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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1935, Page 152

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

152 Proceedings of Thirty-Sixth Regular Convention,

Committee 10 reported: —

Your Committee has carefully considered the report of your
Board for Missions in South America as well as the several memorials
pertaining to this work. Our mission endeavors in the two South
American Districts have enjoyed signal blessing during the. past
years. According to Synod’s statistician the Brazil District shows an
increase of 3,640 souls and the Argentine District of 954 souls, an in-
crease of 12 per cent., and 10 per cent., respectively. This represents
a larger increase than that of any other District of Synod. Nine con-
gregations have become self-sustaining during the past three years.
This makes a total of fourteen self-sustaining congregations.

We recommend that Synod recognize with gratitude to God the
abundant blessings showered upon this particular mission-work.

We further recommend that Synod recognize the faithful labor
and self-sacrificing spirit of its missionaries in South America, who
have cheerfully foregone furloughs to which they were entitled, in the
interest of economy. We wish to bring to the attention of Synod
that the missionaries in recent years have brought tremendous sac-
rifices, and in the opinion of your Committee this situation should be
remedied as soon as possible.

The most important matter before your Committee was the
request of the Board for Missions in South America for a chapel
in Rio de Janeiro as presented in unprinted Memorial 19. After due
consideration and consultation with the members of your Board, Vice-
President Berndt of Argentina, Mr. Henry W. Horst, and a number of
former missionaries who have personal knowledge of ‘the field in Rio
de Janeiro, we are fully convinced that for the success of our im-
portant mission in Rio de Janeiro a suitable chapel is an absolute
necessity. It is the opinion of your Committee that the erection of
such a chapel will also exert a wholesome influence on our whole
work in Brazil. Since, however, the mission in Rio de Janeiro is
unable to provide its own house of worship, your Committee recom-
mends that Synod instruct its Church Extension Board to grant an
immediate loan of $15,000 to the Board for Missions in South America
for the purchase of the necessary real estate and the erection of a
suitable chapel, school, and parsonage for the mission in Rio de
Janeiro.

In support of this recommendation we wish to call attention to
the fact that Synod, assembled in convention at Milwaukee ‘three
years ago, resolved that its Board of Directors be authorized to assist
this mission in its efforts to erect a suitable chapel. The Board of
Directors, however, felt constrained to ask the brethren in South
America to exhaust their own resources before making any appropria-
tion. We wish to inform Synod that this has been done. According