synod. It is, to be
sure, not yet properly a ward of the synod, but is all the more urgently in
need of its love and help, since the likely next consequence of the touchy
sensitivity of the Nuremberg friends just mentioned would be to withdraw
their support from it. And yet, despite the most adverse circumstances
from within and without, it has not only held its ground amid every storm
through God's gracious protection and help, but has become even more
firmly established and has spread further. Its influence extends to three
bands and may soon reach a fourth. Urgently called by one of these, the
missionary Mr. Baierlein will presumably already have gone to them, to
instruct the older ones regularly in God's Word as well. The school
numbers, more steadily than before, still around 20–24 pupils, some of
whom already know by heart, through constant repetition, Luther's
Catechism translated into the Indian language. Most of the children now
also attend our German school voluntarily. Nineteen children have been
baptized so far, and two catechumens will soon be sufficiently instructed.
The Indian family on our mission land — actually consisting of three
families with many children — has cleared a fine field for itself and has
already prepared the building timbers for a proper dwelling. In short, we
have cause to give praise and thanks to the merciful God, who has done
for us beyond asking and understanding, and all the more reason to fear
lest, by neglecting our duties, we forfeit his further help.

The synod declared itself substantially in agreement with the commission's
views and proposals regarding the founding of a mission colony in Oregon;
it further asked the commission to communicate excerpts from the
Lutheran church's mission reports in the "Lutheraner," and called on the
members of the synod to establish mission hours in their congregations, in
order to awaken interest in the mission cause and thereby further it.

Visitors [Besucher].

The travels of our visitor of last year, C. Fricke — since last November
pastor of an Evangelical-Lutheran congregation at White Creek,
Bartholomew County, Ind. — extended, according to the report of the 5th
Committee, over eastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and some regions of
Indiana and Ohio. He found, to be sure, especially in Wisconsin, far fewer
settlements of Lutherans than had been expected...