# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S105
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13th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1911. 105

Further to the foregoing, the Commission begs leave to submit to the Venerable Synod its treasurer's financial report for the period from April 3, 1908, to March 10, 1911. It shows that income for this period (including the cash balance remaining on April 3, 1908, in the amount of $16.98) came to $12,445.50, against which stands expenditure for the same period of $10,792.20. There thus remains, on March 10, 1911, a cash balance of $1653.30.

To operate these missions under present conditions requires, in round figures, approximately $4000.00 a year. And if these missions are to keep developing favorably, if new workers are to be placed in their service — which appears altogether necessary — if the work is not to suffer a decline, then annual expenditure will rise accordingly. The Commission therefore asks the Venerable Synod once again to call attention to these missions' needs and to urge our dear Christians, as before, to continue remembering them in their prayers and letting their gifts of love flow to them.

The Commission further begs leave to point out to the Venerable Synod that over the past several years, requests have repeatedly come to it to take over missions, both among the Finns and (recently) among the Persians — requests that had to be declined, since the Commission has no mandate and therefore no authority from the Synod for this, but is, by the Synod's own provisions, to concern itself only with the mission among the Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Poles. Should the Venerable Synod decide in the future to place other missions as well under the Commission for Foreign-Language Missions, a resolution to that effect should be passed authorizing the Commission to comply with such requests as come to it, provided all the other preconditions for successfully conducting such a mission are present.

Given the many-sided work of these far-flung missions, it would seem advisable to enlarge the Commission by about two members, so that in future it consists of five members instead of three.

The Commission further begs leave to again call the Venerable Synod's attention to the question of whether it would not be advisable to move the seat of the Mission Commission for Foreign-Language Missions to a more centrally located place than Boston. All signs indicate that the center of gravity of these missions, presently still in the East, will in time shift further west, where people settle permanently, whereas the great port cities of the East are, for many, only a place of temporary stay. Certainly the oversight of these missions could be carried out more successfully if the Commission resided more toward the center, not at the outermost edge of the circle.