Pr. Herzberger continued to work towards the goal he had set – the founding of a Deaconess Association in the Lutheran Church. Shortly before the next convention of the Associated Lutheran 
Charities in July 1919, he published another paper titled “Woman’s Work in the Church”, which stressed the need for trained women church workers. “Why have we Lutherans of the Synodical Conference failed so far to make a systematic use of the many gifted and pious women the Lord has given also to us for work in the fields entrusted to our stewardship?”
At the convention, it was decided to organize a Lutheran Deaconess Association with headquarters at Ft. Wayne and to request the Ft. Wayne Lutheran Hospital Association to admit students who wished to become deaconess nurses to its training school. A group petitioned the Board of the Ft. Wayne Lutheran Hospital, and in August 1919, the Lutheran Deaconess Association of the Evangelical-Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was organized. The first students enrolled in the course were Ina Kempff, Clara Dienst, Bessie Stenke, Clara Wiebke and Muriel Watson.
Deaconess students would take courses in theoretical and practical training as nurses and also receive special instruction in religious and other subjects designed especially to prepare them for their service as deaconesses. Pastors of Ft. Wayne agreed to serve as instructors.
According to the Articles of Incorporation, January 1920, the object of the Association is “to educate and train Lutheran deaconesses for the care of the sick and the poor, for the administering of charity and mercy in charitable institutions and in home and foreign mission work, and to erect and maintain Lutheran Deaconess Schools, Motherhouses, and other institutions of like character.”
To Be Continued…
(the photo is of the Deaconess Home and Training School in Ft. Wayne, Indiana)
