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August 1, 1952
GREETINGS, Friends and Co-Workers!
This month we published another issue of The PLAIN TRUTH.
Therefore, as I did two months ago, I send you The GOOD NEWS in the
form of this Good News LETTER.
And it is GOOD NEWS !
In ways exceeding our wildest dreams, God is proving,
more this year than any so far, that this is HIS work, sparked by
HIS power, guided and used by HIM, and abundantly blessed by HIM.
Never in all world history have so many millions heard
the very Gospel Jesus proclaimed as during this past winter's radio
season. The true Gospel of Jesus Christ His very Message was
proclaimed in power as a witness to many millions in every state,
and in most of Canada and Mexico.
Never has God used us to reap such an abundant harvest as
this year. No longer is it dozens or scores being converted, their
lives changed, and baptized, now it is HUNDREDS! By midsummer
our two baptizing teams had visited and baptized more newly
converted people than in any whole summer before. Our men in
Portland and in Eugene, Oregon, are also baptizing a number. One
of our students baptized a number here at the college in Pasadena
while I was away the first half of the summer, and I baptized
several at Gladewater, Texas, who came there when they heard I was
to be there.
Our men in Europe left Luxembourg two days ago for
Germany. In Luxembourg they arranged for The WORLD TOMORROW
program to go ON THE AIR IN EUROPEsucceeded in getting a time
cleared for us on the giant-powered station at Luxembourg. This
station is actually MORE POWERFUL than any of the Mexican stations
now being used. Its signal comes in clear and strong over all
Europe, Great Britain, North Africa, and even behind the Iron
Curtain in the Soviet Union.
My son Dick, and Herman Hoeh who is with him, report that
more people in England and in France listen to this station than
any of their own stations! That is due to two things: 1) the
programs on British and French stations are government-controlled,
and therefore government propaganda, and are not so interesting to
the public, while the people over there find more interesting
programs on Radio Luxembourg; and 2) This tremendous-powered super
station comes in on all sets so loud and clear they can actually
heat it with better reception than their own local stations in
London and Paris! It will provide us with an audience of possibly
fifty to one hundred millions of people, HEARING CHRIST'S TRUE
GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALL THEIR LIVES!
We had planned to start this European campaign next year.
Now the opportunity apparently is open to start NOW! I shall
proceed to negotiate with their United States representatives in
New York immediately, but Dick assures me he arranged with the
station to hold this precious half hour of time for us.
Because of their tremendous power and vast listening
audience, they charge about twice as much as even the most powerful
Mexican stations. We will get very little financial help from
Europe. Their governments over there do not permit their people to
send much money, and in some cases virtually none, outside their
countries. It will have to be almost wholly financed BY YOU
CO-WORKERS HERE IN AMERICA!
But if the government in Washington can afford to send
BILLIONS of our tax dollars to Europe to provide them with
munitions to be later aimed back at us, cannot we manage to send
a few hundreds of dollars to Europe to preach to them THE TRUE
GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST?
What did Jesus say of the future? He said there would be
false christs, and false prophets preaching false gospels, yet
coming in HIS NAME, deceiving the whole world. BUT, down at the
time after world war had started at the very end of this age, (Mat.
24:3-14), He said, "And this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto ALL NATIONS; and then
shall the end (of this age) come!"
Co-Workers, Jesus has not commissioned you and me to
preach this Gospel merely to our own nation. It must now go for a
witness "UNTO ALL NATIONS." Five years ago Mrs. Armstrong and I
were in Europe making the first preliminary investigations and
plans for spreading the work of proclaiming this Gospel into
England and Europe. At that time it was, and always had been,
impossible to obtain radio time to reach the masses of people by
radio. I interviewed newspaper men, and began working out a plan
to reach the people through newspapers, and by mail. But we were
not yet ready.
Now, when at last we are ready. GOD HAS OPENED THE WAY.
In the tiny nation of Luxembourg, in the heart of Europe, this
gigantic super-powered station has been raised up. They have now
actually cleared a precious half hour of time for The WORLD
TOMORROW program to reach ALL EUROPE!
This is the biggest leap forward this work ever took.
Our men are over there now, visiting Europeans in the homes, on the
streets, in hotels, talking with them, learning their attitudes and
points of view. They are learning HOW we can preach to those
people SO AS TO REALLY REACH THEM. They find that the few other
radio preachers or large church denominations that have already
used this great radio facility over there have not known HOW to
talk to Europeans. They have made blunders, said the wrong thing,
offended the people in many cases so they refuse to listen. God
has blessed us with the "KNOW-HOW." When we go on Radio Luxembourg
it will be with a program that will, first, AROUSE TREMENDOUS WIDE-
SPREAD INTEREST, and second, without offending or antagonizing the
people. TELL THEM THE TRUTH which they have never heard before.
The men we have sent there have been first educated for
their job. They speak several languages FLUENTLY, without foreign
accent just like the people there French, German, Spanish. In
many cases in France the people did not know my son Dick was an
American, accepted him as a Frenchman, and opened up and gave him
the information he was after. Now, in Germany, Herman Hoeh has the
same advantage, for he is of German blood and ancestry, and has
spoken German in his own home from a child. Our men can go where
ordinary American news correspondents cannot go. They are getting
news and significant facts for broadcasts and articles which
ordinary news correspondents NEVER GET.
I know you've already been hearing their interest-packed,
fact-full reports on the air, and you are now reading their
articles in The PLAIN TRUTH, and will in coming issues of The GOOD
NEWS.
These men will speak over Radio Luxembourg in French,
German, and Spanish, and I will speak in English. With these four
languages, we can be understood by the vast majority of all the
peoples of the many nations of Europe!
Brethren! CO-WORKERS! Do you realize what this means?
Do you grasp what is happening? Do you begin to see that
Ambassador College has been training men God has called to the
greatest, most powerful, most far-reaching ministry of all world
history? This thing is TREMENDOUS!
It is something only GOD could have brought about. We
are mere instruments yielded to Him, being used of Him!
GLADEWATER, TEXAS, PROJECT: Now about the Gladewater,
Texas project. I was held at Gladewater nearly three weeks. We
ran into many obstacles and provoking, patience-trying
difficulties. We had about given up ever being able to purchase
these two adjoining tracts of land at any price that wasn't
absolutely prohibitive. Then, finally at the last moment, we
suddenly found we were able to purchase BOTH those tracts, without
the houses we did not need up on the highway, for less than HALF of
the price we had agreed to six weeks before these owners
started going back on their word and raising their prices
exorbitantly.
So, suddenly, the two deals were closed. We now have the
deeds. I was finally able to pay cash in full on the spot for both
properties thanks to a fine young couple recently converted in
Kansas, who sent a special offering of $2,000 for this property.
Their telegram to the Pasadena headquarters telling of their
decision to give this $2,000 came the very day the owners came to
their final agreement the exact day it was needed to close the
deal! Before we left Gladewater, this young couple with their
little daughter arrived in Gladewater and I baptized them, and they
were able to see the fine properties we bought, and go thru the
grounds.
Yes, GOD is surely blessing HIS work in every way! How
THANKFUL how GRATEFUL we all should be! I asked Brother Roy
Hammer of Gladewater to take over the supervision of the project
there locally, and under his direction the beautifully wooded,
sloping grounds are being rapidly cleared of the thick underbrush
and growth that had sprung up, leaving just the fine, large shade
trees, and such smaller trees and shrubs as should be left to
beautify the grounds.
I am to meet with our architect tomorrow morning, to make
preliminary plans toward the tabernacle and combination church and
schoolhouse we shall build there. We now expect at least a few
hundred to attend the Spring Festival there next spring. We hope
to have a large temporary tabernacle, large enough to seat, and
also feed, this crowd, completed by that time. WORK MUST START ON
IT VERY SOON. I do not know yet what it will cost. We shall of
course use the lowest-cost construction that is consistent, and the
main pavilion will probably be a semi-outdoor affair, since the
festival to be held there every spring comes in a season when we
will need little or no heat, and neither will the weather at that
season be excessively hot. However, the schoolhouse and church
will have to be a little more permanent, so it can be heated in the
winter and kept reasonably cool in the heat of summer. The
architect thinks he can work out a plan so the church and the
school can use the same building and rooms, so the building will
serve both purposes, and also part of the space needed for the
spring festival. My own rough calculation indicates the cost
cannot be less that $20,000 or $25,000 at the very least, and it
may run more, for we must accommodate several hundred every spring.
Now we have left, in our special fund for this Gladewater
project, a little more than $2,500 cash. Already some $400 has
been spent on clearing, and getting the grounds in shape, and I
understand they are beginning to look very beautiful. I am very
thankful we were able to purchase the ground without buying on
time, and going into debt. I WANT TO BUILD THIS TABERNACLE THE
SAME WAY. We have a little start BUT NOW WE NEED SEVERAL
THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE, as rapidly as you can keep it coming. So
dear Co-Workers, DON'T SLACKEN on this special project. It is MOST
IMPORTANT. What a wonderful thing it will be to have such a place
of our very own for this great spring conclave where we can all
meet together for eight days. 123 came this past spring from 13
states. Next year I expect to see 400 or 500 at least, and where
it will grow to I have no idea, now. At least two dozen families
have written about moving there, so they can have regular fellow-
ship in God's own church there, and put their children in our
own school, which we hope to start there September of NEXT year,
1953.
As I mentioned over the air, however, let me CAUTION all
of you: Do not just plan impetuously, and without proper planning,
to move there. VISIT Gladewater first, look over the situation.
See whether you can locate there, whether you would start a
business there, go on a farm, or find a job. BE SURE you will have
a source of income, and have that all definite and SURE before you
move there, and avoid the terrible predicament of finding yourself
there without means of support. Brother and Sister Hammer have all
they can do to support themselves and their large family, so none
should impose on them, of course although they are glad to do all
they can to advise with you or help you in any way they can.
The Hammers there have been just overwhelmed with so many
letters they simply haven't been able to answer them. Sister
Hammer said she now can understand why so many of you can't always
get a personal answer from me to your letters. Don't be offended
at her or Mr. Hammer, or think they have ignored your letters, if
they have not yet answered they have just received more than they
could handle! We all owe them a great debt of THANKS for their
interest, help to us all, and cooperation. Since the Spring
Festival their time has been mostly taken up with this work.
Dozens and dozens have driven there to see them and this place.
Co-Workers, KEEP YOUR SPECIAL OFFERINGS COMING for this
Gladewater project. Help us put this special building fund OVER
THE TOP before we start actual construction. BUT and listen
carefully! do not specify a single dime of what you send in to
be used for this special property fund which otherwise you could
and would have sent in for the regular work.
REMEMBER, the regular work of the Gospel and the college
must go on. The college is not yet self-supporting but each year
it is GROWING and as student enrollment increases, the tuitions
from students does pay a continuously larger percentage of the
operation of the institution, so that most of the money received in
tithes and regular offerings goes to SPREAD THE GOSPEL AS A WITNESS
TO ALL NATIONS.
Once again, the regular work is in SERIOUS NEED! This
past week, for the first time in several weeks, money began to fall
off. When money received drops below quota just a few days, the
situation becomes alarming. WE MUST KEEP THIS GREAT WORK GOING
WEEK BY WEEK. There can be no let-up!
BEAR CAREFULLY IN MIND the regular Gospel work is again
running behind WE NEED MORE MONEY, and quickly! This tremendous
Gospel campaign to ALL EUROPE needs money, and IMMEDIATELY! We
must keep our two baptizing teams going, and our men in other
places. We must now raise the BUILDING FUND for the Gladewater,
Texas project. Indicate whatever you send as an EXTRA, SPECIAL
offering for the building fund, over and above your tithes and
regular offering. NO TITHE MONEY OUGHT TO GO TO THIS GLADEWATER
PROJECT. Your tithes are to spread the Gospel. So try to send an
EXTRA, and special offering over and above tithes for the
Gladewater project.
For a whole year now, you've had one of the magazines
EVERY MONTH, right on time. Isn't it all wonderful? THINK OF IT!
The Gladewater project progressing so wonderfully the biggest
harvest of souls, double any previous year, being reaped the
articles and broadcasts from Europe, and, now, at last, GOING ON
THE AIR TO ALL EUROPE! Read that over again. Can you BELIEVE IT?
My, how God is blessing His work! Let's get ON FIRE for God, and
His Work! Let's put it FIRST, before everything else. Let's make
any sacrifice to KEEP IT GOING! God bless you for your part in
this great work.
Most sincerely, in Jesus' name,
Herbert W. Armstrong
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