Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 28
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 28

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

25 MISSIONS

Saving Health May Be Known. an evaluation of the
Coonoor Conference, was published by Concordia
Theological Monthly (Occasional Papers No. 2, May 1968).
The March 1969 Interaction carried articles on healing
by W. F. Bulle, M. D., and Miss Marie-Louise Gebhardt.

In the fall of 1968 the Lutheran Medical Mission
Association held a medical-theological retreat at Peaceful
Valley, Colo., to explore the relationship of Christian
medical work to the healing ministry of the church.
The LMMA hopes that in many of its local chapters
there will be ongoing, in-depth study of the healing
ministry of the church and the role of the pastor, the
Christian medical worker, and every individual Chris-
tian in that mission. The Wheat Ridge Foundation pro-
vided funding for the Peaceful Valley retreat as well
as for the Coonoor Conference itself.

b. A Healing Community in Action. One example
of the spirit of Coonoor is our present involvement in
Nigeria: “loaning” personnel, equipment, and supplies
to the International Committee of the Red Cross, in
order that emergency medical care and relief can be
brought to the civilian population under terms of the
Geneva Convention. The event marked the first time
that the International Committee had used a church-
supplied staff.

New approaches in being a healing community are
being tried at Immanuel Hospital, Mambisanda, New
Guinea, where specialized ministries in public health
are being undertaken, and at Ambur, India, where
Bethesda Hospital is about to establish a totally new
approach to community health care. This experimental
program was selected as a research project by the WCC’s
Christian Medical Commission to develop ways to pro-
vide better and cheaper health care to people of emerg-
ing nations. In addition, a Family Planning Program
at Bethesda has been chosen as a model program by
the Indian government.

Major events during the past 2 years include the
completion and dedication of a new wing and surgical
theater at Immanuel Hospital, Mambisanda, New
Guinea; the dedication of Chapel of the Healer at Be-
thesda Hospital in India; and the completion of the new
nurses home at Bethesda, a special project of the Lu-
theran Women’s Missionary League. The Chapel of
the Healer is an attempt to communicate to a non-Chris-
tian community through the medium of creative archi-
tecture. The chapel was built as a demonstration of
love, made possible through the many individual gifts
of hospital staff and friends.

c. Scholarship Program. One of our greatest needs
today continues to be the training of Christian doctors
and nurses abroad and at home as medical workers
who understand their vocation as a gift of God through
which they witness for Christ and serve their fellowman.
The Medical Mission Council scholarship program is
providing funds to help some 21 medical students in
various countries. The scholarship fund, a budget item,
is heavily supplemented by contributions from inter-

ested and concerned Lutheran physicians and dentists
and from many other individuals.

d. Medical Mission Council Review Committee.
During this biennium the Medical Mission Council
Review Committee (Dr. Charles Obermeyer, Rev. O. H.
Reinboth, and Dr. Robert Hopmann) completed its
exploration of the future role of the Medical Mission
Council.

Eight meetings were held. Interviews were set up
with a number of individuals interested and/or involved
in the work of Christian medical service or its imple-
mentation in their area of responsibility within the
church.

As a result of its meetings, consultations, and dis-
cussions, the committee resolved to—

1) petition the Synod to review its own objectives,
functions, and structure to determine whether these
manifest an understanding of itself as having a healing
ministry;

2) suggest to the Synod a possible rearrangement
of divisional groupings within the Synod, placing the
Board for Missions, the Board of Social Ministry, the
Board of World Relief, as well as other pertinent boards,
into one division;

3) suggest to the Synod the creation of a “free-
standing” Council for Christian Medical Work that
would serve as adviser and consultant not only to all
the boards and staffs of the division to which it is as-
signed but also to all other boards in the healing dimen-
sion of their ministry.

The committee also drew up a listing of objectives
and functions for the proposed Council for Christian
Medical Work. The entire report of the Medical Mission
Council Review Committee, received and accepted by
the Board for Missions, will be given to the floor com-
mittee on missions. Its recommendations will be pre-
sented to the convention for action.

5. Spanish Literature: Each in His Own Tongue

a. Need. Many years ago the Missouri Synod recog-
nized the need for special literature so that Spanish-
speaking people could hear the Good Word in their
own tongue. With the percentage of illiteracy becoming
lower and lower in Latin America, there is an obvious
need for more Christian literature in both Spanish and
Portuguese. The “hunger for reading” is evident all
over Latin America.

During the recent campaigns of “Evangelism in
Depth” (Evangelismo a Fondo), the Spanish literature
office in St. Louis was flooded with orders. Not only
is more literature for evangelism needed but also for
stewardship, Christian life in general, and Sunday
school. The newly created Latin-American Lutheran
Literature Committee is devoting special attention to
the need for Sunday school materials.

b. Spanish Publications and Projects. The Synod’s
Spanish literature section has two offices, one in St. Louis
and one in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the latter. the