# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1882_S89
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 89 —

For a year now Missionary Bakke has also been preaching in the chapel on Claiborn Street, where a definite audience of 50 to 60 adult Negroes assembles fairly regularly and listens to the Word with great devotion and decorum. So too a number of adults attend fairly regularly in Sailors' Home. Since the number of children in Sailors' Home was too great for Miss Watson, and Missionary Bakke has enough work apart from the school, and he too ought to have a teacher who could give the religious instruction himself, Teacher Vix, who happened to be staying in New Orleans, was appointed provisionally in December and later formally called.

In the month of March of this year the general president of the Missouri Synod stayed 14 days in New Orleans and often took the opportunity during this time to visit the schools and services of our mission, in order to be able to report on them to his synod from his own observation. In Sailors' Home he found 130 children on the roll, of whom 83 were present. Attention, reading, writing, etc., did not quite come up to our good two-class schools; but the recitation of the catechism went smoothly, and our best-known hymns were sung firmly and strongly. At the weekday evening service there were, besides the children, 20 adult Negroes, who listened attentively. Often there are more. In the mission chapel on Claiborn Street President Schwan found 120 children on the roll and 90 present, miserably crowded together. More than 100 children had to be refused admission for lack of room. This school is not inferior to our mixed schools. At the Sunday evening service there were over 60 adults and a number of children. The singing went better than in many of our congregations. In Sailors' Home Missionary Bakke had 20 confirmands, here 6.

President Schwan too became convinced that we must have mission property in New Orleans for both stations if we want to carry on mission work with success; especially for the Sailors' Home mission. Here a good opportunity offered itself to acquire a suitable property at a comparatively cheap price. A nicely situated corner lot of 60×90 feet and a fairly large church, still well preserved, on it was offered to us for 3500 dollars. President Schwan appealed in the "Lutheraner" [the Missouri Synod's periodical] for gifts for the purchase of this property; the "Missions-Taube" [Mission Dove] did the same. A faithful friend of our mission offered, if the Mission Commission raised 1000 dollars, to give notes for the rest of the purchase price. Noble as this offer was, the Commission believed for various reasons that it could not accept it, but preferred to wait until enough had come in for the purpose that it could conclude the purchase independently. By September about 1500 dollars had come in, and in addition there were