Evangelical Lutheran Church. Board of Foreign Missions.

The first American Lutheran missionaries to arrive in Madagascar were the Rev. Johan P. and Lena Hogstad. The Hogstads began work in Fort Dauphin among the Tanosy people in 1888. The Rev. Erik H. and Caroline Tou followed in 1889 to start work in Manasoa. The Hogstads and the Tous had offered themselves for mission work while part of a student mission body at Augsburg Seminary. Their support was assumed by the Norwegian-Danish Conference, although they were under the supervision of the Norwegian Missionary Society.

In 1890 the Norwegian-Danish Conference became a part of the merger that created the United Norwegian Lutheran Church (United Church), which in turn became a part of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America in 1917, renamed Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 1946 (ELC). In 1892 the NMS agreed to turn over the care of the work in Southern Madagascar to the United Church.

When a group calling itself the Friends of Augsburg split from the United Church in 1893, it took with it the western part of the southern work. The Friends of Augsburg became known as the Lutheran Free Church (LFC) in 1897. The mission work was organized as a separate corporation called the Lutheran Board of Missions (LBM).

The missionaries of the ELC in Madagascar held annual conferences to determine policy and direct the work. Although the numbering of these conferences started over with the formation of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, (Conferences of the United Church (1899-1917) were numbered 1-20, and the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (1918-1946) and the ELC (1946-1954) together were numbered 1-37), the numbering of the items within the reports continued consecutively from one group to the next. Thus the last item of the twentieth conference of the United Church was #346 and the first item of the first conference of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America was #347.

The Fiangonana Loterana Malagasy, translated Malagasy Lutheran Church (MLC), was organized in 1950, with congregations from the missions of the NMS, the ELC, and the LFC. The MLC did not gain full autonomy until 1974.

From the description of Program Files 1888-1959. (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 48087100