p. 701 | The German Conference by L. R. Conradi

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 30, 1900

The German Conference.

By L. R. Conradi

While our first camp-meeting held at Friedensau is in the past, yet its influence still lives. About thirty-five ministerial laborers and fifty canvassers went from this meeting to all the different parts of this field, and the first quarter of our new Conference year shows encouraging results. Nearly eighty believers have been added to the church, mostly by baptism; a number of others have begun to obey, while many more are interested. Elder Klingbeil, who labors at present in Amsterdam, reports that five have begun to obey. Elder Rijsdam is in Zeeland, laboring in a new field. Elder D. F. Schuberth is called to baptize several persons in Rhenish Prussia, where Brethren Baumann and Küller are at work, also in Westphalia, Elder Aückrath’s field. Elder G. Schubert has begun another series of meetings at Hannover, and has a good interest. Our church there has forty-one members. North of Hamburg Brethren Madsen and Gröhnert are at work, and some have of late been added to the church. Captain Christiansen finds plenty of work in the great Hamburg harbor, his sales often amounting to forty or fifty dollars a week. Elder Pieper is now at work in Berlin, and some there are accepting the message. Elder Mathe baptized some at Bamberg, where Brother Sinz is at work, and is now beginning a short series of meetings at Danzig. Elder Wagner finds plenty to do among the churches in eastern Prussia, where Brother Enseleit is laboring, also at the very extreme north among the Lithuanians. Elder Lorenz has begun meetings in Breslau, while Elder Perk labors with fair success in the kingdom of Saxony.

Around Magdeburg, Halle, and Friedensau the work is also extending. Brother Wolfgarten has begun a series of meetings at Göttingen, Elder Obländer at Darmstadt, Elder Frauchiger at Carlsruhe. Brother Scharf reports a good interest in Rhenish Bavaria, Brother Gruber in Württemberg. Elder Hunergardt baptized several Hungarians, and both he and Brother Tentesch report favorable new openings in that great field. Thus far, Brother Seefried has been prevented from going to Macedonia on account of political troubles between Bulgaria and Rumania, but two Macedonians came hundreds of miles to him, to learn more of this precious truth. We have now thirty students in our industrial school, and already some from there are entering the work. Brother Lüpke and Dr. Hoenes are busy giving instruction. Our new schoolhouse will soon be finished. It, with the two barracks where our students sleep, will cost about thirteen hundred dollars.

At the old mill we have several patients, and have sent some to our other institutions. The new sanitarium is under roof, and we shall have it ready to be occupied by early spring. Thus far over twelve thousand dollars has been raised in this field for this enterprise. Our publishing house finds enough work, and last year’s statements show a present worth of forty-one thousand dollars and a gain of over five hundred dollars, though we installed our printing press, etc.

But while we have reason to rejoice, yet we long for greater power in all parts of our work. We were glad for Elder Daniells’s short visit in this Conference.

I feel grateful for the good health I enjoy with all the responsibilities. Besides the camp-meetings at Friedensau and Lausanne, I visited about twenty of our churches during last quarter, and am now on my way to our general meeting in southern Russia. What we need is more of God’s Spirit, more workers, more literature, and more money, to reach the teeming millions of the German field.

Wilejskaja, Russia. L. R. CONRADI.