# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S290
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 76 —

had acquired, had himself instructed with no earthly ulterior motive
whatsoever, passed a good examination administered by the commission,
was baptized by Pastor Schönfeld, and is now a voting member of his
congregation. The same happened with a young lady baptized by Pastor
Renz. A second young lady, who was under instruction for baptism,
unfortunately withdrew from further instruction when she moved away.
A third young lady, a splendid fruit of our mission, Mrs. von
Schutter, has, under the comfort of Pastor Renz's ministry, we may
hope, fallen asleep in comfort and blessedness in faith in Christ.

But in another respect a great change has taken place in our
Jewish mission. The influx of hearers has risen higher than ever
before. Despite all sorts of disruptions by hostile Jews, despite all
sorts of warnings in the public Jewish papers, and although the
material aid formerly given is no longer being provided, so many
hearers came to the mission services that there was often no standing
room left, so that many hearers had to be turned away for lack of
space — indeed, the missionary repeatedly had to hold a second service
after the close of worship for the crowd waiting outside. It is much
to be regretted that hundreds of hearers could gain no admittance to
the mission preaching for lack of space. — In addition, many Jews
came for private conversations or invited the missionary into their
homes. Tracts and New Testaments were requested, read, and discussed
with the missionary. In the Saturday and Sunday school, between 50
and 150 children were instructed year in and year out in the truths
of salvation. At the last Christmas celebration, a larger hall was
rented than ever before, and yet the gifts received for the Christmas
celebration still yielded a surplus of $90.00 for the mission
treasury. It is plainly a great thing that God brings so many souls
from among the Jews under the sound of the Word. The leaven-like
working of the Gospel cannot fail to appear here either. So that no
false impression is created, let it be expressly noted here that,
alongside the great growth in the audience, lean times also occurred
in the last three years, especially in summer.

In now compiling from the minutes a report of our missionary's
activity from March 1, 1908, to March 1, 1911, we add in parentheses,
for comparison, the corresponding figures from the report of the
General Synod of 1905. In the mission our missionary preached about
200 sermons, which were heard by nearly 10,000 (2,326) persons. He
also preached 18 (14) sermons in the interest of the Jewish mission
in congregations that invited him to do so. He held Saturday and
Sunday school 225 times, attended by 16,120 (6,614) children, and in
addition afternoon school 42 times, attended by 2,650 (1,934)
children. The Wednesday evening Bible hours, which were only sparsely
attended,