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Beauty for Ashes

May 28, 2007

Lord, Give Me a Sign MY CALL TO MINISTRY began with the still small voice of God and ended with a display of His direction for my life. While running from God’s call, I continued my studies to become a textile engineer. God continued to work on my heart. January 1966, while working at home, I finally said, “Okay Lord, if you want me in ministry here is my fleece—when I go to work in the morning let the eastern sky over the mountain be blue and cloudless. Don’t let the sun be peaking over the mountain quite yet, and

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May 20, 2007

For the Ragged Little Boy In the winter of 1917, Richard Forrest went to Los Angeles, California, with the hopes of meeting Lyman Stewart, the man who was founder and president of Biola University. He also wanted to hear Dr. R. A. Torrey preach—the university’s first dean and someone he greatly admired. Through a God-arranged appointment, Dr. Forrest met both men. And within a short period of time, Richard Forrest and Lyman Stewart, who also was the co-founder of the Union Oil Company, had become fast friends. It doesn’t take long for the character of a man or woman to

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May 14, 2007

Kiss The Baby for Me Many of Dr. Forrest’s later letters ended with this salutation: kiss the baby for me. He was traveling and rather than spend money to call home, he wrote letters—letters that talked about how God was using him, but most of all about how much he missed his wife, family, and the college. The above phrase was written as a term of endearment for Kelly and Alice Barnes’s daughter, whom he viewed as a granddaughter. However, there was much more to this “family man.” Once after filling out paperwork for a passport, officials questioned an entry

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May 7, 2007

Just to Encourage You Shortly after Richard and Evelyn Forrest moved their school to Toccoa Falls, Georgia, Dr. A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and close friend of the Forrests, arrived in Toccoa for a visit. Up to this point, he had only heard about the progress of the school through personal correspondence. The first thing Richard did was take his friend and mentor to one of his favorite spots on the Toccoa Falls campus. As the two men walked up the wooded path that ran up and alongside the rocky face of Toccoa Falls, Dr.

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April 30, 2007

The Cure for Anxiety ONE EVENING I DECIDED to go riding above the falls on one of our horses. It had been a beautiful day, but I wanted to be alone with the Lord for a while. I was carrying a heavy burden in my heart and needed God’s perspective concerning my situation. I confess the “What ifs” had me. “What if this happens, will we be able to continue?” Or “What if this doesn’t, will all be lost?” Before I realized it, I had ridden farther than I planned. It was getting dark and I knew my wife would

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April 23, 2007

Discovering Peace THE YEAR WAS 1992, and work was completed on the house that would soon be home to TFC students who were children of missionaries serving overseas. I had felt the burden for such a haven, and the need to trust God continually for each dollar was overwhelming. I was experiencing worry, doubt, and frustration. I stood on the bank of a creek and cried out to God for the needs of Paradise Mountain Ministries. I watched the water gently lowing over the rocks of the creek bed, and observed there was no struggle for the water as it

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April 16, 2007

Rewards for Labor A FATHER AND MOTHER came into my office with their son. They wanted to tell me in his presence how much it meant to them for their son to be here as a student. They were happy that he had established good marks in his studies, but the most important thing was that since being here he had been definitely converted, and they found him to be a new person. They told how he gave a bright testimony among all his young friends in the neighborhood when he came home on Christmas vacation, and how proud they

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April 9, 2007

Rewards for Labor A FATHER AND MOTHER came into my office with their son. They wanted to tell me in his presence how much it meant to them for their son to be here as a student. They were happy that he had established good marks in his studies, but the most important thing was that since being here he had been definitely converted, and they found him to be a new person. They told how he gave a bright testimony among all his young friends in the neighborhood when he came home on Christmas vacation, and how proud they

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April 2, 2007

Ask And Receive ON ONE OCCASION, Richard and I left Toccoa immediately following his Sunday morning sermon. We needed to be in Asheville, North Carolina, which was 135 miles away, before Monday evening when I was scheduled to teach a Bible study. At that time, the roads were unpaved and on this particular occasion heavy rains made travel almost impossible. While we made it to Tallulah Falls without incident, our car became stuck in what seemed to be knee-deep mud just before we crossed the river bridge. There was no way to budge it. Unfortunately, we had to spend the

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March 26, 2007

If These Walls Could Talk EARLY ONE MORNING in 1913, Dr. Forrest left Staley Cottage and with an ax and a brush hook cleared a place for a new dining room. After clearing the site, he and the Toccoa Falls Institute family marched around the site singing and giving praise and claiming this site for God. The dining room was built in 1916. The chapel section of the building was added in 1918. Since this was the meeting place for most of the activities on campus, it was here that great decisions were made for the Kingdom of Christ. If

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