# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S274
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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$16.98) amounted to $12,445.50, against which stands an expenditure for the same period of $10,792.20. There thus remains, as of March 10, 1911, a cash balance of $1653.30.

To operate these missions, under present circumstances, roughly $4000.00 is needed annually. And if these missions are to continue developing successfully, if new workers are to be put into their service — which appears altogether necessary — if the work is not to show a decline, then the annual expenses will rise accordingly. We therefore appeal to an Honorable Synod with the request to draw attention once again to the needs of these missions and to urge the dear Christians, as before, to continue remembering them in their prayers and letting their gifts of love flow to them in the future as well.

The commission further takes the liberty of drawing an Honorable Synod's attention to the fact that, in the course of recent years, requests have repeatedly come to it to take over missions, both among the Finns and also (recently) among the Persians, which had to be declined, since the commission has no mandate from the Synod for this and therefore also no authority, but is, by the Synod's provisions, to concern itself only with the mission among Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Poles. Should an Honorable Synod decide to place other missions under the Commission for Foreign-Language Missions in the future, a resolution to that effect should be passed, so that the commission may comply with such requests as come to it, provided all the other prerequisites for successfully conducting such a mission are present.

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

The commission further takes the liberty of once again drawing an Honorable Synod's attention to the question of whether it might 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 over time shift further westward, where people are settling permanently, whereas the great port cities of the East are, for many, only a place of temporary residence. Surely the oversight of these missions could be carried out more successfully if the commission resided more in the center, not at the outermost edge of the circle.

Finally, the commission takes the liberty of addressing one more modest request to an Honorable Synod. It, the commission, has now served the Synod for twelve years. It has sought to serve faithfully according to the ability God has given it. It now asks that this service be transferred to new and fresh hands, and that the old commission be discharged in peace and not be put forward for re-election.