April 18, 1960  
April 18, 1960 - Brethren & Co-Workers Letter
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Herbert W Armstrong 

The WORLD TOMORROW
A WORLDWIDE BROADCAST

HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG

Proclaim to the World the GOOD NEWS OF THE WORLD TOMORROW

Box 111, Pasadena, Calif. 91109

Publishing: The PLAIN TRUTH a Magazine of UNDERSTANDING

April 18, 1960

Dear Co-Workers with Christ:

   We are encountering some very rough going at this point in the great and all-important work of God. Christ never intended our Mission for Him to be easy. Like a voyage by ship at sea, we might encounter some very stormy weather. God allows these obstacles to test our faith, develop patience, stiffen character.

   I thank you, dear Co-Workers, from the very bottom of my heart for the fine and generous response of many of you—so far—to my last letter. BUT we cannot work out of this situation immediately —and now a new obstacle has been thrown in our path.

   For one thing, persecution is setting in against proclaiming Christ's Gospel with such power every night in Australia. Right now we are in a desperate struggle to stay on. Jesus Christ opened this powerful door for us in Australia a little more than six months ago. I do not believe He will allow MEN to close it—UNLESS He considers that AUSTRALIA HAS ALREADY HAD HIS GOSPEL DECLARED AS A WITNESS, as far as He requires it! I need your DILIGENT, EARNEST, BELIEVING PRAYERS! If we lift up our voices TOGETHER, urgently, with real concern, God will hear us and answer!

   And another serious situation has developed right here on our headquarters college campus.

   So far we have purchased only about two-thirds of the ground we must have to complete our college campus. As it is now, there are lots, or strips of property we have not yet acquired, IN BETWEEN portions of our campus. Recently a certain real estate broker has been trying to buy two or three such blocks of ground, right in the midst of our campus, for a client who wishes to build a FACTORY on this ground. Now, once a factory is built, jutting into the midst of our campus, we could probably never buy this ground at any price—and the entire lovely college campus would be ruined.

   About two months ago one of these properties went on the market. We had to buy it, or see the factory go up. Backing up to this property is a half-block dead-end street off of Terrace Drive, the very center axis street in the midst of our grounds. We already owned all the property on both sides of this short dead- end street except one 50-foot lot. It is necessary for us to acquire this and get permission from the city to CLOSE this short street, in order to have room to build our new dining hall.

   Already our students are jammed into first floor Mayfair, as our outgrown dining hall. Our cooks have to cook food for 250 students three times a day in a kitchen designed and built for a family of three or four. Even so, we have planned to keep squeezing into this overcrowded space another year or more until we can build the new dining hall—but even if we delay building the new hall, WE MUST BUILD IT in a year or two, or have no room to feed our students.

   We signed up the owner of this lot and paid the deposit. He signed the real-estate broker's agreement. But before our broker got him into the escrow office to sign the escrow papers, his wife was taken to the hospital with an illness, and until now these papers have not been signed. Now the broker representing this factory has offered them one-third MORE than our price—and for CASH. Also he demands an entrance through this dead-end street, so we could never close it. It would completely ruin our college campus.

   This is only one example. We have our own Real Estate department, headed by a licensed and thoroughly experienced leading broker. He advises me that the situation is now such that we must MOVE FAST, and tie up several additional parcels of ground—mostly in a district of 50-foot lots, with one or two old houses on each— with OPTIONS, in order to prevent having to purchase many of them outright for CASH at a greatly inflated and exorbitant figure. We must get to these owners before the opposition broker does.

   To help do this we can, if there is no other recourse, borrow a certain amount of a bank or loan company, by mortgaging some of our property which is paid out, or almost paid out. But such loans cost us heavy fees for appraisals, for making the loans, and then a high rate of interest beside—probably 6.6% or 7%.

   Co-Workers, if you will really take this emergency to heart and help us, I hope we can avoid having to make such loans—and we cannot borrow enough by this method to handle the situation, even if we do!

   I have to ask you three things.

   1) All of you to try to send in still more, even at sacrifice, IMMEDIATELY, beside the most liberal offerings you possibly can during May and June, and after. I think many of us can squeeze things to send in a little more—as much more as possible.

   2) Several of you, who are in position to do so, to loan to this work the largest sums you can. Several of our Co-Workers have a good sum of money, which you may be unable to GIVE, because you are forced to use the income or interest from it to live on. It might be in the form of bonds, or stocks, or cash, or other investments. In a few instances in the past, we have found a way by which this capital may be put to work, being used in GOD'S WORK, and by which also we pay you at whatever regular intervals you specify, a sum equal to, or larger than the income you receive at present. Although God's Word does not allow God's people to take interest or usury from one another, or from His work, (although it does allow us to take interest from a bank or unconverted person), yet God has shown us ways that are right in His sight and according to Scripture by which such people may receive an equal or larger income, with safety and dependable security, while such capital amounts are being PUT TO WORK, helping build God's Work, and get HIS GOSPEL MESSAGE TO THE MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD!

   I will be glad to answer any questions, supply any information required, to any of you who may be willing to transfer investments you may have, so that the capital sums may be PUT TO WORK in GOD'S WORK. To save time, you might call immediately, long distance. We are simply having to make a slightly larger than normal expansion, right now, in one or two directions, and we need this additional help at this point. At the same time I have taken steps to retrench wherever possible, without harm to the future of the work, making many cuts in operation expenditures.

   3) I ask every one of you to TAKE THIS TO HEART, and TO GOD, ON YOUR KNEES, IN REAL EARNEST PRAYER.

   We are merely instruments GOD IS USING—and using effectively. Some TEN MILLION people now hear the gospel every week by radio. Another SEVEN MILLION or more every month by magazines or powerful literature in print. This great work is WORLD WIDE.

   Let's get behind this great work—the most important thing in our lives—as never before! Let's sacrifice, and PRAY! God will see us through. THANK YOU, dear Co-Workers, I know you will!

Sincerely and URGENTLY, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong

Publication Date: April 18, 1960
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