# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1863_S275
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report of the sixth regular synodical assembly of the Norwegian Evang.-Luth. Church. 275

thank Him sufficiently. As was resolved at the previous synodical assembly, the school was moved from the parsonage in the Half-Way-Creek congregation to Decorah, Iowa, where a building was bought for $950 to serve as a residence for Prof. Schmidt, and another for $1660 to serve as a schoolhouse and residence for the director of the institution, Prof. Larsen. Through the tireless zeal and effort of both him and of Pastor Koren, Gulbrand Olsen, and several others, the fitting-out of the building was finished by roughly the beginning of the school year, and now a crowd of pupils streamed in, as many as the house could hold — 32 in all. At the beginning of February I was present at an examination held there; it was a joy to me to witness the good progress the pupils had made, but even more the good discipline that marked everything in the school, the affectionate bearing which, as I had ample opportunity to observe, prevailed between teachers and pupils, and the order with which both the school and the household were administered. And as for the teachers in particular, it is a dear duty for me to testify to the Synod that they devote themselves to their heavy but blessed calling with proficiency and untiring diligence, with desire and love; may God reward them for it! The Synod will recall that the board fee for each pupil was set last year at only $40 a year; if, despite this and despite the rise in the price of provisions, the school household has nevertheless even been carried on with a surplus, then it is again He whom we must praise for it, who directs the hearts of men like watercourses and who has given the members of our congregations the desire and cheerfulness to support the pupils with their gifts, and so to labor for God's kingdom among us.

But while the Lord has thus opened to us joyful prospects with regard to the advancement of His kingdom among us in the days to come, He has also not forgotten to provide for our immediate need. In our fatherland, where indifference, indeed in some cases even ill-will, seems to have been aroused against us, the Lord nevertheless let our cry of need reach the heart of a man who, as pastor of the congregation at La Crosse, has now for almost a year become our fellow-worker in the Lord's vineyard, namely Pastor Frich. Pastor O. Hjort, who was ordained at last year's synod, has since that time served the parish at Painted Creek. But there is indeed still a whole company of young men who desire to labor with us in the office of the Word for the salvation of souls. These too the Lord has brought to us, and indeed three of them from our own midst. It is three or four years since they entered the practical-theological seminary, then at Fort Wayne; having now completed their preparation for the holy preaching office, they have together with Pastor Krohn, who came over from Norway as a seminarian two years ago, undergone an examination, at which Pastor Ottesen