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-- it means we are reaching at least a hundred and fifty MILLION
more people than before -- and that is exactly what the HEAD of
this Work, Jesus Christ, has led us into. But we are simply going
to have to tighten our belts, and try to contribute more money if
we possibly can -- for we are now on the HOME STRETCH of this
whole Work, nearer and nearer to Christ's coming -- to the END of
this world and the BEGINNING of the wonderful, happy WORLD
TOMORROW!
It also confronts us with another serous problem.
In 1960 we began to encourage loans from Co-Workers as a
means of increasing the dollars available for the Work. Many
Co-Workers responded. The total amounts were comparatively small
in 1960 -- but they helped. But the total amounts we have received
as loans have increased every year. And now our Business Office,
and financial advisers have brought a problem to me. I am sure
that many of our Co-Workers have believed that LOANS do as much
good for the Work as tithes and offerings. But THAT IS NOT TRUE --
because loans must show up on our books as LIABILITIES -- and
demand short-term liabilities at that -- NOT as assets.
Because of the careful manner in which we have handled
finances, banks and insurance companies have come to recognize us
as a successful, reliable, and financially sound organization of
integrity.
This situation was brought to my attention because, I,
myself, had made such loans. I think I have mentioned before that,
in 1947 when Ambassador College was starting, a home had been
providentially offered to Mrs. Armstrong and me at half its
market value without even a down payment, and no interest. The
payments, I discovered on figuring, would be no more than we had
been paying for two rented rooms in a rooming house in Eugene,
Oregon. We had sold our home there two years before, and put the
money in the Work. But living in this rooming house, without a
real home of our own, we had to eat meals at restaurants. My wife
was a very economical cook -- and we could eat on far less cost at
home than at restaurants. The combined cost of restaurant eating,
(our two sons were still unmarried and living at home), plus the
room rent, just equalled the payments on the home in Pasadena, plus
the grocery bill. It certainly seemed providential -- and it was
a well-built, fairly large house, yet far less costly than a very
small house.
About three-and-a-half or four years ago, we sold our home,
and, keeping one-sixth of the money to pay capital gains tax and
add a little to our personal bank account, we LOANED the
five-sixths to the Work. I'm afraid we, like many Co-Workers, took
it for granted that it would help the Work as much as an outright
gift or donation. It was a fairly sizeable sum, because property
values had increased, and we sold it at appraised market value, but
had bought it at half market value. Of course it had been paid for
and we owned it clear when sold. Then when my wife died, nearly
two years ago, there was a fairly good sized insurance payment to
me which I also loaned. There had been a few other loans - when I
sold my car, for example. So, our business executives came to me