# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1910_S38
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

38 Proceedings of the twenty-third convention

right due it by the election of Pastors W. Hallerberg and
L. A. Wisler of St. Louis. Toward the end of last year the
treasurer for the Negro Mission, Mr. H. A. Schenkel, moved away from St. Louis
and thereby left the Commission. In his place
Mr. H. L. Döderlein of St. Louis was elected. Mr. Schenkel was a
faithful, zealous member of the Commission, served gladly with counsel and deed,
and was tirelessly concerned for the advancement of our Mission. The
Commission, whose present members were almost entirely new and therefore more or less unacquainted with
the Negro Mission, has earnestly endeavored to grasp its task and to
discharge it to the best of its knowledge and conscience. It has held regular monthly meetings,
besides which many extra meetings, and has kept exact minutes of its
proceedings.

3. True, we do not have so many vacancies in the Negro Mission at present
as two years ago, and yet it has not been possible
to fill them all, partly for lack of the necessary workers, partly, however, and chiefly, for lack of the necessary means.
It would have been a great joy to the Commission if it could have reported to the
Synodical Conference: The treasury debt is paid off, and we have been able not only to maintain the Mission adequately
but also to extend it considerably. The debt has indeed been
reduced, but it still amounts to $6000.00, and in order not to fall deeper into it again,
the Commission had to postpone, much as it regretted it,
requested salary increases and necessary repairs and
could not think of special steps for the expansion of our
Mission. It is to be regretted that it stands so. For years
it has not stood so in the Negro Mission; receipts have
decreased, as a comparison will show. The treasurer's report
to the Synodical Conference at Chicago in the year 1906 showed total
receipts of $62,522.28, the treasurer's report presented two years ago
at New Ulm, Minn., total receipts of
$74,502.49; this year's treasurer's report, however, shows total
receipts of only $58,462.62. Whence may this decrease
come? It cannot have been caused by our congregations not having been told
the financial situation of the Negro Mission; for in the synodical periodicals the Commission
at the time sounded a special call for help, and in the "Missionstaube" [Mission Dove] attention has been drawn again and again to our need and help
has been asked. Or has the sense, the love for the Mission,
especially for the Negro Mission, decreased so much that we must begin
to curtail it? We do not believe that; for we have
found that everywhere where the Negro Mission was properly presented, its
situation described and its needs made clear to our Christians and
laid on their hearts, gifts for the Negro Mission also
flowed in abundantly. If that were done everywhere in our congregations,
the Negro Mission would have no lack of money. The Synodal-