Missouri Synod Undertakes Foreign Missions

Abstract

It was 1893, a depression year economically. But it was a great year within the Missouri Synod. At its triennial convention, Synod resolved to open two educational institutions, Concordia College of St. Paul, Minn., and a teachers\u27 college in Nebraska. These were the first schools sponsored by Synod from their very inception. A consecrated Lutheran layman, J. P. Baden of Winfield, Kans., appropriated $50,000 toward the establishing of a college in the West. This became St. John\u27s English Lutheran College of Winfield. Concordia Publishing House dedicated a new building on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Miami Street. This had cost$23,570. Mr. Ed. J. Pahl of Michigan City, Ind., wrote the letter which, under God, launched Synod into work among the deaf. Two men who later were to take a prominent place in the history of Synod accepted calls to the St. Louis Seminary- L. Fuerbringer and F. Bente. From May 20 to 23 twelve young people\u27s groups met in Buffalo, N. Y., and organized the International Walther League. And-for us the most important item - the convention, assembled in Holy Cross Church, St. Louis, April 26 to May 6 of that same year, voted to undertake a mission of its own in some heathen country