Much to Clarence’s surprise, this did not dint Gerald’s enthusiasm. Gerald still wanted Clarence to help with the radio ministry. “Come as soon as you can,” he said, “and what you learn here with the radio ministry will help you when you get to the mission field. I also have some ideas on ways to help you get the money you need.” That was all the encouragement Clarence needed, and he and his family were soon on their way to Oklahoma City.
By now it was nearly Christmas, and upon his arrival in Oklahoma City, Clarence found himself immersed in running the festive music program. Once 1931 arrived, however, he had more time on his hands, and Gerald encouraged him to press on with the radio project. To help him along, Gerald invited Clarence to take a seat on the board of his magazine, which was called the Defender. This magazine had a huge Christian readership, and Clarence was permitted to write articles about his plans for a radio station in Ecuador. In one lead article in the Defender, Clarence laid out his plan of action.
Our whole creed of service is “Use everything we can that God has given us in this Twentieth Century to speed the taking of the First Century Message.” Thus we restate Paul’s challenge: “By all means save some.”…
Thank God for the many advanced methods that today are at the missionary’s disposal. Radio Station HCJB, with its 5000 watts on shortwave, is in itself a most revolutionary step forward in missionary endeavor. This step calls for kindred steps all along the line as we seek to develop the many possibilities before us.
By “kindred steps” Clarence meant that he was looking for others who shared a vision similar to his and were willing to explore the possibilities of radio evangelism with him. Sure enough, letters and phone calls began to pour in as a result of the article. People from all over the United States wanted to know how they could get involved in the project.
In March 1931 Clarence, Katherine, and the children took time off to visit Katherine’s father in Lima, Ohio. Katherine’s Uncle Ben was visiting there as well, and the three men began talking about the new radio station. Ben Welty, a lawyer and former congressman, encouraged Clarence to form a legal corporation before he accepted any more donations. The advice made sense to Clarence, and he started thinking about a name that would be suitable for many types of radio ministries around the world. He came up with the name “World Radio Missionary Fellowship,” or WRMF for short. The new organization was incorporated on March 9, with Clarence as president, his father-in-law as treasurer, Katherine’s sister Ruth as secretary, and Lance and Virginia Latham from the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, Clarence’s brother Howard Jones, and Reuben Larson as board members.
By mid-April things were moving along rapidly, and Clarence found himself in Columbus, Ohio, chairing a meeting of sixty men interested in missionary radio. By now Clarence had edited the footage he had shot with his movie camera in Ecuador, and he showed the film to the men at the gathering. The men were most impressed with the firsthand view the movie gave them of Ecuador.
One of the men present at the meeting, G. A. Jacobson, was exploring opportunities for using radio in Shanghai, China. As G. A. Jacobson told the group what he was doing, Clarence could see the possibilities of using radio around the world. In fact, back at the annual Missionary Alliance Conference in Quito, Clarence, Reuben Larson, Stuart and John Clark, and Paul Young had talked about those very possibilities. As they had prayed about it and read their Bibles, they felt God giving them a blueprint for how they were to proceed. And now Clarence felt that he should tell the men in Columbus, Ohio, about that blueprint.
“Why don’t you open your Bibles to Acts 1:8,” Clarence said and then proceeded to read the verse aloud. “‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’”
Clarence went on to explain how the verse held a blueprint for the ministry of Radio HCJB. “We are first to be witnesses in Jerusalem. We take this to mean that first we must broadcast locally to Quito. We must do this in Spanish, using a radio wavelength that ensures that the city’s 150,000 inhabitants receive good reception. When this is done, then we are to go to Judea. This means establishing another transmitter so that we can broadcast on a medium wavelength to the rest of Ecuador and to the neighboring countries. Then third, we are to go to Samaria. This we take to mean Central and South America, where there are nearly one hundred million Spanish-speaking people. Reaching this audience is a big challenge, but it is a challenge that in due time God will help us meet. And then there are the uttermost parts of the world—the whole world. Broadcasting to the whole world may seem unattainable at this point, but as we know, with God all things are possible.
“So you see, we first start locally, and then step-by-step we move out to the rest of the world. In that respect, radio is the next missionary, for it gives us a way to reach the whole world with the gospel.”
It was a bold vision, but a vision Clarence believed God would one day bring to pass. And as the men talked and prayed about the blueprint, they decided to set up a committee to collect data on just how many radio stations there were around the world and whether any of them carried Christian programs.
Meanwhile Katherine, who had stayed in Oklahoma with the children, had wonderful news. The missions secretary of the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle had called to say that someone had left a legacy to the church to be used where it was most needed. Amazingly, the secretary had decided that the money would best be used by paying off the Joneses’ two-thousand-dollar debt so that they could move ahead with their plans to move to Ecuador.
“Praise God!” Clarence exclaimed. “I feel like a cork that has been weighted to a stone and suddenly set free to bob to the surface. Hold on to your hat, Kath. God is moving fast, and we are going to have to run to keep up with Him!”
Clarence was finally debt free. At the end of December, he had managed to pay back the six hundred dollars to Reuben, and now he could focus on getting together the money he would need to get himself and the family and all the necessary radio equipment to Quito.
As Clarence busily promoted and raised money for the new radio station in Quito, many Christian leaders caught the vision and encouraged and supported him. A friend from his days at Moody Bible Institute, Howard Ferrin, was now president of Providence Bible Institute in Rhode Island, and he promoted Clarence and the radio station in Ecuador everywhere he went. Dr. Walter Turnbull, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, also threw his support behind Clarence and the radio station, as did Paul Rader and the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle. Gerald Winrod allowed Clarence to use his extensive mailing list to promote the new ministry. And Bob Brown, leader of the Omaha Christian Tabernacle, also promoted Clarence and the new radio station, inviting Clarence to come and speak at the church.
Clarence had a pilot fly him to Omaha. They flew in a secondhand Stinson Voyager aircraft, which Clarence hoped to buy and take to Ecuador. Clarence had not forgotten the arduous trek to Dos Ríos and how it had taken nine days to cover the same distance an aircraft could cover in an hour. The Stinson Voyager, he rationalized, would benefit not only the workers at Radio HCJB but also all missionaries in Ecuador.
When Bob Brown heard of the plan, he took Clarence aside for a talk. “Clarence, this is too much. First you are trying to sell the Christian public on radio, which many still think of as the devil’s tool. In addition, you are showing a movie of Ecuador, and many people think movies are also a tool of the devil. And now you want to buy an airplane to take with you. Certainly the whole idea is a sensation, and you are getting lots of press coverage as a result, but the Christian public is just not ready for it. God has called you to do radio, and that is what you must do. Ditch the aircraft and focus where God has called you. Someone else will take up the airplane idea when the time is right. In the meantime content yourself to walk into the jungle when you must go there.”
Clarence thought for several minutes about what Bob had told him and then replied, “You know, you are right. The airplane, as helpful as it would be, is too much right now. It is radio God has called me to, and that’s what I need to stick to.”
All the promotion and speaking that Clarence and others were doing for the new radio station soon produced results. Despite the difficult economic circumstances in the United States, money and support began to roll in for the project. Eric Williams and his wife, Ann, caught the vision for the new ministry and volunteered to help Clarence set up Radio HCJB. Eric was a radio engineer who had been sent by CBS to help produce radio programs from the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle. He had sat day after day doing his job and listening to Paul Rader preach over the radio, and it was only a matter of time before he became a Christian himself. Now Eric had found a new outlet for his talents, and Clarence gladly accepted him and his wife as members of the team.
Soon Eric was busy in his garage, building the new radio station’s first transmitter. It was not the 5,000-watt affair that Clarence had been promoting. God willing, that would come later, but in the meantime Eric put together a 200-watt transmitter. In many ways it was rather puny, but it was strong enough to get the station up and running and broadcasting to Quito. Clarence and Eric used some of the money collected for the project to buy other pieces of equipment they would need to operate the new station.
Finally, in late August 1931, everything was ready, and a dedication service was held at the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle to send Clarence, Eric, and Ann off as sanctioned missionaries from the church. Since Katherine was expecting a baby in early December, she was going to stay on in Chicago until the child was born, and then she and the children would join Clarence in Quito.
Clarence had painted a backdrop scene of Ecuador for the dedication, and the new, four-foot-tall radio transmitter with the call letters HCJB painted across it was placed on stage in front of the backdrop. It was an impressive sight, and as the service progressed, Clarence silently thanked God for going before him and making the impossible possible. Finally Paul Rader called Clarence up on stage to pray for him and commit him to the work of Radio HCJB in Ecuador. When he had finished praying, Paul took off his diamond-chip cufflinks and handed them to Clarence. “These will serve as a link between you and me. God bless you, dear Clarence, if not to India, then to Ecuador,” he said.
Tears began to well in Clarence’s eyes as he listened to Paul’s words, which meant much to him. Clarence was thankful to Paul for all he had done for him over the years. But most of all Clarence was thankful to Paul for opening his eyes to the effectiveness of radio as a tool of evangelism.
In the days following the dedication service, the radio equipment and baggage were loaded into thirty-three boxes. When they had all been packed, the boxes weighed sixty-four hundred pounds. Then it was time for the boxes to head to New York City, where they were to be loaded aboard the SS Santa Inez for the voyage to Ecuador. When the shipping agent in New York saw the boxes marked “World Radio Missionary Fellowship,” he quipped, “Where do you get this world stuff? With a 200-watt transmitter, you have got to be kidding!”
Clarence was undeterred as he watched the boxes being loaded aboard the ship. God had brought them this far, and He would not desert them now. It may be only a 200-watt transmitter, but in time He would open the way for larger, more powerful transmitters capable of broadcasting to the whole continent of South America and beyond. But for now God had given them a blueprint to broadcast to Quito first, and the 200-watt transmitter was up to that task.
