Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1941 · 38th Convention, Fort Wayne › Page 224

LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1941, Page 224

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

224 Reports and Action on Various Mission-Fields

expects to begin building operations this summer with the aid of
a loan from the General Church Extension Fund.

At present we have twenty-one workers in the Missions to the
Deaf and the Blind. Their services are welcomed at many institu-
tions, especially in schools and hospitals for the deaf and the blind
At three stations our missionaries preach also to the colored deaf.
‘The St. Louis missionary is also instructing students at the semi-
naries in St. Louis and Springfield in the sign-language. When the
participation of the student-bodies becomes more general, decided
benefits will accrue to the Church.

That our missionaries come into contact with many children
and adults from coast to coast, from Texas into Canada, can be seen
from the following general survey of the work done in the past

three years: Total Figures Total Figures Total Figures
tor 1938 tor 1939 tor 1940
Number of stations 237 245 250

Voting members ...... . 324 323 322
Communicants 2,184 2,241 2,216
Communed oot 5,756 5,841 6,383
Confirmed oo 138 107 118
Baptized, adults _.. 43 28 30
Baptized, children 50 33 60
Marriages . 37 29 61
Burials __..... 35 25 44
Number of services - 2,064 2,954 2,669
Periods of instructions ... 2,192 2,035 2,500
Pastoral and missionary calls _..... 7,010 7,407 8,142
Children of all ages under in-

Struction nee 626

The work among the blind is carried on chiefly through the
means of monthly and quarterly periodicals and through corres-
pondence. The periodicals are: The Lutheran Messenger, a monthly
in English Braille; The Lutheran Herald in Moon type and Der
_Lutherische Bote in German Braille, quarterlies. Tracts in Spanish
are sent out annually to some addresses. Other books on the
market in English Braille are: Luther’s Catechism, A-Bible His-
tory, The Life of Dr. Martin Luther, a hymnal, and a prayer-book.

The official organ of these missions is the Deaf Lutheran,
a four-page monthly, which is used by the missionaries to keep
in touch with their members and also in their mail-mission work
among isolated deaf. The editor is Pastor O.C. Schroeder, Pastor
E. Mappes is assistant editor, and the business manager is Pastor
N. P. Uhlig. .

The Board is indeed grateful to Synod and happy for the mis-
Sionaries that about one half of their 20-per-cent. cut in salaries has
been restored.