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pitiful condition under which our brethren there, and these 40
school children, are trying to carry on the church and the school,
I think you'd be really SHOCKED! I was.
It is absolutely necessary that we finish up the smaller rear
church auditorium AT ONCE. The rear wall, to be of stone, and the
side wall, must be finished up. This will then provide the smaller
church auditorium for the Sabbath services, the general assembly
room for the school, and the dining room, for it opens off the
kitchen as most of you know who have been there. This will cost a
lot less than to finish off the sides and the rear of the large
auditorium, with its very high ceiling.
But we still owe the contractor for work done more than a year
ago. We are paying it off week by week, and we must continue to
put all that we can possibly spare from the regular funds toward
paying off this debt. We cannot put ANY additional money into
finishing off this rear church and school auditorium, from regular
funds, which must go to spread the Gospel around the world.
There is ONLY ONE SOLUTION. I simply have to put this problem
squarely up to all you brethren. I am sending this letter ONLY
TO MEMBERS---not to any of our Co-Workers, except those who are
included in our member list as members of the Church. THIS IS A
SOLEMN AND URGENT AND IMPERATIVE RESPONSIBILITY, which I am forced
by these circumstances to place squarely on your shoulders. There
is no other way but to call on you, even as Moses called on God's
people in his day for the tabernacle of that time, to respond
generously and IMMEDIATELY---to really dig down deep, and send the
largest SPECIAL offering for this purpose you possibly can---AT ANY
SACRIFICE. Send in your tithes and regular offerings, as usual,
for THE GOSPEL WORK. We cannot use that money for this tabernacle.
But I must ask you for one, or SEVERAL additional SPECIAL offerings
right now of the largest possible amounts. I am sure SOME of you
can send in $500 or $1,000 or more. Some of you cannot possibly
send in more than a couple of dollars or so---but I have to ask
you, as GOD'S OWN PEOPLE, to send ALL YOU CAN, be it $2, or $5,000.
This is a test God has permitted to come upon us to PROVE us,
whether we really are the true CHURCH OF GOD. If we are, brethren,
we will respond. This is a very SPECIAL and urgent emergency.
Never before have I sent such an appeal for a cause purely within
our own church, just to our own members. I am forced to put all
the authority God has vested in me, and in HIS CHURCH, into this
appeal, and to make it MOST URGENT, that EVERY MEMBER shall
respond, according as God has made possible. Send all you can now,
and again a week, a month, and up to two months from now.
REMEMBER, this must be SPECIAL, separate from and in ADDITION to
your regular tithes and offerings, and please in your letter state
plainly that this SPECIAL OFFERING is for the TABERNACLE FUND.
God bless you all---I know we shall rally to this urgent need for
our brethren and children at and near Gladewater.
In Jesus Christ's name,
Herbert W. Armstrong