# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S66
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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

church conditions are now such that they call for joy and heartfelt
thanks to God." — Pastor Bühler lamented painfully that means were
still lacking, both in San Francisco itself and in other parts of the
state, to carry on Inner Mission successfully, and urgently asked for
help for the west coast of our country. He also reported something
about Oregon, remarking, however, that things there were not at
their best. In connection with this he also told of the founding of a
pastoral conference on the coast which, together with the Norwegian
brethren, already showed a fine number of members.

    Pastor Sievers Jr. also gave an oral report on the importance of
the mission field in Minnesota and Dakota, where 23 mission
preachers with 178 preaching stations are now found, and complained
that for lack of means a thorough survey could not be made of
Montana, where a great deal of mission material is said already to be
present.

    The same complaint — that for lack of means the mission work
could likewise not be carried on as successfully as one would like in
the South — was also raised by Pastor Stiemke, president of the
Southern District, although thanks be heartily given to God that
several traveling preachers are now already at work in the South. One
obstacle to winning capable traveling preachers for the South is also
the unfounded fear of particular climatic diseases of the South, by
which many people in the North are still seized whenever they think
of the South.

    Finally, Pastor Sievers Jr. was further charged with submitting
to the Synod some statistical information on the current state of the
individual mission fields. He accordingly submitted the following
report:

    "By order of the Synod the undersigned has prepared a list in
which those pastors of our Synod are set out as mission or traveling
preachers who serve 4 or more stations. In doing so the main
congregation is always reckoned together with its branch
congregations and preaching stations. July 1, 1884 may be taken as
the closing date of this list, so that the traveling preachers newly
added from our seminaries in the course of this summer are not yet
counted. The list can, to be sure, make no claim to complete
accuracy, since changes are continually occurring through the
increase of preaching stations and, unfortunately, also through the
recalling of traveling preachers. Inquiries have, however, been made
of the synodical officers of all the districts, and as exact
information as possible has been furnished by them. The list drawn up
on this basis supplies the material for the following extract: