From the Director

Foreclosure!

Today is Sept 4, the first business day after September 1st, when we were due to pay $300,000. We are $154,000 short. The phone conversation a few minutes ago: "I am very, very sorry, but my instructions are to proceed with foreclosure." Those words I did not have to try to memorize! Labor Day yesterday was quiet. But what a strange week this will be!

This is the week (what timing!) when Christianity Today (Sept 7) has a cover story on our Center. And It is very appreciative!
This is the week we are receiving the near final total of the registrations for the largest meeting of mission executives ever to meet 4 on the West Coast Sept 24 28.
What irony. This is ALSO the week in which just now we have received the notice of FORECLOSURE, which means a 90 day countdown leading (if we can't stop it) to the loss of all our properties. We have come very close to foreclosure before, but it has never quite happened. (See further on page 4.)

Reflect for a moment on what could be lost if we cannot dig out and get into a truly effective forward move right away.

Now I am boasting: Not even the massive "Pentagon" in Washington, D.C is the center of the LARGEST military power on earth. China, India, and the Soviet Union have larger populations, and the latter has greater military might in many ways. But, something else in America is still more powerful.

The U.S. Center for World Mission is the largest nerve center for the mainstream of what is in fact the LARGEST missionary force in the world. U.S. missionary 'might" far outstrips that of any other country, is LARGER than that of all other countries together, and the impact of American missionaries in this century has succeeded in producing phenomenal enduring change for the better. That blessed, world wide impact, however little known, vastly EXCEEDS the influence of any other major force, such as world wars, Viet Nam type wars, secular education, etc. (Indeed, the most valuable things that flow in international trade, education, and medicine are due to the direct and Indirect impact of missions.)

Well, back to work. On page 4 I'll give at least a hint of our "dig out of foreclosure plan." No, it's not to ask for $184 from each of the 46,000 people who get this bulletin and who have already given.