# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1849_S80
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 80 —

A fine testimony that the man named has also not labored in vain is
given, among other things, by an excellent congregational order which,
especially in his own congregation that has joined the synod, is found
not merely on paper but is becoming, more and more, a living reality
among its subscribed members. As to the activity of our venerable
senior, Pastor Löber — however much could be told here to God's
honor — it is unnecessary to report to the synod, since it is well known
how this experienced servant of the Lord delights in spending his
strength in the Church's service. Only this one thing cannot go
unmentioned here: that, despite the great burden of work already laid
on him by his pastoral office, and despite his advanced age and the
bodily weakness brought on by many hardships, he carries out the work
of our theological seminary with its gymnasium — presently located at
Altenburg, Perry County, Mo. — with the full devotion and self-sacrifice
of the freshest strength of a young man, without drawing even a single
cent of salary for it. Assured of the synod's most grateful recognition of
this, the undersigned can here only express to God the wish that a rich
harvest, which the Church may one day reap from this labor of love,
will crown the toilsome work of this faithful servant.

VI. During the synod's sessions last year, pastors Bünger and Ernst
were appointed to take on the visitor's office [Besucheramt] for the
purposes of home mission [innere Mission] during the past synodical
year. Unfortunately, neither of the two dear brothers in office was able
to fulfill the synod's wish. Conditions in Pastor Ernst's congregations
were such that he evidently could not leave them and serve elsewhere
without endangering his own congregations. Why Pastor Bünger could
not carry out the assignment he received, he himself explained in a
letter to the synod. So that something might nonetheless be done for
our fellow believers who lack the benefits of the holy preaching office,
particularly those scattered in the West, Pastor Lochner, at the proposal
of the St. Louis District ministerial conference, made a journey for this
purpose in early November of last year and visited the towns of Galena
and Warsaw in Illinois, and Dubuque, Davenport, Bloomington,
Burlington, Iowa City, and Keokuk in the state of Iowa. The results of
this journey have already been published in our "Lutheraner." The
provision — already announced in that paper — of a Lutheran pastor by
the synod for the congregations at Warsaw and Keokuk also came about
as a result of that visitation journey. It has become ever more evident
how important it is that the synod not leave the wide field of home
mission untended.

VII. Concerning matters of the mission to the Indians [Indianer-
mission], the undersigned refers to the encouraging report which our
mission commission has to render.

VIII. As regards the ministerial conferences, only the minutes from
three districts — the St. Louis, Fort Wayne, and New York districts —
were sent to the presidium from the past year, and those of the first two
have already been published in the "Lutheraner"; that of the
last-named is enclosed for the synod's review.

IX. It gives the undersigned particular joy that the "Lutheraner" has
at last, through the mediation of our highly esteemed Pastor Löhe,
gained a capable correspondent in the old fatherland in the person of
Pastor Wucherer at Nördlingen in Bavaria, the former editor