Finding Their Home in the West BY ALBERTO VALENZUELA
E
llen White’s role in the
they moved on to meet with J.N.
West began before
Loughborough in Santa Rosa.
she ever visited! In
James wrote, “We like the people
1868, before evangelists J.N.
of California, and the country,
Loughborough and D.T. Bordeau
and think it will be favorable to
had even boarded their ship for
our health.”1
San Francisco, Ellen White had a
vision in Battle Creek as to how to
meetings and other events, and
work in California. In a letter that
helping with the organization
was received by Loughborough
of the California Conference,
and Bordeau soon after they
they headed back to Battle
arrived, she explained that
Creek. However, the Whites liked
methods used in the East would
California so much that they
not be appropriate in the West.
were back again in December
She urged a spirit of liberality,
of the following year. This time,
of being open and generous,
however, they wanted something
telling them not to be penny-pinching. Following
more permanent, and they sent helpers ahead to
this advice, they were successful, both in terms of
set up home for them in Santa Rosa. They bought
converts and also in the sale of literature.
a team of horses and a carriage. They got busy
with their writing.
In another example of “California liberality,”
the new church at Santa Rosa sent $2,000 to
Battle Creek for a mutual obligation fund, along
Oakland the center for the work in California. The
with an invitation for James and Ellen White to
forerunner of the Pacific Press was set up there,
spend the winter of 1872-73 in California.
and Signs of the Times began publishing. In fact,
the Whites sold everything they had in the East to
The Whites accepted and traveled to Oakland,
California, arriving in September 1872. Then
20
After speaking at camp
PA C I F I C U N I O N R E CO R D E R
James and Ellen were convinced to make
make this investment possible. It’s almost as if the
