# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S61
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 61 —

"We therefore have every reason to thank the Lord for what He has let be done through us, and to encourage one another to carry on this glorious work with all zeal. Others carry on mission among heathen who live 10,000, indeed 20,000 miles away from them in regions reachable only with difficulty; one reads their mission reports and often waits for years in vain for the news that even a single one had fallen to the Gospel, or that even a beginning could have been made of preaching to the heathen: how should we not much rather take up the cause of these poor Negroes, whom the greed of the whites brought here, and whom we can reach so easily and conveniently, indeed who for the most part are eager and ask that we take up their cause and that of their children and bring them the pure Gospel and the unadulterated Sacraments? Ah, then we would be like the unfaithful servant who buried the pound entrusted to him in a napkin.

"In conclusion your most obedient Board of Missions takes the liberty of laying the following points before the Reverend Synodical Conference for deliberation, respectively resolution:

1. The publication of a mission paper of its own.

2. The publication of several English writings, namely: Luther's Small Catechism, a church order, tracts, and a church periodical for the Negroes.

3. That Pastor Döscher take up his permanent residence in New Orleans, but that a missionary be assigned to him there as assistant, so that from New Orleans he may still undertake mission journeys, found new mission posts and visit the old ones.

4. That a number of young Negroes who have applied to Missionary Döscher for training for the ministry be housed for a time in New Orleans, there instructed, observed and supervised by Missionary Döscher and our preachers and teachers there, in order later to be fully trained in an institution to be established, perhaps, in Florida.

5. That, where it is necessary, we build churches for the Negroes, yet on the condition that they pay for them little by little, about a tenth each year, and that these become their property only when they are fully paid for; from the money received back new churches could then again be built.

6. That we take steps to carry on mission work also among the French-speaking Negroes in New Orleans.

"South St. Louis, Mo., July 1878.
In the name and on behalf of your most obedient Board of Missions
its Secretary
C. F. W. Sapper."