From the Director
How else can I say it we are in a very tight spot. Let me tell you honestly our situation.
Fact One
You have been rejoicing with us that we were able (just barely to make the down payment on the essential second half of the campus and at half the market price When this clears escrow we will have the entire 35 acres we originally sought.
Fact Two
Thankfully this additional prop¬erty (85 residential properties) does not add any great financial weight (because the payments are about equal to the net income at present).
Fact Three
But right now we are falling behind on the $175, 000 quarterly payment schedule on the campus itself. (This was accentuated by the need to pay the downpayment for the additional property.)
Fact Four
The miracle is how we have gotten this far by asking only for a single $15. 95 gift from anyone. We have to thank God that He has urged some people to give more than that.
Fact Five
However, unless we can catch up right away we can lose absolutely everything. We have not yet paid a penny on the September 1st payment What I told you last issue about being able to effect something like a second mortgage on the new properties in order to catch up on the payments, is an extremely complicated matter, is delayed unexpectedly, and may not even go through!
Fact Six
Thus we are in a very grave crisis Well, we have always been, humanly speaking, but now the unexpected delay of the "2nd mortgage" abruptly takes away from us the three to six months we had expected to have to build a broader base for the harvesting of small gifts.
Fact Seven
So what is happening right now? About a hundred letters per week are coming in from new people sending in $15.95 or more. Some of you out there are obviously passing on your "Jericho books passing on Final Push brochures, sending out Grapevine letters with special codes on them. Please see "Letters", p. 2.
Fact Eight
Are we asking too much? Too little? Read the "Letters" page. Could, that? If everyone reading this will lend their Jericho book to two people in the next two weeks, I have no doubt that a flurry of additional help would result, AND 40, 000 new people would have gained a new vision for the world's Hidden People!
Missionary Vision in Africa, Brazil
South Africa has 16 million believers; Brazil has 12 15 million. If one of these countries were to become interested in missions, it could send more missionaries to the field than any country on earth except for the United States. However, not just one of these countries is interested in missions both are!
According to Ben Jennings, Executive Vice President of International Missionary Advance, both countries may establish their own world mission centers.
Jennings, who returned in September from Kenya, South Africa, and Brazil said that if Brazil and South Africa establish sister centers and if the one now planned for Australia is set up, there will be 11 centers around the world. There are already centers in Bolivia, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Scotland, Singapore, and two in Korea.
He said that in South Africa there has been an awakening in the Dutch Reformed.Church since a 197 week of prayer and fasting there. Many in the church are now very evangelism minded and are working in their own church.While a great number of people there are members of the church, he said, many of them are not believers. But since 1978, there has been a spreading of the message of salvation within the church. But these new believers are looking beyond their own church and have a growing interest in missions. Plans for a world mission center are proceeding rapidly with the interest of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Baptist Church, and South African Action for World Evangelization.
Jennings added that while apartheid is still very much a part o South African life, in the area of missions at least, both Blacks and Whites are working and planning together.
In Brazil and Kenya the political and cultural situation is different, but there is also deepening nterest in missions.
In those and other developing countries, Jenninge said, the idea of the church sending missionaries is novel and exciting. Many youths in these countries, he said, are interested. In fact, in Kenya, he attended Kiambu Onward, a missions conference at Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology.
However, there is a real consciousness in these countries of financial limitations.
The 100 percent inflation rate in Brazil is as much a problem for missionary enterprises as for any other endeavor. But despite inflation, Jennings said, mission leaders there will have met at the end of September and hopefully of discussed the creation of a Brazilian Center for World Mission.
In Kenya, Jennings added, the economy is making great strides, but the country has not yet reached a point where finances are not a major hurdle to sending workers to the harvest.
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