The Church and Work Go Forward—Again

Ambassador College was reopened at Pasadena and, afterward, so was the Big Sandy campus. Intercollegiate sports were not reinstated. This helped to guard against the wrong spirit of competition and strife. Once again, students were taught to “recapture true values”—to learn how to live, not just how to earn a living.

In the spirit of Malachi 4 ALL—“turn[ing] the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers”—Mr. Armstrong turned his attention to the youth of God’s Church. In Y.O.U. (Youth Opportunities United), weekend activities were set up for teenagers—basketball, track and field, dances, etc. The camps comprising the Summer Educational Program (S.E.P.) had already existed, teaching teens to broaden their interests and helping them to build confidence.

In 1981, a youth magazine (Youth 81, 82, 83…) was launched. Each issue offered articles that pointed teens in the Church in the right direction, while helping them prepare for life’s challenges. Y.E.S. (Youth Educational Services) lessons and activities were established for young children and preteens, teaching them God’s ways.

The Feast of Tabernacles became the largest annual, multi-site convention on earth. Live services conducted by Mr. Armstrong were beamed via satellite into most festival sites, enabling tens of thousands of brethren in countries around the world to hear the same sermon and sing the same hymns in unison.

The Plain Truth magazine matched, and even surpassed, the quality and excellence of the world’s leading news magazines. It reached almost 8.2 million subscribers, translating to approximately 25 million readers. Along with The World Tomorrow programs on television and radio, this resulted in record numbers of phone calls requesting literature.

Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in prophecy, which had been gutted to one-quarter of its size, was returned to its full size and strength.

Full-page ads were published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Postand The Los Angeles Times, among others.

A massive Plain Truth Newsstand Distribution Program was put into action. Congregations throughout the Church searched for viable locations for distributing the magazine in cities, towns and metropolitan areas. The Plain Truth could be seen on street corners, in drug stores and supermarkets, in train stations, in the waiting rooms of doctors, dentists, mechanics, salons, etc.

Congregations that had stagnated or diminished in size for years suddenly bounced back to life. The Church was again growing at almost 30 percent per year. Many thousands of Plain Truth readers and millions of World Tomorrow television viewers and radio listeners responded to the gospel and were moved to live a new way of life!

Statistical growth soon returned to the near-explosion level that had been enjoyed by the Church in nearly every category in which they had so recently been declining.

Mr. Armstrong, however, did add one new administrative security that had not been used before. He appointed an Advisory Council of Elders, consisting of what then appeared to be the most loyal, trusted senior men in the Church. This council, primarily of evangelists, would assist in keeping the Church and Work on track while Mr. Armstrong resumed travel around the world and began again doing other duties he had previously delegated.

Resumes Busy Schedule

After 1978, Mr. Armstrong returned to broadcasting on radio on a regular basis, while drawing upon earlier broadcasts, and actively administering the Work.
Besides resuming these responsibilities, Mr. Armstrong continued carrying the gospel to heads of state even during the last years of his life. He insisted upon continuing this and other duties as soon as the State of California retreated from threatening the Church. This allowed the Work to resume operations as normal. This occurred when he was 87, an age at which most people would have been retired by over two decades—almost a generation!

When asked how he kept going at his advanced age, he would quote Isaiah 40:30-31: “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon theLord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

This passage became one of his oft-repeated favorites.

Given his age and the incredible schedule he kept—including international travel, jet lag, and speaking before thousands on a regular basis, besides broadcasting to millions—he had to continually draw on God’s power. Mr. Armstrong took all this in stride—it had been his life for over half a century!

These excerpts from the February 25, 1982 Brethren/Co-Worker Letter show the extent of his travels and schedule:

“I have just returned from a very busy trip to Honolulu, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Thailand, Manila, Philippines, and Tokyo, and am writing in flight to Big Sandy, Texas, to speak before the college and Church there. Then on to Atlanta, Georgia, to speak to a combined group of about 3,000 brethren.

“I think the Far East trip was reported in The WORLDWIDE NEWS. I spoke before a Church group at Honolulu, a group of nearly 200 subscribers to The PLAIN TRUTH in Hong Kong, more than 200 PLAIN TRUTH subscribers in Bangkok, and a similar number in Tokyo. In Thailand I flew on north to Chiang Mai, where King Bhumibol of Thailand sent his mountain jeep to bring me to his mountain palace for an hour’s visit.

“At Manila I was guest speaker at the Rotary Club of leading businessmen, a banquet of 1,000 leading citizens, addressed a meeting of all the ministers and wives of the Worldwide Church of God from all parts of the Philippines…visited with the President and First Lady and held two overflow services in the large new public auditorium—the Philippines Convention Center—attendance 4,200 and 4,500 on successive nights.

“In Tokyo I also was guest speaker at a prestigious banquet of some 400 leading Japanese, including Prince Mikasa, brother of the Emperor, and his wife Princess Mikasa, several congressmen of the Japanese Diet who call themselves my “Japanese sons,” 21 ambassadors from 21 other nations and many leading citizens. Some of these speeches will be telecast on my weekly TV program in some three or four weeks. I also had a private luncheon with the ambassador from Israel and his wife.

“I am leaving in about three weeks for a trip to London and Amman, Jordan, for a private meeting with King Hussein, a visit to Cyprus to obtain radio and TV time, Jerusalem and Paris.

“This schedule has kept me very busy. We are opening up radio and TV time in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Manila and probably Tokyo as a result of this trip.

“Many other near-breathtaking opportunities are opening now for the expansion of God’s Work.”

Here is one other shorter quote from another Brethren/Co-Worker Letter written just 14 months before his death:

“Brethren, this world is being destroyed for lack of knowledge of and from GOD, as we read in Hosea 4:6. Through my personal visits, and the PLAIN TRUTH magazine, on TV and radio and through other literature, we are proclaiming that knowledge in POWER and AUTHORITY. Some listen. It is God’s last witness against those who do not. BUT WE MUST DRIVE RIGHT ON UNTIL CHRIST COMES!” (Brethren/Co-Worker Letter, November 18, 1984).

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