# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1908_S44
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

44 Proceedings of the twenty-second convention

repeated changes the members of the congregation also feel as a great disadvantage. Thus an old member said recently: "We got to break em in, an' when dey is broke in good, dey goes elsewhere." Nevertheless the congregation in the last two years raised $1292.74, almost $75.00 more than in the preceding biennium. Candidate E. Krause from our seminary in St. Louis has now accepted the call to this congregation.

St. Paul. Missionary: Pastor Lankenau. This is our most populous mission station. The number of souls is 316; the number of communicant members is 152, that of voting members 22. Communions: 524. The parochial school has four classes. To the upper class, over which Miss Lankenau presided in the school year 1906—1907, Teacher Wilder was transferred from the Bethlehem station after Miss Lankenau had moved away. The other classes were taught by the teachers Wiley, Seeberry and Miss Walter, all colored and graduates of Luther College in New Orleans. Now Teacher Wilder too, with the consent of the Commission, has accepted a call to a white school, and one more graduate of Luther College, William Seeberry, will now be appointed at St. Paul's School. Thus our Negro Mission would have a four-class parochial school in which all the teachers are Negroes trained by us. The number of pupils, which reached its peak in the school year 1906—1907, over 300, has fallen in the last year to 241. The receipts at this station for the last two years amounted to $1695.55, $196.90 more than in the previous biennium. Concerning the spiritual state of his congregation Pastor Lankenau writes: "The longer I work among this poor people, the more I learn to praise the grace of God and the power of his Word, by which so many are still brought to faith and kept in it. In spite of all hindrances we have in our colored congregations Christians as rich in knowledge and as exemplary as in the best white congregations. It is true, indeed, that they are in the minority; but where is that not the case?"

Bethlehem. Missionary: Pastor G. Kramer. This station has suffered somewhat in the last two years from repeated changes among our missionaries. In September 1906 Pastor Koßmann, who had served this station faithfully for eleven years, with the consent of the Commission accepted a call to a white congregation, and Missionary Kretzschmar served the vacant station as well. Half a year later he too found himself compelled to leave the South. In the school too, changes among the teachers took place several times. During the vacancy the station was served by our professors at Luther College. Candidate G. Kramer from the seminary in St. Louis accepted the call to this station in the summer of 1907. He writes: "New lively activity has set in again. The services