# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S91
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 91

to submit for consideration the resolution adopted at its (the commission's) last meeting:

"While we do not wish to refuse to continue serving the Synod, should it resolve that we do so, we must nevertheless move and urge that a more precise arrangement be made for overseeing the conduct of the mission in the western territory, since under present circumstances the current commission is not able to attend to its duties as it should. Whether such an arrangement is made by establishing a subcommission, or by placing the western territory under the oversight of another commission (such as that of the Minnesota and Dakota Districts), or by moving the commission to a more centrally located place, we leave to the deliberation of the Reverend Synod; we only repeat that overseeing the large western territory from a place as far away as Boston is an impossibility and a continual detriment to the mission.' (Resolution of May 9, 1905.)

"The commission further takes the liberty of drawing the Reverend Synod's attention to the state of the finances of the mission under its charge. The Synod currently supports two missionaries, whose combined annual salary amounts to $950.00. As is evident from the treasurer's report, over a period of three years and four months only $2,007.27 was received (with a balance of $10.01 on January 1, 1903) — only $579.30 in the last year alone — against which stands an expenditure of $2,216.21.

"From this it is evident that the mission operated at a continual deficit during the past year, and the commission was able to meet the demands placed upon it only through the kindness of its treasurer, Mr. R. F. Haffenreffer, who readily advanced funds. When the books were closed on May 8 of this year, the deficit in the treasury amounted to $208.94. The Synod, whose cause the Estonian and Latvian mission indeed is, ought in fairness to see to it that the missionaries can receive what is due them without the treasury having to continually run into debt.

"The size of the territory, together with the strenuous work of our missionaries and the illness that such work has often brought on at least the elder of our missionaries, has repeatedly suggested to the commission the idea of training new workers who might eventually devote themselves to this mission. At present there are also 2 Latvians and 1 Estonian at our institutions, who