Although Mrs. Ellen G. White expressed her conviction that the Loma Linda property should be secured at once, some conference leaders continued doubting. Should the conference accept any further financial responsibilities in view of its already heavy obligations?
In reply, George A. Irwin, a vice president of the General Conference, briefly expounded on the experiences of the denomination throughout its history. They had followed Mrs. White’s counsel, and God had always blessed as church members moved forward in faith. Irwin spoke at length regarding a situation in Australia where Mrs. White had urged church leaders to purchase the Avondale Estate to be used as a training school. The Australians did so in a storm of criticism and predictions of failure. In time, however, the property was secured and developed, and became one of the most successful schools in the denomination. Following his appeal, the Southern California Conference Committee agreed to support the project.
After inspecting the property himself and hearing Mrs. White tell what she had been shown regarding such a place, Irwin recommended to a meeting of the Pacific Union Conference in Mountain View, California (July 6, 1905), that the Southern California Conference should proceed with the purchase of Loma Linda. The Conference needed to step out by faith and accept responsibility. He added that he gave his support in the light of his experience in following Mrs. White’s counsel in Australia.
The Pacific Union Conference President W. B. White then announced the reversal of a decision that his Conference Committee had taken at its last meeting, recommending that its subordinate (the Southern California Conference) not assume any additional debt. Now, he saw that the step had been taken with good counsel. Therefore, the Union Conference should now do everything in its power to cooperate. The Union Conference Committee then passed several recommendations encouraging support for the Loma Linda endeavor.
Meanwhile, in early July, Burden secured a caretaker to look after the Loma Linda property and care for the crops. Still, the pressure never let up. July 26, 1905, was the due date for the second payment to the Loma Linda Association. On that day, the Southern California Conference committee met in emergency session in Los Angeles. The atmosphere was thick with anxiety. The $5,000 payment was due at 2 p.m., and they had nothing. Was this the end of the great faith project? Again, some members spoke critically of the plan to purchase the Loma Linda property. John Burden admitted that “the intensity of feelings was running high,” and that they were all “in deep perplexity.”
“It was natural that some who had from the first felt it unwise to accept the great responsibility should feel that these circumstances justified their misgivings,” Burden later wrote. “In the face of the humiliating necessity of losing the property, it was easy and natural to blame and censure those who pressed the matter through against what appeared to be sound reason and judgment. Nevertheless, some remembered the clear words that had come through Ellen White’s writings, and refused to concede that there should be failure. Yet we knew not how relief would come.”
Other influences also affected the dynamics of that day. The Church’s resources had been impacted heavily by a vast program of building churches and establishing publishing houses, hospitals, schools, and institutions of higher education. Of equal weight, the loss of the Battle Creek Sanitarium caused the denomination to suffer a schism. Some labeled it “The Battle Creek Syndrome.” This division resulted in “a thin veil of prejudice and distrust [which] tended to separate the ministerial and medical brethren.”
John Burden based his determination on his belief in the validity of Mrs. White’s gift of prophecy. She had told him that money would come from “unexpected sources.” Others were not quite so sure. Everyone, however, was about to experience an event that virtually left them speechless. Someone suggested that the troubled group wait for the morning mail. After all, the 2 p.m. deadline had not quite arrived.
Soon they heard the postman walking up the stairs. The mail included a letter from a woman in Atlantic City, New Jersey. No one on the committee recognized the name of the sender. And she remains unknown to this day. The letter had traveled, possibly for weeks, all the way across the North American continent. Inside was a bank draft for $5,000, the exact amount needed less than four hours later on that deadline day.
Suddenly, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. The woman’s $5,000 would be worth more than $135,000 today. Burden later reported, “It was as solemn as the judgment day. . . .We then took new courage, as we felt that our Lord was going before us.” Just as Ellen White had predicted, money had come from "unexpected sources." Opinions quickly changed. One who had been especially critical approached Burden and acknowledged the providential turn of events. “It seems that the Lord is in this matter,” he said.
Burden replied, “Surely He is, and He will carry it through to victory.”
And so it happened. Other unlooked-for funds from various persons made it possible to pay for Loma Linda, not in almost four years, but in less than six months. This promptness gained additional discounts totaling $1,100. Loma Linda’s final purchase price was $38,900. Now, the property measured up on all five of Mrs. White’s declarations: much less than its $155,000 original cost, money from an unexpected source, for unoccupied property, in Southern California, that had a “tent-like canopy of trees.”
I have conducted oral histories with today’s administrators. And to a person, they relate to the above story as they have experienced what they consider to be providential influences in the bond funding for what is happening today in Loma Linda; the $1.5 billion “Campus Transformation.”