Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Page 387
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 387

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

SOCIAL ACTION AND WELFARE 387

Recruitment of full-time workers — teachers, social
workers, deaconesses, therapists of various kinds — for
work in our day-school classes and residential facilities
will continue to be an important thrust of the com-
mission.

Special Day Schools — A future project will be for
our congregations in large metropolitan centers to con-
sider special Lutheran schools for the retarded such as
now exist in St. Louis and Milwaukee. As we provide
the means to train future workers in this field, the op-
portunities for their placement service will be found as
our people consider their responsibilities under God to
serve their fellowmen.

Publications and Public Relations — An updated film-
strip has been previewed for future use by congrega-
tions on the subject of “Organizing and Maintaining
Church-School Classes for the Mentally Retarded.”

The commission is aware of its responsibilities and
the need for providing services to the retarded in God’s
kingdom. It is with His continued help and blessings
that we look to the future.

Members of the Commission for Services to the Men-
tally Retarded are: Mr. Victor Bunge, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa; Mr. Clifford Lochhaas, Elma, N. Y.; Rev. Hubert
May, Oxford, Mich.; Mr. John C. Mueller, Godfrey, I1.;
Rev. Bert. O. Streufert, Faribault, Minn.; Rev. H. A.
Timm, Peoria, Ill.; and advisory members: Dr. Audrey
Avery, Willits, Calif., Miss Elise Kammeyer, Loveland,
Colo.; plus the undersigned.

Karu E. HoipErte Jr., Chairman
FREDERICK MATZKE, Secretary
MarsHAtt R. NELSON, Executive Secretary

(9-04)
Report of Board of World Relief

One cannot but approach the task of preparing a
World Relief report with mixed emotions.

On the gladdening side are the touching words of
gratitude which have come to us from many people
of many lands to whom the loving hand of our church
in their time of distress meant so much.

On the saddening side is the knowledge that a great
sea of human sorrow remains all around us. Hunger
and poverty continue to scourge the bigger part of the
human family. There is in many lands the kind of
simmering restlessness which poverty provokes. The
poor so often cannot recognize the perfidy of evil voices
that beckon to them under a smokescreen of alluring
promises.

We are mindful as well of the fury with which hur-
ricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and fires sweep
away homes and lives, of the tribulation that comes to
many brethren of the faith who live behind a cold Iron
Curtain and of the great hurt suffered by countless
refugee families in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Ni-
geria/Biafra, the homeless victims of the hatreds and
greeds spawned by war. Life is often merciless.

Our church needs a stronger voice in a world of har-

ried nations and people, and it needs to speak as boldly
with its hands as with its lips.

The report which follows tells in part how The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod through its Board of
World Relief sought through 1967 and 1968 to address
itself to this challenge and to demonstrate tangibly in
a world of pain what Christian love is made of and what
a wonderful God it is who generates it.

Organization

Administratively the work of the Board of World
Relief falls into two divisions:

a. services rendered through Lutheran World Re-
lief, Inc., of which it is part;

b. services and projects which it conducts indepen-
dently.

Shipments of food, clothing, medicines, and the like
belong in the first division.

Grants (allocation of funds) belong for the most in
the second. These are normally made in support of
projects intimately related to the work of interests of
our own Synod and its missionaries.

Members of the Board of World Relief are appointed
by the Board of Directors of Synod. The following
served during 1967 and 1968:

Rev. Robert J. Riedel, chairman; Rev. Ernest R.
Drews, secretary; Mr. Marvin F. Borgelt, Mr. Herbert
P. Buetow, Mr, Walter L. Pfluger, Dr. Alvin W. Mueller.

Dr. Werner Kuntz has served as director of the pro-
gram since its inception in 1953. Regulations call for
his retirement at the end of the current year. The board
is at this writing in the process of calling a successor.
The present office staff numbers four and is frequently
augmented to eight by volunteers.

Countries

During the past 2 years assistance of one kind or
another was given to people of many lands. While as
a general practice help is given on the basis of need
without regard for race, color, or creed, it has been
possible to give assistance also to fellow Lutherans who
faced special trials. Assistance was directed to people
in the following countries:

Food, Clothing, Allocations for

Medicines Parcels Projects
Brazil East Germany East Germany
Greece Poland India
Guatemala Hungary Taiwan
Hong Kong Czechoslovakia Jordan
India U.S.S.R. — Estonia Tanzania
Indonesia U.S.S.R —Lithuania Philippines

ran
Jordan — East Bank U.S.S.R.— Latvia Brazil
Jordan — West Bank Greece
Korea Nigeria/Biafra
Liberia Vietnam
New Guinea Canada
Nigeria/Biafra U.S.A,
Philippines Argentina
Syria
Taiwan
Tanzania
Vietnam

Zambia