Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church. Board of World Missions.

On April 10, 1886, twelve students from Augustana College and Theological Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois, organized the Swedish Foreign Missionary Society. Its purpose was to create an interest in foreign missions through prayer meetings, studying the Bible and missions, and spreading Missionary literature. Soon the name was changed to "Students' Missionary Society" and then to Augustana Foreign Missionary Society. Membership, beginning only with students soon extended to faculty and in 1895 to "any member of the Augustana Synod who was interested in foreign missions. Throughout its history, however, it was governed by students and faculty members at Augustana College and Theological Seminary." There were initial proposals to call and send out missionaries, but the synod refused to grant that authority and so the Society focused on fostering a mission spirit on the campus and gathering money to give to the Synod or to other agencies promoting foreign mission work. In 1895 a board of directors was created and the society was incorporated. In 1897 it was recognized as an official branch of Synod work and was authorized to receive donations and legacies for foreign missions. The Society's last attempt to establish its own mission field (Sudan) and support its own missionary (Ralph Hult) began in 1917 and ended in 1923.

Beginning in 1916 the Society sponsored a student representative who spent the summer educating parishioners about missions, receiving new members and bringing back offerings. Students visited as many as 110 congregations in a single summer and this project was continued until 1946.

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