# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S87
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 87

...had to be built. The committee can assure the Reverend Synod that
it made every effort to reduce the cost. Experts who have seen the
chapel testify that it was built cheaply. The Synod will be reassured on
this point, since we can also report to it that, through voluntary gifts
and also larger donations from our dear fellow Christians, everything
has been paid except $1,500.00. This sum was lent, without interest, by
the *Gegenseitige Feuer-Unterstützungsverein innerhalb der
lutherischen Gemeinden Chicagos* [Mutual Fire-Relief Society among
the Lutheran Congregations of Chicago]. The deaf-mute congregation
intends to pay off this debt over time.

"It was a great festival when this chapel was dedicated on October
20 of last year — a festival of joy above all for the deaf-mute of
Chicago, but also for the other congregations and preaching places of
this mission, a number of which had sent representatives to the
celebration. Many, even deaf-mute from elsewhere, gained confidence
in our mission precisely through this building, since it thoroughly
refuted the false rumors spread among them by the sects that we only
wanted to serve them for a while and get their money. In Chicago it has
not proved too large, since more than 80 deaf-mute have already been
gathered there for worship on repeated occasions.

"The committee has held many meetings and worked in the
greatest unanimity. Every quarter it has called for and gone through
detailed reports from the missionaries. It can testify of the
missionaries that they labor at this work with great diligence and
great faithfulness. They have formed a conference which calls itself
the Hephatha Conference and meets annually. Indeed, even a secular
newspaper, during the congress of those who work among the
deaf-mute in every part of the world, which was held during the
World's Fair in St. Louis, wrote that if the various churches wanted to
work among the deaf-mute with success, they should take the
missionaries of the Lutheran Missouri Synod as their model; it was the
only body that carried on this work the way it ought to be carried on.
From other churches too, voices have repeatedly been raised praising
precisely this work of our Synod and regretting that they cannot carry
on so fine a mission.

"The necessary funds for carrying on this work God has supplied
through his Christians. At times, admittedly, things ran short — even
now, unfortunately, the treasury is again entirely empty — but an
appeal in the *Lutheraner* has always soon filled the empty treasury
again, so that the missionaries have been provided the necessities of
life