# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

24   Proceedings of the 19th General [Synod], or

place, so that one and the same man would travel through all the
territories and stations, stand at the missionaries' side with counsel and
help, choose the new places to be filled, and do whatever else belongs
to that. God willing, we shall indeed arrive at such a good arrangement
yet. But I must confess that when I consider how hard it will be to find
the man required for this office, what a gap must arise wherever he is
taken from; when I see with what zeal the districts carry on the work,
with what self-sacrifice the young brothers labor, and what blessing
God places on this work — then it seems to me that it can still go on
well enough for a while without such an arrangement, and that we
should rather first put a further number of traveling preachers into the
field, while also trying to provide at least the necessities for these men,
who have to bear the hardest exertions. Perhaps the desired unity could
be prepared for, at least in some respects, by broadening the task of the
General Home Mission Commission.

On this occasion I have the following further to report. At the end
of the year 1881 the Home Mission Committee of the Western District,
in agreement with the district presidency and the St. Louis Pastoral
Conference, asked me to authorize the General Treasurer to advance,
out of the idle funds of our heathen mission fund, a sum of money in
favor of the newly founded congregation at Denver, Col. Should this
not be done, the property of that congregation would be sold by the
sheriff. That, however, could easily bring about the loss of about
$2,000 which the Western District had already spent on it, and perhaps
even the complete dissolution of the congregation. They offered, on
their side, to let the church property pass into the Synod's possession
for so long as it would take to pay off the debt — a debt that was, in
any case, fully covered by the value of the property. After all the
district presidents but one had spoken in favor of the matter, and a
legally valid contract had been drawn up and signed by the congregation
concerned — in which, among other things, it was fixed that the whole
principal of $4,700 must be paid off within eight years, though it could
be paid off earlier at any time and full possession of the property thus
regained, and that the General Synod would at any time be entitled to
call in the money on immediate notice — I gave my consent to pay out
$2,700 for the stated purpose. This was done at once; the congregation
sent in a heartfelt letter of thanks and has, I hear, met its obligations up
to now and is said to be in hopeful growth at present. It is now for the
Reverend Synod itself to reach a final decision on this matter.

What a quantity of work our emigrant missionaries [*Emigranten-
Missionare*] do cannot be judged from the reports submitted, unless
one has actually seen these brothers at their work oneself, as happened
to me in New