T he miracles of God’s grace as re revealed toward His children are too numerous to mention. But we be lieve there is no greater evidence of His love, His care and His provision for His own than that which is mani fested in the rather phenomenal move of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles to the spacious 75-acre campus at Lai Mir ada. The campus is located twenty miles away from the heart of down town Los Angeles, and in the center of one of the greatest population-growth areas in the country today. It was in 1952 that the conviction was laid upon the hearts of some of us that the future of BIOLA could better be served by our locating on a campus than by remaining in the extremely congested conditions existing in the downtown location. A great deal of prayer ascend ed to the Throne of Grace from the hearts of the Board of Directors and administration concerning such a po tential move. Should such a move be made? If so, where could the new lo cation be found that would best serve the interests of the school? What about the employment of the students, approximately 80% of whom must earn all or a major portion of their own way through school? What locality could be found that could ab sorb the employment of eight hundred to one thousand students? What about the Christian service assignments of the students? Downtown Los Angeles is the very hub of the vast metropoli tan area of Southern California. Stu dents go out from that hub into all areas of Southern California for their weekly Christian service assignments. Any location to which the school might move would necessarily eliminate many of the churches on the opposite side of the city. Would there be enough available churches to absorb the stu
dents who have weekly Christian serv ice assignments which are a required and vital part of their training? The Board of Directors had decreed years before that the school would nev er go into debt. It was all we could do to make ends meet at the downtown location without going into a multi- million-dollar campus building pro gram. Should we revise our thinking and borrow to build? These and a mul titude of other questions and problems confronted the BIOLA Board. The more we prayed and the more we talked, the greater became the conviction that the Lord would have us launch out- on such an expansion program. But it was de termined by the Board that the school would not go into debt. In other words, the money must be in hand before land was to be purchased or buildings erected. A vacant lot across the street from the 558 South Hope Street ad dress had been purchased ten years previously with the thought that some day the school would need to expand and it was the only way the school; could expand and remain at the old location. When it was decided to move to a campus, the lot was put up for sale. At that very time a large oil company was planning to build on ad joining property and the company wanted the lot. Part of the purchase price included acreage in the south part of Los Angeles. The sale of the lot plus the sale of the acreage brought a sum over seven times the amount originally paid for the downtown lot. It was this money which was used to buy 75 acres of land which had been selected as the new BIOLA site. The property was in the heart of La Mira da, “the one hundred and fifty million- dollar planned city” which was just, then beginning to come into existence. (continued on next page) 15
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs