# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S79
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 79

...there was well-founded hope that the Lloyd line would carry them
after all. But in his agitation the good man did all sorts of foolish
things, hatched new plans, and so slammed shut the door that had
already been half opened to him. In the end he traveled alone, secretly,
by way of England, back over there, obtained his citizenship papers,
and then had the family follow him — the family's meanwhile necessary
lodging, in a cheap rented room with respectable people, having in the
meantime been arranged by the local Lutheran emigrant mission. That
there was also, during the six weeks the people had to spend in
Bremen, a great deal of comforting, running about, writing, and
cabling to be done, one can well imagine.

"'Setting aside further examples from the work here, I would still
like to point to one experience I have had particularly with emigrants
from the big city: even from across the ocean, letters full of thanks still
arrive referring to our brief evening devotion, which the writers took
part in before setting out on their sea voyage. Indeed, it has happened
that people thanked me with tears in their eyes for the blessing with
which I closed the registration for the free ticket — proof of how, by
God's grace, even a brief note of eternity can work on people who,
caught up in the bustle of earthly labor, had almost forgotten that they
have a soul. — And I may also claim, with good reason, that many dear
brethren in the faith over there, besides that old man already
mentioned, who came into closer contact with our mission stations on a
trip to Germany, regarded the establishment of these stations, with
heartfelt thanks, as a benefit that the Missouri Synod has shown its
traveling members.

"'Perhaps it may be of interest if, following on from the above, I
report how, for the past two years, the report prepared for the German
Reichstag by the imperial emigration commissioners has also referred
to our small work. I set down here the relevant passage from the latest
annual report, which only became available to me this very morning:

"'"The local Lutheran emigrant mission, under the direction of
Missionary Gillhoff, was, as in the previous year, actively engaged.
About 250 persons, especially from Russia and the eastern provinces of
Prussia, sought out the mission. This was made considerably easier for
the people by the fact that Mr. Gillhoff generally held himself ready at
the railway station to receive them in person. Seventy-one evening
devotions were held with about 450 emigrants, at which Lutheran
calendars and other traveling reading matter were distributed to them
free of charge."