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live thru, have taught us valuable lessons, and manifested His live
in blessings which words could never describe.
From the time I began an active ministry, my labors were
blessed and always have been successful. As long as I continued to
strive to MAKE MONEY and build a business, every effort came to
naught. But on the contrary, every effort devoted to God's service
was blessed, and today we look back upon a fruitage of hundreds of
conversions, countless answered prayers, many changed lives, and
the GOSPEL, together with God's last warning for America, has been
carried to many hundreds of thousands all over the United States
and Canada.
In the summer of 1933, the present work was started. I
was called to hold meetings in a little one-room country school-
house eight miles west of Eugene. I started there without money---
not even money to print hand-bills. I borrowed a typewriter, wrote
out announcements giving the topics of sermons, and went around
over the country-side personally inviting people to come. The
attendance started good, grew as the meetings progressed, until
often even standing room was taken. There were several
conversions, and a small church started with these new converts
forming a good portion of the little congregation.
The first Sunday in 1934 the RADIO CHURCH OF GOD went on
the air for the first time---and has never missed a Sunday since.
During the preceding October, I had been told of an opportunity to
speak over KORE, local radio station, for 15 minutes each morning
for one week, conducting the "morning devotional" period carried by
the station. To me, this was a serious opportunity, and I put a
great deal of time and study into the preparation of the script.
On the morning of the first broadcast, I well remember, about one
or two minutes before I went on the air, the thought came that all
people speaking for their first time on the radio are supposed to
suffer "mike fright." "Why, I'm not suffering any mike fright," I
remember thinking, "I'm as cool and calm as a cucumber." Then came
the red light and for the first time in my life, I was "ON THE
AIR." The script was all written, and as the words began to pour
into the microphone, I was startled to notice that for some
unexplainable reason I was almost out of breath, my heart was
pounding, and I was so nervous I could hardly read. I couldn't
imagine what had happened to me so suddenly, when not a minute ago
I had been so calm. But I struggled thru it, and after five
minutes or so, had forgotten this heart-pounding nervousness, and
had my whole mind on the message I wanted the hundreds of listeners
to hear.
I was amazed, a few days later---and the officials of the
station were even more amazed---when letters began to pour in from
listeners asking for copies of these morning radio talks. The
station had never before received mail as a result of this morning
devotional period. The announcer and station owner got together
and proposed that I start a regular Sunday morning "Radio Church."
They told me I had a good radio voice, and apparently had something
that the listeners wanted. And so this broadcasting work began.
At that time it cost us $2.50 per week, and it took a lot of FAITH!
$2.50 was a lot of money in those days! But by faith it came.