Carmela Ochoa’s program in Quechua was also increasing in popularity every day, and it, along with Dr. Aldama’s program, provided a strong programming backbone to the radio station.
As could be predicted, the more hours Radio HCJB was on the air, the more widely recognized the station became. It came as no surprise to Clarence when in March 1933 HCJB was invited to be a part of the Silver Anniversary Train that would be journeying from Guayaquil to Quito to celebrate the first twenty-five years of the Guayaquil–Quito railway line. The only thing holding Clarence back from becoming involved in the celebration was the fact that Katherine was once again pregnant and might give birth while he was away. But after praying about it, Clarence decided that he should leave his wife in the capable care of Grace Larson and make the most of the opportunity presented to him.
The Silver Anniversary Exposition Train, as it was officially called, would make its journey in June, and when Clarence arrived in Guayaquil to join the train, he was surprised. The narrow-gauge steam engine had been cleaned and repainted black and gold, the boxcars that made up the train had been repainted in bright colors, and a large banner on the side declared that it was indeed the Silver Anniversary Exposition Train. The boxcars contained displays of various aspects of Ecuadorian culture, science, and industry. The Radio HCJB boxcar, the first carriage in the train, was hooked onto the back of the engine.
The HCJB boxcar had been decked out with cots for Clarence and Stuart Clark to sleep on; a table stacked with Spanish Bibles, New Testaments, and tracts; a portable organ, a phonograph, a microphone, Clarence’s trombone, and a small radio transmitter. On top of the boxcar was mounted a 50-watt loudspeaker.
Clarence was filled with anticipation as the train pulled away from the station in Guayaquil. For the first leg of the journey, he rode on the roof of the boxcar, filming the journey with his movie camera. The train rolled along across the flatland outside of Guayaquil and then made its way through a canyon, where the railway tracks ran alongside the surging Chan-Chan River. Finally it came to a small, rural enclave, the first stop on the journey. When the train pulled to a halt in the town, Clarence slipped inside the boxcar. Moments later the Ecuadorian national anthem began to blare from the loudspeaker atop the boxcar. Clarence watched in amusement as the startled residents of the town flocked to the boxcar, their jaws slack with wonder. In the twenty-five years the train had been passing through their town, the people had never encountered a “singing boxcar.” As the last notes of the national anthem faded away, Stuart pulled open the door to the boxcar to reveal Clarence standing in front of the microphone, his trombone at the ready. Clarence then began to play a rousing march, to which the people of the town cheered and clapped in delight, most of them never having heard a trombone before.
When Clarence was done playing, the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce stepped up to the microphone. “We are here to do honor to the intrepid vision and courage that built this railroad.…” But as he spoke, the gathered crowd cut him off with the chant, “Music, we want more music.”
Finally the obviously frustrated minister stepped aside and handed the microphone back to Clarence. This time Clarence sat and played the portable organ and sang a number of Ecuadorian tunes, encouraging those in the crowd to sing along with him. After several minutes of singing, Clarence delivered a short message telling the people about how Jesus Christ could change their lives. When he was done, Clarence encouraged the people to visit the displays in the various boxcars of the train, promising them that if they did this he would play more music for them later.
The same scene greeted Clarence and Stuart in all the towns they stopped at along the way, and by the time they made it back to Quito, Clarence was exuberant. Not only had people learned about Radio HCJB as a result of the trip, but also Clarence and Stuart had been able to personally share their faith with many hundreds of Ecuadorians.
For Clarence the future was filled with promise as he made his way back to Quinta Corston. Clarence had no way of knowing that things were about to take a turn for the worse.
Chapter 12
Crisis and Growth
The letters Clarence received from the United States told of how things were as tight there financially as they were in Quito. As the economic depression deepened, many people who had promised to financially support the new radio mission were struggling to put food on the table for their families. The Chicago Gospel Tabernacle had started a food bank that had been inundated with middle-class families who needed help to make ends meet and survive. As a result of the worsening economic situation, during 1932 less than one thousand dollars had been sent from Christians in the United States to help support the Jones and Williams families as well as the work of HCJB.
Clarence and Katherine did what they could to make the donated money go as far as possible. They padded the soles of the girls’ shoes with layers of cardboard, and when the new baby was born—another girl, whom they named Nancy—Katherine made most of her clothes. They also planted a huge garden at Quinta Corston, and Katherine busied herself canning hundreds of jars of produce. Sometimes it was all the family had to eat.
By mid-1933 the situation had become serious. Clarence was now getting reports that banks were failing in the United States and that people who had once been well-off were selling their homes and moving in with relatives to make ends meet. Then came even worse news. The bank that held the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle’s savings failed, and the church lost its money. Paul Rader wrote to Clarence, explaining the dire situation the church was in and apologizing for the fact that no more support money would be coming from them for the Jones family and the radio ministry.
Clarence was stunned when he read Paul’s letter. There was no way that his two part-time jobs could keep them all afloat financially. He wondered what had gone wrong. Had HCJB all been a mistake? Had God really led him to Quito, or had it all been his own idea? For the first time since arriving in Ecuador, Clarence began to have severe doubts about whether he was in the right place. The turmoil he felt was made all the greater when an electric bill for $6.15 arrived in the mail. Clarence had no money to pay the bill, and without electricity there could be no radio station. It was one of the worst times in Clarence’s life as he stared at the bill on the table. Would the whole ministry go under from owing less than seven dollars? It seemed likely.
Not knowing what else to do, Clarence took the bill and a kitchen chair down to the toolshed at the back of the Quinta Corston property. He sat down and poured out his heart in prayer. As he prayed, he called to mind once again Jeremiah 33:3: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee.” Yes, Clarence thought, God will answer me—not my supporters, who are themselves in dire financial straits, not the church or Paul Rader, but God will answer me. Then it was as if a voice inside Clarence said, “Yes, I will answer. I’ll show you great and mighty things—bigger than you’ve ever dreamed of!” Hope welled up in Clarence’s heart at this, and by the time he left the toolshed, he was confident that God was going to do “something new,” that a miracle was just around the corner.
The following day Stuart paid Clarence a visit. “Something’s been bothering you for the past few days,” he noted.
“Yes, it has,” Clarence began and proceeded to lay out the woeful condition of his family’s and the radio station’s finances.
Stuart listened quietly to Clarence and then offered to advance money to cover the bill and provide some financial relief for the family. “You also need to go and talk to the bank manager and see what arrangements you can make with him for the future.”
Clarence thanked Stuart for his generosity and advice, and two days later he went to see the local bank manager. After some discussion, he arranged a mortgage with the bank on HCJB’s transmitter that would allow the station to pay its next round of bills. It was not quite the miracle Clarence had been hoping for, but as he noted, “Climbing is not always going forward; sometimes you go sideways, looking for a better way to climb the mountain.”
One of those better ways to climb the mountain was to produce a flyer to send to supporters, promoting the radio station and listing the station’s specific financial needs. For the flyer Clarence composed a poem that he titled “The Call of the Andes.”
Where blue skies are swelling
The Andes are telling
Of dark shadows dwelling—
So long;
Where darkness is falling
Sad hearts there are calling
With sorrows enthralling
Too long.
But now o’er the Andes there comes beaming
The Gospel of Life, brightly gleaming,
And still, where sin is betraying
And burdens are weighed
The Andes are saying—
“How long?”
In the flyer Clarence laid out the situation facing Radio HCJB:
• We have had to mortgage our transmitter, the heart of our work.
• We need $5,000 to purchase this property.
• We believe that God has inspired and will prosper HCJB—four letters that mean South America’s greatest chance to hear the gospel in this generation.
Clarence also included in the flyer the testimonies of several people whose lives had been changed and blessed through “hearing the gospel in this new way.”
Once the flyer was printed, Clarence sent it out to all of HCJB’s supporters. Despite the difficult economic times, money began to flow in to HCJB for the first time ever. Soon they had enough money not only to pay off the mortgaged transmitter but also to buy the Quinta Corston property. Buying the property had just one hitch to it, however. Ecuadorian law stated that any land bought in Ecuador by foreigners reverted back to the government after five years. There was no way a radio station could thrive if it had to buy back its own property every few years.
Clarence took the problem to Ecuador’s Congress. After thinking about the situation for several days, the leader of the congress finally stood up and declared, “Gentlemen, I am standing before a microphone of HCJB. Through the courtesy of HCJB, all the citizens of Ecuador know what this government is doing. I would like to propose that HCJB be exempt from the ruling on foreign-owned property.”
A vote was soon taken, and every member of the congress voted in favor of the exemption. Now Clarence could buy Quinta Corston, and the property would remain in HCJB ownership. This was a tremendous relief to Clarence, not only because it meant that the station could stabilize its situation but also because the vote represented a significant endorsement of HCJB by the government.
With the matter taken care of, Clarence arranged for a well-earned vacation for his family. The Joneses climbed aboard the train with three weeks’ worth of supplies for the trip to Guayaquil. From Guayaquil they made their way to the Isle of Puna at the mouth of the Guayas River, where John Reed let them stay at his vacation retreat. The place was basically a fisherman’s hut made of split bamboo. It had a thatched roof and sat on stilts right on the beach. The setting was idyllic. At high tide the water came right under the place, and at low tide Clarence and the children would play softball on the beach. They would also swim in the surf and take long walks along the white-sand beach, exploring the many calm, crystal-clear coves around the island. Clarence loved to sit on the beach and watch the sun set across the sparkling Pacific Ocean, and at night the three older children slept under the stars on the porch, where sometimes Clarence joined them.
After three wonderful weeks of relaxing in the warm, tropical sun, the Jones family reluctantly made its way back to Quito. Clarence arrived rejuvenated and with his mind full of new ideas for radio programs and ways to promote HCJB.
