# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1900_S48
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

48 Proceedings of the eighteenth convention

O that this great blessing of God might awaken our dear workers in this difficult mission to new holy zeal of love, to spend themselves with joy in this blessed service of God! And might we all too, for our part, with heartiest joy promote this work, which is so ripe and white for harvest that no day, no hour of work in it is to be neglected! —

In our joyful presentation of the great blessing of God experienced upon our work we do not forget that there have also been weeds and hard struggles. The field of this heavenly sowing and harvest is, after all, the world, that is, the sum of all enmity toward God and of human wickedness, the world which is the devil's kingdom. For he is its prince and lord. O with what deadly hatred he looks upon this field of God and plots its destruction. He sows weeds among God's wheat and rouses up his Judases to vex the children of God, to grieve them, yes, to bring them to a fall. Such sad experiences also could therefore not be spared us. The most painful is this: Our Negro pastor Phifer in Charlotte, N. C., has left us and established an opposition congregation against Missionary Bakke. He was to take over two country stations of our mission, and Charlotte, with its quite considerable Negro population, was to be worked in a more emphatic way, for which his gifts and knowledge did not suffice. For two years already Pastor Bakke had stood at his side in the work there. He was borne with by us with much love and patience. But he proved himself, the longer the more, a great hindrance in this very promising mission field. On our country stations he could at least have done only less harm. But all representations, in writing on the part of the Commission and orally on the part of Prof. Fürbringer, were in vain. He revealed himself as an insincere and selfish man, who sought not the honor of Jesus and the salvation of souls, but only his own honor, his own advantage. Unfortunately he has drawn almost the whole congregation with him. Only a few families remained with Pastor Bakke. The latter is, however, full of glad hope that here too he will gather in a rich harvest from the ripe seed by God's grace. His rich experience, his glowing zeal, his splendid gift of preaching will give him victory here also. God will let him succeed and ward off the enemies!

Let us now briefly let the individual mission territories and fields pass before our eyes. The oldest first — New Orleans. There we have three stations with fine church and school buildings. The oldest station, opened in 1878 by Pastor Bakke, is Mount Zion. Since the departure of Pastor Kuß into the Missouri Synod (1898), Pastor Lankenau — now our oldest missionary there, and by God's grace rich in gifts and experience and untiringly faithful in his difficult office — has served this station along with his own, St. Paul. Vix and Meibohm are teachers in Mount Zion. In St. Paul there stood Teachers Niewedde and