Meanwhile, things were not going too well at home. I was a new Christian and often did not walk according to wisdom. I was too full of zeal and tried to force religion upon my husband. Husbands, as a rule, can’t stand to have their wives tell them what to do. So the day came when we separated.* I faced the problem of wanting to continue school and having to earn a living. Mrs. Irwin had been interested in me only the first semester. The Lord was teaching me not to look to people but to Him. Mima Snodgrass paid my registration fee the second semester and my husband the car fare. Then there was a gift of fifty dollars from a Mr. J. P. Griggs in Pittsburgh. He wrote that he had often helped boys to know the Lord but had not helped a girl; therefore, he wanted to help me. But this money, too, was spent by the time Mr. Haskin and I separated. One of the Biola rules was that all students had to live a semester in the building in order to graduate. As I was married, I had not been required to live there the first semester. Now seemed an ideal time to move in. But how? Some three or four days before, Mr. J. P. Griggs mailed me a check for the exact amount to pay my room and board at Biola for one semester. The timing of the Lord! I moved into Biola and rented my house, but the rent was needed to make the payments. When the semester was over, I was broke! “What now, Lord?” my heart was asking. I stayed in the building and during the hot, summer months I catalogued the library for my rent. Also, I dusted miles of corridors. I secured a meal job. Fdr breakfast I typed menus for a restaurant and for my lunch I mopped the floor. I had never mopped a floor in my life. I am not at all sure how good a job I did. But I know that many a time I glanced out of the door and hoped my husband would not walk by on the street and see me. I could just hear him say, “ So, this is where your religion has brought you!” Often I glanced at the phone and knew that all I had to do was to dial some of my old friends and they would quickly help me into a position where I would not need to mop floors. But also the challenge came to my heart, “Is being a Christian worth mopping floors?” The answer was always “ Yes.” These two jobs provided breakfast and a late lunch, but I did not have a job for my evening meal. I told myself that two meals a day were enough for any one. But somehow around six o’clock I always became hungry. I could have gone to a member of the faculty to ex plain my need but Biola taught that faith was not to look to people, but to God. To Him alone I made known my need. “ Something to eat, please, any thing!” Page Eighteen
Always, the Lord sent something. Once there was a piece of candy from a girl. Another time the elevator boy had water melon. He did not offer me any, but gave a piece to a friend who in turn brought it to me. “ And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. 8:3). The period I was required to live at Biola was complete. I moved back into my home. There, at least, I could be broke in privacy. I rented rooms, and often prayed in my food, living from
skill of canning and then go to teach under the scorching sun. Six semesters were completed and it was graduation time with graduation expense. It was my Christian friends who sensed my need and sent me money to pay for the rental of my robe, class pin, picture for the annual and a copy of the annual. In the annual each stu dent gave his life’s verse. Many of the young men and women chose lofty verses. But I had walked close to want those Biola years and selected, “ Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed” (Psa. 37:3). Senior Retreat loomed as a high point but I did not have the faith to pray for the money to go. Instead I accepted a housework job. When I went to the home, the lady told me she had changed her mind and when Miss Olive Taylor, Biola registrar, heard I had not attended the Retreat, she said she would have paid my way gladly. But my faith was not as large as the goodness of God. Then came that shaky night when I sat in the Church of the Open Door au ditorium and listened to the commence ment address. The speaker’s subject was based upon the words, “ Son of man, stand upon thy feet” (Ezek. 2:1). One by one we marched onto the stage and received our diplomas. It is a precious document to me, not because it speaks of my “ satisfactory completion of the prescribed studies of the general course” or ‘in commendation of her zeal in prac tical Christian work” but because it is “ in recognition of manifested consistent Christian living.” Of all the Biola students I am one of its truest representatives. I went there without an ounce of church tradition, without the influence of a Christian home. My mind was open to whatever truth Biola had to teach. The Bible Institute took me, a child of the stage, and taught me the ways of the Lord. Although I trust that throughout the years I have grown in Christian knowl edge, my roots are in the teaching of Biola. All that Biola did for me it is doing for hundreds of others. It can do as much for anyone who attends. But Biola is largely a faith organization. It does not charge tuition. It must depend upon the gifts of God’s people. What are you do ing to keep Biola open, to make it pos sible for young men and women to go there for Christian training? * Editor’s note: When Mr. Haskin was saved, he and his wife were re-united and have had many ha/ppy years together. The sixth and final installment of Mrs. Haskin’s true account of her life will appear in the next issue. In August another two-part article from the pen of this gifted author will begin. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES It was a strange place to one who had spent eighteen years on the stage one meal to the next. At Christmas and Easter vacation, and on Saturdays, I did day work, scrubbing other women’s kitchen floors. When I look back, I don’t know how I made it. Yet, at the time, there was always something to eat—not always what I wanted, but food. For months I dared not spend even five cents for a “ coke.” During the summer when I might have worked and built up a reserve I was de termined to serve the Lord. Under the auspices of the American Sunday School Union I taught Daily Vacation Bible schools in the rural districts. Different families supplied “hospitality” to the teachers and at the end of each two weeks’ school a small offering was given. Often schools were held during the canning season and the people were gen erous with fruit. I would get up at five in the morning to can pears and apri cots before I began teaching. It meant food for the winter, but those were days of testing. The former actress had to really believe in Christ to learn the new
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker