October 1, 1977
D-Day
Jamie, the receptionist, usually rather quiet, picked up the stack of mail she had just opened and headed upstairs to the accounting office.
"Do you know how much came in today?" she exclaimed to Mary Fran as she passed her desk. "Twenty-seven thousand dollars! Just look at this stack! Most of it is in checks of $100 or less! The Lord is really answering our prayers!"
Ralph had urged people to call us during this last week to find out how we were doing. Consequently, our lines were very busy. The Billy Graham Foundation called with a pledge of $10,000. World Vision called, and later hand delivered $25,000. Gospel Light Press brought in $10,000. Providence Mission Homes gave the $26,000 earned from the Pat Boone concert.
But we still lacked almost $400,000. Had we misunderstood God when we went into this venture? Many friends were telling us we had. Yet He was working so many miracles and had constantly reassured us.
On the Thursday before October 1st, we had a wonderful idea. Hey! The 1st is on a Saturday. Does that mean that the money can be paid on Monday because of the weekend?"
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But the college lawyer said, "Read your contract again. It says 'before the six months is out,' and that's tomorrow. We'll be over in the morning."
"Can't they even give us until 5 o'clock?" I thought rebelliously. But we went to prayer again and cried out to the Lord.
Meanwhile, our governing board went into session — and also to prayer. Some weeks before, three different Christian sources had offered to advance us $100,000 each if we found we needed it at the last minute. Even with those loans we would be short, but they would at least bring our total into a reasonable distance of the required amount.
We had not asked for those loans. Were they — could they be — God's provision for us?
Some of the young people on our staff said, "No way! We asked God to give us the money. Now we've got to trust Him to give it to us, not to loan it."
But the board, all mature men of prayer, were not so sure. After agonized prayer, they finally decided that we should accept these loans. Those offering the money were all godly men. God had placed it upon their hearts to offer these loans. We simply could not disregard their faith. Even though this was not the way we would have wanted God to answer, it was nevertheless God's provision, and we should accept it with thanksgiving.
It had been a real crisis of faith and of trust in our leadership. One board member, Jim Montgomery, then of Overseas Crusades and more recently founder and general director of DAWN Ministries, was reachable only by phone. The next day he wrote: "While our board-member phone conversation last night was somewhat somber and subdued, I found myself walking and leaping and praising God around the house after I hung up. I trust the narrowness of this victory will not rob us of the joy nor rob God of the glory of what has happened. Satan wanted to keep us from getting the property in the first place: now he will try and rob us of the
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joy of victory and God of the glory."
But we were still short! Some money that had been pledged was sitting in branch banks and, it seemed, might not arrive on time. The $50,000 Ahmanson check, delivered by mail the week previous, sat in our files, waiting for our university's IRS non-profit status to come through.
Friday, the college lawyer and business manager came early. Our hearts were heavy because we were not ready. We had the promised loans, and we had some outstanding promised pledges, but we didn't have all the money in hand as they had required.
The staff watched soberly as Ralph, our lawyer, and a couple of others crossed the street to the library building where the negotiations would take place. We couldn't believe God had failed us after all He had brought us through. But we simply didn't have the money! All we had were empty stomachs from three days of fasting, extremely weary bodies, and a flickering faith.
Oh Lord, HELP!
So we went to prayer again. I felt much like the children of Israel must have felt as they faced the Red Sea: "Lord, why did you bring us to this difficult place?" We were praying around the circle, and when my time came I could only cry, "Lord, you promised!" Then my voice broke, and I fled from the room.
In the library across the street our staff were equally somber, not knowing what to expect. Ralph's nephew, Eric Winter, recently admitted to the California Bar Association, was our only legal counsel, and he was firm: The Center received the option agreement two weeks late, and they did not feel they could start raising funds until they had it in hand."
"Yes," admitted the college representatives. "That's true. Okay, why not take another week?"
"Thank you, Lord!" our men breathed silently.
"Also," Eric persisted, "we feel some precise agreement must be reached about the off-campus housing and the Summit lease."
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For two or three hours the discussions continued. What a blessing to be dealing with men of such sterling Christian character!
The Lord must have been in that room, for the terms hammered out were in every respect better than we had dared to hope. We were given almost a year, until September, 1978, to pay the rest of the down payment ($650,000) and get out of escrow. By then, Summit's lease would be up and they would be off the campus, eliminating any problems we might have dealing with them were we to take ownership before their lease had expired.
Then, knowing we had given all the money we had to make this payment, the college generously agreed to accept a mere $5,000, payable immediately, for the option agreement on the 83 off-campus houses, then worth $2.3 million. We, in turn, agreed to pay on October 1, 1978, the $285,000 down payment for the houses.
How we rejoiced when our men returned and announced the extension of time and the terms of agreement!
Yet we felt a bit like prisoners in the dock awaiting judgment. We were still short hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we had one week's reprieve. That was all!
