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of these problems. A little over five years ago we had expanded to
the place where it required 14 men to open, read, and channel
incoming mail for reply. We had outgrown our space for them--they
were crowding into one small room. But the way had opened up for
the purchase of an empty store building, a former furniture ware-
house, which we remodelled into our present Ambassador College
Press building. These 14 men moved into what then seemed, by
comparison, a large room, about three times larger, on the second
floor of the new Press building. But today it requires 58
specially-trained men to open, read, and channel incoming mail--and
again that department has outgrown its space! In two or three more
years, it will require 100 men in that department. WHERE WILL WE
PUT THEM? Where will they work?
A little over five years ago our Printing Department
consisted of two small Davidson duplicators--small offset presses
not much larger than a mimeograph. (We do not print The Plain
Truth ourselves--it is printed in a giant commercial printing
plant which also prints West Coast editions of Time, Life, and
Newsweek). This printing department had outgrown its one
comparatively small room on first-floor rear of our comparatively
small Administration building. At that time the Printing
Department moved to new quarters in the new Press building, and two
real presses--Miehle job presses--were purchased. About two years
ago that space was outgrown. We had purchased a small one-room
building across the street that had been a small cafe. So we moved
the Davidson presses into that room, trading one for a new larger
one, and the offset Department expanded and grew. Now we have
outgrown everything again. We have made a temporary solution by
leasing a ware-house about three blocks away from our campus, and
the two printing departments are being moved there, with the
addition, now, of a large new offset press--our largest press so
far.
Our mailing room--where all requested booklets and
literature, and The Plain Truth, are addressed, sorted, and put in
mail bags--has been completely outgrown in the Press building.
Temporarily we are solving that problem by letting this department
expand into the space vacated by the printing department. But what
will we do two years from now?
You will realize that, with more than 100,000 letters coming
in every month, it is not possible for me, personally, to write a
personal answer to them. Of course, most of them request booklets
or The Plain Truth, or the Correspondence Course. But several
hundred a month ask questions that require a personal answer. To
solve that problem, I began several years ago, to train, first one
man, then two, then more and more, to answer such letters for me.
These men are either ordained ministers, or ministerial assistants
--qualified and trained men, called of God to this dedicated
special work. At the time we moved into the Press building, I
think we had only one man in the Letter-Answering Department, with
two or three part-time assistants. That man today heads the
department at our European headquarters, at the college in England.
Today, under direction of Dr. Zimmerman, there are 17 men in that
Department at Pasadena Headquarters, occupying two rooms which are
now totally outgrown. In an adjoining room are crowded 20 women