# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1887_S70
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

70 Proceedings of the 20th General or

wish this, their wish shall be met by our establishing for them a
special mission commission under the name: "Mission Commission for
English Mission."

Note: It is of course left entirely to those congregations
whether to place themselves under this Commission or not.

Emigrant Mission.

1. In New York.

"1. Through the annual reports of our faithful missionary, Pastor
S. Keyl, the Synod has gained as exact an insight into his great,
never-ending work as figures can convey. It will therefore suffice
for the purpose of this report to sum up the figures already
published. They are: emigrants conveyed: 12,649 persons; letters and
postcards written: 19,770; funds administered: $199,946.75;
assistance granted: $875.86; advances made: $8086.98. — Tracts and
periodicals distributed: over 24,000; in addition 7100 calendars of
our Synod; employment was found for over 300 persons.

"Whoever takes the trouble to clothe these bare figures with flesh
and blood, that is, to picture how much personal work of love is
expressed by them, gets a truer picture of our missionary's work than
the bare figures alone can give.

"2. Our mission work has expanded considerably since the last
report. For one thing, an emigrant agent known to us succeeded in
reopening Pastor Keyl's access to Castle Garden without conditions
burdensome to conscience. This has put him in a position to look
after the immigrants assigned to him much more securely, and also to
do his work among those who need the comfort of a faithful pastor. —
For another, the Committee found the courage to acquire a house of
its own, which offers our missionary not only a permanent place but
also enough room to lodge all the immigrants and emigrants who come
to us in such a way that they take away a wholesome impression. — The
Committee was, to be sure, not authorized to take this momentous
step, but believed it could assume the responsibility under the
circumstances, since the Reverend Synod had already, in 1881 and
again in 1884, recognized the necessity of such a Christian hostel.
The circumstances that pressed for quick action were: 1. the fact
that this house was the only usable one on the market; 2. that the
Catholics were resolved to buy it. If we did not want to be driven
entirely from the field, we had to

[SCAN: faint word-fragments show through on the right margin from the facing page (p-077); not transcribed.]