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not even any wealthy friends able to make large contributions.
Certainly no government backed us.
But The Church of God delegated to Ambassador College the
operation of its world-wide EDUCATIONAL programme. Actually the
Bible is the FOUNDATION of all knowledge. It is the great Maker's
instruction book, explaining to mankind the PURPOSE, the MEANING,
and the only right WAY of life. The true Gospel is, in actual
fact, ENLIGHTENMENT -- true KNOWLEDGE -- EDUCATION.
Almighty God has opened stupendous doors for reaching the
MASSES -- the peoples of the world -- with this Gospel MESSAGE.
Today, by radio and the printing press, we are able to reach THIRTY
MILLION PEOPLE every week with this KNOWLEDGE from God. And so,
for conducting this programme, the Church sponsored Ambassador
College until it could become self-supporting through this very
programme.
But there was, even so, very little money to start. MUCH had
to be done with little. We were not able to start out with great
cathedral-like buildings and vast properties. I know of no work on
earth where SO MUCH has been accomplished on so little.
A year before the first college started, in Pasadena
California, we found an old mansion -- former residence of a
wealthy family -- grown to weeds, which we could purchase at a
fraction of original cost We remodelled the buildings cleaned up
the grounds, replanted the gardens, and soon we had, for very
little money, a fine and beautiful place of tone and character,
with magnificently landscaped grounds. Gradually, as the college
grew through the years, we purchased four adjoining old mansions,
one at a time, restoring them, likewise, by hard work and
diligence, to former stately beauty.
This same procedure was followed in establishing the college
here in England. We found a proud old property -- still not so
old, built in 1925 -- which had been vacant two years, also
neglected, grown to weeds hip-high. It had been a very fine
property. But since the war, few if any people can afford to
maintain and live in these large estates. In this case, the owners
were dead, and left no descendants. We were able to purchase this
property at a very low price. And it was purchased entirely with
money donated by Co-Workers abroad. Not a penny of British money
went into it.
Again, by hard work and diligence, we restored this fine
property to even better than original beauty.
But here, as in our other colleges, the time came when we
outgrew these original properties, and it became necessary to
construct additional new buildings. Even so, we are not building
great, costly, cathedral-like structures, but functional buildings
that give us the most in usage, on the smallest budget consistent
with practical quality. We remodelled and converted a former
cow-barn into a modern and attractive girls' dormitory. We
remodelled a former electric generator building into the student
dining hall. We remodelled a former block of horse stables into