LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1979, Page 187

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LATE REPORTS AND OVERTURES 187

Iraqi Kurds and Latin Americans. The Kurdish effort
was completed in October 1977 with the arrival of the 29
families having 72 members who were assigned to the
agency. In 1977, 21 Lutheran-sponsored families having
77 members arrived from Latin America, and in ’78, 57
families arrived. Sponsors are being sought for an
additional 100 Latin American families, part of a
recently approved program admitting 500.

With the assistance of a grant from the Aid Associ-
ation for Lutherans, LIRS convened a national confer-
ence on undocumented aliens in November 1978 in
Burbank, Calif. The material presented to the 90 partic-
ipants and the communication process that evolved will
be utilized to shape a Lutheran outreach ministry
related to this critical issue, including study materials a
local congregation can use.

National Youth Agency Relationships

“Side by side” expresses a current emphasis of the
Department of National Youth Agency Relationships
aimed at increased understanding of how Lutheran
congregations and Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire,
4-H, and similar agencies can work together in a
ministry with, by, for, and to youth. The emphasis has
been carried out at a conference held in the summer of
1977 involving national Lutheran leaders, and in
November 1978 a second conference focused on the
district-synodical level. Local workshops will complete
this emphasis.

“Side by side” was also the theme of a common
bulletin insert produced by the department for Sundays
in 1979 set aside to recognize Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
Camp Fire, and 4-H. The insert promoted the three
religious-growth programs offered by the department
for Lutheran youth who belong to these agencies: Pro
Deo et Patria, which has existed since 1944; God-Home-
Country, started in 1951; and God and Family, intro-
duced in 1977.

Because in 1978 the number of Pro Deo emblems
granted fell to a new low of 299, this and the God-Home-
Country program were recently reviewed by the de-
partment’s standing committee with assistance from a
task force of Christian educators and writers of Chris-

tian education materials. The decision expected was to.

develop a single new program called “Life with Christ.”
In 1977, 446 Pro Deo emblems were granted. Statistics
on the other programs for the two years were: God-Home-
Country, 78 and 97; God and Family, 72 and 373.

Something of a first related to religious-growth
programs took place in October 1978 just prior to the
41st national convention of the Girl Scouts in Denver.
Nearly 500 delegates and guests attended a panel
presentation of all such activities available to Girl
Scouts, and afterwards a group of 70 Lutherans met
separately to be led in devotions by an LCMS campus
pastor, Willard Rinnert, who serves at the University of
Denver.

Efforts to get Boy Scout camps to employ full-time
chaplains at their summer camps, carried out through
the Church Commission on Civic Youth-Serving Agen-
cies, have been enlarged to include placing spiritual

counselors and catalysts of worship experiences at Girl
Scout, Camp Fire, and 4-H camps. The commission’s
chaplaincy committee is also responsible for securing
the two Protestant chaplains who serve throughout the
summer at Philmont Scout Ranch, a national high
adventure camp in New Mexico. In 1978 and again in
79 both were Lutherans. The committee had arranged
for two chaplains—one being a Lutheran—to go to Boy
Scouting’s World Jamboree this summer in Iran. This
event was canceled because of the country’s revolution,
and an international camping experience is being re-
scheduled for 1980, probably in Sweden, with the same
two chaplains again available.

Sixty-eight representatives of 20 Lutheran Associ-
ations of Scouters and Committees on Scouting in 17
states attended the first national forum for such groups
in May 1978 in Des Plaines, Ill. Their decision to
establish a National Lutheran Association of Scouters
is expected to be carried out at the second forum in April
1980 at the headquarters building of the International
Lutheran Laymen’s League, St. Louis. The new associ-
ation would promote the sharing of ideas and resources
among the local associations and committees, which
now number 50, and help promote the programs of the
Department of National Youth Agency Relationships.

A Lutheran section in a general conference at
Philmont Scout Ranch on “Scouting in the Church’s
Ministry” this July continues the tradition of a training
event for Lutherans held there each summer since 1961.
Fifty Scouters were to attend, the same number that
participated in a separate Lutheran workshop on
Scouting last summer at Philmont. One highlight was a
day spent observing Scouts engaged in outdoor experi-
ences and considering the spiritual implications of such
experiences.

Among developments in relationships with 4-H is
Lutheran participation in an ad hoc committee seeking
to renew an emphasis on the moral and spiritual values
of this government-related program. The committee is
preparing a basic document highlighting the “heart” H
(the others are “head,” “hands,” and “health’).

For their distinguished service to Lutheran youth
through the various civic agencies, 15 members of
Missouri Synod congregations received the depart-
ment’s Lamb award in 1977 and 12 in 1978. The total
number of awards given Lutherans each of those years
was 59. Synod recipients included Donald J. Hoeppner
of Milwaukee, whose father Arnold had received the
same honor in 1961.

American Indian Services

Assisting 41 American Indian tribes not yet Fed-
erally recognized to obtain such recognition received
attention at the 1979 annual meeting last February of
the National Indian Lutheran Board, which is admini-
stered by the division’s Indian services desk and since
1970 has been the official channel of communication
between ‘“‘Indian country’’ and the Lutheran
community. Plans were made to hold workshops in
Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Sacramento, and New
Orleans, aimed at generating broad Lutheran and