Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1950, Page 32

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82 Proceedings of the Forty-First Convention,

white congregations have an exceedingly heavy mission burden of
their own, as is generally known, because of the predominantly
sectarian influence through these sections. Furthermore, our own
people still labor under stringent economic conditions. Many live
in abject poverty. Yet their souls are precious, bought by the blood
of the Lamb, and your missionaries need your continued assistance.
Though a good share of mission funds has been allocated to Negro
missions in Alabama through the past years, we have had only
a beginning in our work compared with present needs and oppor-
tunities. The Negro population of Alabama is more than one million
(983,290 according to the 1940 census). When our vision goes
beyond the borders of our State to Mississippi, Georgia, Florida,
and other neighboring States and we see how few Lutheran
churches have been established, we are convinced by the great
commission of the Savior that there are many more cities, towns,
and rural communities to be possessed.

A mission station should be opened at Tuskegee at once,
as resolved by the Milwaukee Convention of 1948. Here we have
several Lutheran families who are eager to help us start. Tuskegee
Institute has an annual attendance of 3,279 students from thirty
States and six foreign countries, including Nigeria, where God has
so richly blessed the mission work of the Synodical Conference.
Though a limited number of students would be reached, surely
here is a vital need and a golden opportunity for sending out the
Gospel light.

In Bessemer, a suburb of Birmingham and a rapidly growing
industrial center, with a population of 12,000 Negroes, we have
a nucleus of communicants with whom we should begin work
immediately. Similarly in Montgomery, the capital of our State,
located only fifty miles from our headquarters in Selma, we should
begin mission work among 45,000 Negroes. Rome has made a con-
spicuous advance in this city among the Negroes. Thus we could
go on to enumerate and describe needs.

‘Our Needs

Why can we not report greater gains in expansion in Alabama?
We have been desperately short of laborers. In our mission work
we must have laborers and chapels, and in this modern age, with
all its enticements for the old Adam in worldly entanglements, we
shall not make much progress without the Christian day school.
We now have the hope that a supply of graduates will be turned
out by Immanuel College from year to year; and as the “Lord of
the harvest” provides laborers for this mission field, the faith of
our many Lutherans throughout this God-blessed land will be
put to a test in the providing of ample means to send out and
support these laborers and in the providing of chapels and schools
for their mission endeavors. For our mission expansion program
in Alabama the Missionary Board will therefore need an additional
$100,000 in the coming biennium.

Contributions

As an evidence of zealous hearts among our own people for
mission needs and endeavors, special efforts are made in our con-
gregations to raise funds. In addition to their regular contributions