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use of a typewriter, and typed out slips outlining the sermon-
topics. I WALKED over the country-side, for I had no car, where
houses often were a half mile apart, personally inviting the
neighbors to attend. In those days I had to rely on God by faith
to get me to the meetings, often having to hitch-hike. The school
house seated 36 and our average attendance was over 40---several
standing thru the entire service. There were several conversions.
A few months later, the first Sunday in 1934, the door of
radio was opened, and the program, then under the name "Radio
Church of God," started on the air. It has never missed a Sunday
since. It started on the smallest of stations, a mere 100-watts of
power. This work of proclaiming Christ's true GOSPEL has never
been backed, financed, sponsored, endowed, or controlled in any way
by any denomination or organization of men.
I remember that during those early meetings, late in 1933, a
resident of that community met me out on the road and said, "Mr.
Armstrong, you'll never get far. You're preaching the straight
truth of the Bible, no matter whom it offends. People won't stand
for that very long. People won't support that kind of preaching
---it's too strong for them!"
It was GOD who put me into His work. It was to God I had to
look for financial support. From the beginning our faith has been
sorely tried. I used to go up on top of a small mountain in that
neighborhood, where I found a flat stone for an altar before which
to kneel and pray--- and I had to find my way up there often. But
God always heard and ANSWERED, often in miraculous ways you
probably wouldn't believe. Today, God has provided me with a
private prayer-room. I still have to go there often.
On February 1, 1934---one month after the broadcast went on
the air---The Plain Truth made its very humble bow. It was
mimeographed on a borrowed mimeograph, from stencils cut on a
borrowed typewriter, at few cents' cost, except for postage. I
don't remember that original "press run,"---but it was around 250
or 300 copies.
But it was GOD'S work and He blessed and prospered it. Mrs.
Armstrong worked tirelessly with me. For two or three years she
ground out the "magazines" on the mimeograph, addressed and stamped
them and kept up the tiny mailing list which started gradually to
grow. In nine years the work had multiplied to 30 times its size
and scope at the end of the first year. The second nine years it
multiplied 30 times its size at the end of the first nine. And
now, entering its 23rd year in another month, it has become one of
the most powerful works of evangelism in world history---purchasing
now more than FOUR MILLION WATTS of radio power per week, world-
wide---probably the largest user of radio on earth today, beside
the Television program Coast to Coast, and mailing out tons and
tons of literature, without charge.
This year we have opened overseas Headquarters in London,
England, with my son Richard D. Armstrong, now an ordained
minister, in charge of our office there. Close to 5,000 copies of
The Plain Truth now go regularly into the British Isles.