奥克伍德大学及其成就现在已成为传奇。{PCO i.3}
然而，最初这所学校似乎不太有希望。那是1896年。阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔从前曾是奴隶种植园的一块360英亩的土地，被选为基督复临安息日会第一所为黑人开办的高等学校的校址。阿拉巴马的地貌崎岖不平;红色的粘土像花岗岩一样坚硬;浓密的灌木丛环绕着那块地产;树木的枝条下垂;断落的枝子到处都是;土壤因过度耕种而贫瘠。需要异象和信心才能于南北战争三十年后在阿拉巴马的这块没有希望的土地上看到未来。{PCO i.4}
让事情变得更具挑战性的是，手头上几乎没有足够的资金买下这块地产，更不要说开办一所学校了。总会资金紧张，教会领袖们将资金输送到这种事业会很缓慢。情况看来不妙。{PCO i.5}
在这种充满挑战的情形中，听到了一个响亮的声音。那是为上帝讲话的声音，确信这就是主希望本会为学校购买的地点，以便培训黑人在祂的葡萄园中作工。{PCO i.6}
怀爱伦从一开始就声援了奥克伍德的事业。毫无疑问，她配得“奥克伍德共同创办人”的称号。在接下来的年月中，随着奥克伍德的成长，怀爱伦不断为学校说话，尽她所能地确保它的成功。她写信、探访、督促、牺牲、祈祷、捐献、拥护并呼吁这个羽翼未丰的机构实现上帝赐给它的命运。由于她的努力和总会的支持，以及后来各地方区会的支持，奥克伍德大学取得了今天的成功。{PCO i.7}
本书是怀爱伦(已出版和未出版的)关于奥克伍德，就是她常常提到的“亨茨维尔学校”的书面陈述的汇编。{PCO i.8}
她的话依然在指导和鼓励行政人员、教员、职员、学生、校友和支持者，为“一个叫作奥克伍德的地方”提供永恒的劝勉和灵感。{PCO i.9}
本杰明·J·贝克
Oakwood College and its accomplishments are now legendary.{PCO i.1}
Initially, however, the school seemed less than promising. The year was 1896. A 360-acre plot in Huntsville, Alabama, the site of a former slave plantation, was chosen as a location for the first Seventh-day Adventist advanced school for Blacks. The Alabama landscape was sloping and uneven; the red clay was hard as granite; dense brush encircled the property; the limbs of the trees sagged; derelict brush lay strewn all over; and the soil was barren from having been overworked. It took vision and faith to see a future in this unpromising plot in Alabama in the heart of the South 30 years after the Civil War.{PCO i.2}
To make matters more challenging, barely enough funds were on hand to buy the property, let alone start a school. The General Conference was pressed for money, and church leaders would be slow to funnel funds into an enterprise such as this. Conditions did not look good.{PCO i.3}
In the midst of this challenging situation, a clarion voice was heard. It was a voice that spoke for God, convinced that this was the spot the Lord would have the denomination purchase for a school to train blacks to be workers in His vineyard.{PCO i.4}
From the start Ellen G. White championed Oakwood’s cause. Unquestionably she is worthy of the title “cofounder of Oakwood.” Throughout the subsequent years, as Oakwood grew, Ellen White continually spoke out for the school, doing all in her power to make sure it prospered. She wrote, visited, prodded, sacrificed, prayed, donated, advocated, and cried for the fledgling institution to ever fulfill its God-given destiny. As a result of her efforts and the support of the General Conference, and subsequently the support of the Regional conferences, Oakwood College is the success it is today.{PCO i.5}
This volume is a comprehensive collection of Ellen G. White’s written statements (published and unpublished) on Oakwood, or “the Huntsville School,” as she often referred to it.{PCO i.6}
Her words still instruct and encourage administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters with timeless counsel and inspiration for “a place called Oakwood.”{PCO i.7}
Benjamin J. Baker.
Oakwood Keys
Keys to Unlock Ellen G. White’s Oakwood Statements
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