Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1950, Page 47

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Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1950 47

“Unbounded joy was brought to the heart of a mother when
her 19-year-old invalid son was received into God’s covenant of
grace by Baptism. She had been under the impression that abso-
lutely nothing could be done for her unfortunate boy. Recently,
when he fell asleep, the parents took comfort from Is. 54: 10, God’s
eternal covenant of peace.

“With the continued supervision and support of the Missionary
Board, with painstaking instruction of candidates and regular serv-
ices, and, above all, with the Spirit of the Lord upon us, we move
slowly forward in His name until we are able to stand by ourselves
and do for others what others have done and are still doing for us,”

Concordia, Montrose, Ala.

Pastor: A. Dominick Baptized Membership: 145
Teacher: Wilhelmina Gildersleeve Communicant Membership: 77

The Montrose congregation was established as a result of work
in the Oak Hill section of the Alabama field. One of the men from
the Oak Hill section, while not a Lutheran, was so impressed with
the schoolwork of the Lutherans that he inquired whether such
a school could not be opened in the Montrose area to which he
had moved. The letter was forwarded to the Mobile pastor,
Wm. Wolff, who took occasion to speak to the assembled men. One
meeting led to another, and finally a congregation was organized.
It is to the credit of God’s Word that the organizers of this con-
gregation were men who formerly belonged to a secret order in
Montrose, but who, having seen the sinfulness of their membership,
renounced this order.

The present pastor, A. Dominick, writes the following with
respect to this congregation:

“Known first as the Daphne Mission, and later Montrose, and
having ‘weathered rather severe storms and trials . . . of opposi-
tion,’ this congregation was organized in March, 1931, and began
to grow appreciably.

“A day school was begun; however, largely on account of the
lack of proper certification of teachers (the county supervisor
being adamant in this), changes had to be made for several years,
so that more than a dozen teachers have served the school since
its establishment.

“The congregation contributes toward the teacher's salary,
and it has recently replaced most of the homemade school seats with
modern new desks. The Young People’s Society has furnished
the school with a very up-to-date, expensive map.

“Tired of worshiping in an old lodge building, the congregation
decided to build its own church. An acre of land was given by
a member, and the brethren went to work with a will, made
concrete blocks on the beach, and, with some help from the field,
erected and paid for their own chapel.

“Concordia is supervising two branch Sunday schools, one at
Point Clear, a few miles to the south, where 12 communicants and
10 children reside, and the other at Belforest, several miles to the
northeast, where nine souls live.

“A perennial, disconcerting circumstance is the defection of
many young men, which does not bode well for the future of the
congregation.