January 01, 1979 by Ralph D. Winter

Grateful, Grateful, Grateful! That's how I feel as I walk around this vast campus. We have now occupied it a little over 3 months.

We had a meeting two days ago for the first time in the upper level of the student union. 500 students crowded in for a twoday SCOWE conferenceStudent Conference on World Evangelization.

I sat there looking at the newly painted walls and the basic beauty and soundness of the building, and I had to blink once or twice to believe that a handful of missionaries are really owners of all this.

But the high excitement of those students, their eagerness, their youthfulness, their inspired singing, told me as I sat there that God just might pull off this grand dream yet!

Just this morning, however, once more reading my way through the whole Bible (I'm in Luke now, toward the end), I ran one final time into the, grim reality of this sinful world: the dreams of the disciples were utterly shattered and transformed. Everything they hoped for in an earthly kingdom was to go up in smoke, as their leader was crucified.

Will our dreams be dashed too?

I thought for some time I truly faced the possibility that our hopes to pay off this campus are merely human hopes, human goals, no better than the disciples' desire to sit on the right and left hand of a ruler.

I gradually realized, however, that what we want is what Jesus again and again tried to make clear to the disciples. In a hundred ways He was for the Hidden Peoplethe man with the withered hand, the children the disciples tried to shoo away, the Greek woman who didn't rate, the blind man, the demon possessed, even the Samaritan woman and the tax collectorall people that were not fit objects of normal evangelism.

A pastor told me a few days ago: "You know why I believe God is going to deliver that campus into your hands debt free? It is because you are plugging for the people on earth practically no one else is trying to reach."

Everything, everything hinges upon the validity of our vision. Are the Hidden People we have talked about truly beyond the range of all present mission and church efforts, living in societies within which there is not so much as a church?

If so, this is not our dream or a human concern, but the highest priority of God's concern, and He will not let this project down.

We are grateful for all He has already done, not just for the buildings but grateful for all of the keen people mission agencies have assigned and lent to us and the many other wonderful people who have joined us.

But how about you? Are you with us? God may well be counting on you to help us spread concern for His Hidden People. Will you help? Read carefully what I have written just inside on page 7: "Do You Want this Project to Succeed?" We really do utterly depend on all who know of this project to share this vision with others. That's all we ask beyond your daily prayers.

Ralph Winter, General Director, USCWM