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So, finally, as it all came to pass, I was able to.convince the
city that what was good for the city was good for Ambassador, and
that the city would find out what was good for Ambassador was good
for the city.
And the banks began to lend us money, and they began to really
put their trust, you might say, and their faith and their love where
their treasure was, and a very wonderful relationship developed
over a very long period of time. And oddly enough our debt today
is at a low water mark. We owe less money today than we have owed
at any time, probably since 1961. The man that I was dealing with
at United California Bank in 1961 went on to become the Chairman of
the Board of the bank. At the time I met him he was simply a
supervisor of about 10 or 12 banks in this particular geographic
region. But today this man who placed his faith in Mr. Armstrong is
Chairman of the Board of one of California's large�t banks. In the
same 16 or 17 years we have grown into a completed physical facility
and we have also become, as Mr. Armstrong said, a worldwide organi
zation. This man who had the faith to put his bank's money with us and
to allow us the tool to get our work done, became Chairman of the
Board. I think it is kind of a remarkable thing..••
At any rate, with all of the publicity that we've had and things
of that nature, he was somewhat concerned. But he didn't call,
because now he's the Chairman of the Board, and he is greatly
elevated and he has various branch managers and regional people
working under him. So they called me and wanted to know what Mr.
Armstrong had planned for the college. And just to sum it up, I
told them basically what Mr. Armstrong said today, that we're going
back to the kind of college Mr. Armstrong originally envisioned �
God's college. We're going back to recapturing those values which
were here when Mr. Barker/ who is Chairman of the Board, first met
us. We will probably grow eventually to that magic number of 550
students which is the number Mr. Armstrong set some time ago. We're
starting with a freshman class now, and next year we will have a
sophomore class, along with the freshman class and so on. We have
all of those people who have been here for a very long time who are
committed to God's way of running the school, and we expect it to
become the kind of institution that we were for a great many years
the kind of institution that the bank and others have placed their
trust in.
I think you are all very fortunate to be here. I think you
know the kind of person Mr. Armstrong is. I would like to mention
this, however. He told me this, and so I can share it with you.
There are many people who unfortunately mis-perceive Mr. Armstrong
from time to time. They might think that Mr. Armstrong is that person
that they have in their minds and they think that maybe that person
is the same person that Mr. Armstrong was in 1950 or 1952 when they
first became aware of Mr. Armstrong.
Well, first of all, reality is very difficult to perceive anyway.
And if I were teaching a course in metaphysics we could spend a whole
semester talking about what reality is, but these people don't realize
Mr. Armstrong is learning every day. And I am very fortunate because I
spend most of my time with him, so I learn something new every day too.