July 01, 1979 by Ralph D. Winter

Three years ago three people stood on an empty campus, wondering if perhaps, for His glory, God would do a miracle in this place. The cause was stupendous--3.5 billion people still to meet Christ. Could those three trust God for so much? This is the story of the U.S. Center for World Mission and those three miraculous years.

August 1976: Campus for Sale

We had no money, no following, nor even a well-known name. Why should the college board even listen to us when we asked them to hold this $8 million campus for us? Other groups had tried to buy it over the 3 years it had been vacant. Now a well-heeled cult desperately wanted it. But God held it for us. This was the first miracle.

January 1977: Angels Unawares

"Only $10,000? That's easy." and this perfect stranger pulled out his checkbook and started to write.

We had just been jolted into realizing we had to ask for a legal option without which we could not be assured we could buy the campus. This piece of paper should have cost us at least $150,000 (1% of the expected down payment), yet a friend, knowing our financial straits, suggested we offer $15,000 and see what God would do. He gave us the first $5000 himself.

That was the beginning of another miracle.

April 1977: The Cult or the Center?

It had been a see-saw, back and forth for 3 months. The college board voted to give us the option; then the cult offered $75,000 for one. The board voted in our favor again, so the cult offered $1.5 million as an immediate down payment. It was a test of faith for both the college and us. We still had no money. This college desperately needed money! How we rejoiced at God's grace when on April 15th we received the option in the mail.

June 1977: Who Will Help?

"How can we ever do it?" Ralph groaned "There's only 3 of us full time. Volunteer, part-time help is great, but we've got to have people we can lean on."

God must have heard his cry, because in late May staff started pouring in. Some moved 3000 miles across country. Some gave up well-paying jobs. We had no money to pay them even a penny--yet they came! A tremendous provision from God's hands.

July 1977: Before You Call

"Will $50,000 help?"

We gasped. Would it! Speaking was a newly converted, rich, young man whom our daughter and her husband had met at a retreat.

A few days later we received another call: "Our church will raise $100,000." We knew that church was quite small, and yet God had touched their hearts and would surely bless them..

September 1977: Pat Boone Concert

"Pat has only one night in September that he will be in town. That is the 22nd." "And that is the only night we can get the Civic Auditorium," Mercedes replied.

That concert was full of miracles. First: Pat Boone is tremendously gifted and so vitally, genuinely interested in missions. He was spelled off by Nancy DeMoss, a beautiful young concert pianist whose heart and soul were in missions. The fact that we "just happened" to have someone on staff who was experienced in putting together crusades and concerts, someone else with experience in putting together slide shows, someone else who just happened to know all sorts of professionals who "owed" her a favor and volunteered to help, etc. It was God, obviously, who put it all together.

What a miracle night of rejoicing!

October 1977: God's Provision

"If you need any extra money, I can loan you some." Three sources of funds called with the same offer. We casually noted their names, but trusted that the Lord would bring in all $850,000 needed in outright gifts. But on October 1st we still lacked $300,000. We could see that it was a miracle when the college extended our deadline one week. But it took a lot of prayer and fasting to realize that we should not turn away these loans, these expressions of faith. They also were a miracle, God's own provision for our need.

November 1977: Foundation Blessings Dr. Winter,
I'd like you to come talk to the head of our foundation. It may be we can get you some more money."

That was another miracle, following closely on the testing of our faith. And what rejoicing when a check for $200,500 arrived in the mail, Spring 1978: A Book, A Chart, A Film Six hundred and fifty thousand! And due in just another few months. We had worked hard- since November, yet all our efforts at fund raising had failed, spectacularly! Did God have any other plan?

To top it off, we now felt we should ask only for a one-time gift of $15.95. It was God's business if some felt constrained to move the decimal point, as one lady did and gave $1595.00 , or give a $200,000 piece of property, as another did. We would accept all with thanksgiving.

God also gave us three tools: a film "Penetrating the Last Frontiers" entirely narrated by Pat Boone, a wall chart of the same theme, and my book Once More Around Jericho God had His hand on these in a very special way that summer.

September 1978: Last Minute Miracles

"How much do you lack?" Every day for a week this farmer from the plains of Canada had called with the same question. Every day the number had been less, but it was still over $100,000 two days before our deadline.

"What can I do?" was his question He sent us $16,000. Four thousand more mysteriously appeared on our desk. And again from all over the money came, much of it in $15.95 amounts, but also much in far larger sums. Again God made it clear that it was not our great skill which had brought it in. Only His grace'

December 1978: Graduated Grace

"So soon? We've just begun to recover from that last deadline. And now this?"

It was the first of our quarterly payments, set at $460,000. And we had on hand only $50,000. How could God pull us out of this one?

But He did. The college decided to graduate the amounts so that at the beginning it would not be so tough. We had to pay $50,000 in December and again in March with another $100,000 due in June and $360,000 in September 1979.

That was a miracle--another tight one. But now we could breathe.

February 1979: A Test of Faith "it is too much for us," many of our staff said. We just can't do it." No, our next campus payment was not yet due, but the first part of the down payment on the offcampus houses was. We needed those houses for three reasons: for staff and married students, to prevent the area from becoming a slum, and for endowment from rentals. The price was excellent, but at the Jordan, the courage of many now failed.

Money we had been promised did not materialize, and two days before the due date, we suddenly realized we were in a severe crisis. Again, various friends, learning of our need, came to our aid with loans, $45,000 of which had to be returned in just two weeks. But God knew that! Just three days after paying the money, a check for $50,000 came from the estate of a woman in the East.

June 1979: More Testing

Our most severe test of all. We couldn't make both the second half of the housing down payment and our quarterly $100,000 payment on the campus. But, praise the Lord, the college board agreed to extend the option on the houses for another year, releasing the money already paid for us to use on our quarterly campus payment. We were delighted at the relatively small additional cost that extension would involve and thanked the Lord that all was not lost.

July 1979: Do It Again, Lord!

It has been almost three years since we stepped out in faith-three years of severe testing and tremendous miracles. We have come through times of despair, doubt, even unbelief. And God has chastened us, but brought us through, always. As we look back over the miracles, we wonder, "How can we doubt Him?" Yet, like Peter, we find ourselves often looking down at those waves dashing against our bare feet, and we cry, "Lord, save us." And like Peter, we look up into the face of Him who is all sufficient, and take courage.

That's where we are as we face our last really large quarterly payment--$660,000 on Sept. 15th. It is $300,000 more than we had anticipated because property given us last year still has not sold. There will be other quarterly payments after this one-$175,000 every three months. And we will need to trust God for those also. But September 15th is our watershed.

Is God able? Yes, He is! Our job is to keep our eyes fixed on Him and go forward, in faith. This is a continued story. Each time we give some solid information about things that are happening in regard to a new era of a new kind of missions. Then we also tell where we stand as an organization because this organization, in spite of its spacious campus, is hanging by a thread. (Our entire future will actually be decided in the next few weeks, and perhaps because of what you yourself actually do or don't do!)