The Search For Money

But there was no money in sight. On Thursday, May 25, Burden and a close friend, R. S. Owen, a Bible teacher at the San Fernando school, took the interurban electric car down the coast to call on a farmer who was thought to have some means. He lived about a mile and a half (two kilometers) from the car stop. When they got to his cabin, no one was at home. A neighbor thought he was most likely somewhere on the ranch, but search as they would they found no sign of the man. The two men returned to the car stop and waited.WV 467.9

It was dark now, and as the interurban car sped toward them, they failed to signal it for a stop, so it did not even slow up. There would be a two-hour wait for another car, so the men went back to the cabin, which now had a light in it. Finding the farmer, his wife, and daughter, they introduced themselves and soon explained their mission. Elder Burden reports that as the telegram from Mrs. White and the letter that followed were read to the farmer, he suddenly exclaimed, “Praise the Lord!” (The Story of Our Health Message, 355). He had been praying that the Lord would send someone to buy his place. It had been sold a few days before, and now he was ready to make available $2,400 for the Loma Linda enterprise.WV 468.1

The next day Elder Burden phoned the representative of the Loma Linda Association that he was ready to do business. The $1,000 was paid, and work was begun on a contract. This was finished the following Monday. Four thousand dollars more had to be on hand by June 15 to make up the first payment of $5,000, or the deposit would be lost. And this was only the first of four $5,000 payments that Burden had agreed upon. He was eager for Ellen White and the conference officers to see the property.WV 468.2