Clarence and several members of the engineering staff from the radio station drove out to inspect the property. The site was perfect. It was flat, was located in the center of a broad valley, and had an ample water supply to meet their needs. Three days later Clarence signed the papers to buy the land, which was registered in the name of the World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc.
With the land purchased, Clarence’s attention turned to raising the money needed to design, build, and install the new 50,000-watt transmitter and antenna. Such an undertaking was not going to be cheap, and money for the project was still being raised in 1948 when the Jones family moved to New York City to man the new HCJB office. Marian, however, chose to stay behind in Quito. She was now twenty-two years old and had a good job, which she did not want to leave, as a secretary at the U.S. embassy.
Once the rest of the family arrived in New York, Clarence did not take the time to settle in. He left that job to Katherine. Instead he set out straightaway on a promotional and recruiting tour of the United States and Canada. While speaking at Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada, Clarence met a young medical student named Paul Roberts. Paul would soon be graduating from medical school, and he asked Clarence, “Is there any chance that I could join HCJB after I graduate?”
Clarence was thrilled by the question. For some time he had been concerned about the medical needs of the growing staff in Quito. As well, over the years he had watched the Indians traveling the Pan American Highway in and out of Quito. He had noted that these Indians were not always in good health and they had nowhere to go in the area to get medical treatment. When Paul asked whether there was a place for him in HCJB, Clarence quickly sent off a letter to Reuben.
I’ve been thinking about the need to have our own medical staff in Quito. A resident doctor could (a) oversee the health of our growing staff, (b) operate a small Indian clinic, (c) carry on an itinerant work with the sound bus, (d) give medical advice on the radio. We might also install a small hospital for missionaries and the public.
If you like the idea, Reu, I think we have just the man, who would be supported by Peoples Church.
Reuben liked the idea, and soon a small house located along the Pan American Highway close by the radio station was rented to be used as a medical clinic, and after his graduation from medical school, Paul moved with his wife to Quito.
In April 1949 Clarence was on hand to witness the opening of the clinic. It was not a splashy start. The ceremony was a small affair, as was the new medical ministry. But as Clarence reminded those who gathered for the opening, HCJB had also started as a tiny operation. Soon, as Clarence had envisaged, Dr. Roberts was busy at the new clinic, taking care of the medical needs of the HCJB staff and the poor Indians who traversed the Pan American Highway.
A month later, in May 1949, Clarence learned that he had been honored in a special way. John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, had awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws degree. Clarence was both flattered and a little embarrassed. He realized that being able to use the title Dr. Jones would help open doors for him, but he was concerned that people might think he was a medical doctor, especially with the opening of the clinic in Quito.
Three months later, on August 5, 1949, the medical staff at the new HCJB clinic was put to the test. They were needed—and in a hurry—in Ambato, seventy-five miles to the south. A massive earthquake had struck the town, killing and injuring thousands and almost completely leveling the town. The president of Ecuador phoned and asked Clarence for help. The medical staff were quickly loaded into one of the sound buses and were on their way to the scene of the devastation. Once they arrived in Ambato, the medical team got right to work tending the needs of the many injured people.
HCJB was pressed into service in other ways as well. At 6:30 AM the following day, Ecuador’s President Galo Plaza addressed the nation over the radio from the sound bus, informing the citizens of the country about the size and nature of the devastation in Ambato. At least six thousand people were dead, many thousands were injured, and over one hundred thousand people had been left homeless.
Later that day Clarence received a telegram from NBC in New York City, asking if they could arrange a direct radio feed from devastated Ambato. The next day, Sunday, an exhausted President Plaza was broadcasting once again from the sound bus. This time, since the broadcast was connected through HCJB to the NBC, CBS, and Mutual radio networks in the United States, the president was explaining to the world the extent of the devastation in Ambato. The radio hookup brought HCJB to the attention of a whole new segment of the radio-listening public.
The day of this broadcast brought another tragedy to the already devastated region. A Bristol aircraft belonging to the Shell Oil Company was carrying thirty-seven of the company’s employees from Shell Mera to Ambato to search for missing relatives, when it crashed into the side of Mount Bolivar, killing everyone aboard.
The plane crash was the last straw for the Shell Oil Company. Shell had spent millions of dollars drilling exploratory wells around the Oriente, but despite its best efforts, it had not found oil in commercial quantities. The difficult living conditions in the jungle and constant harassment from a tribe of savage Indians know as the Aucas had taken a heavy toll on the workers. Many Shell Oil workers had died or been killed in the company’s eleven-year search for oil in Ecuador. Now, with the plane crash near Ambato, the company decided to give up its search for oil in the Oriente and pull its operations out of Ecuador.
For Clarence the Ambato earthquake underscored the need to press forward with HCJB’s medical work. He was therefore delighted when Dr. Everett Fuller and his wife, Liz, joined the HCJB medical team in Quito.
Not long after the Fullers’ arrival in Ecuador, a young missionary named Nate Saint came to Quito on business. Nate and his wife were living at the now-abandoned Shell Oil Company airfield and base of operation at Shell Mera. While in Quito, Nate met with Dr. Fuller and Clarence and posed a question to them. Would Dr. Fuller be prepared to come to Shell Mera and open a clinic that over time could develop into a full-fledged hospital?
Dr. Fuller and his wife jumped at the opportunity to pioneer a medical work in the Oriente. Clarence also embraced the opportunity. He was excited that his and Nate’s visions for medical missions in the jungle fit so well together, and the two men agreed that the new clinic should be operated under the ministry umbrella of HCJB.
Just as Clarence had predicted, the post–World War II years turned out to be a boom time for the mission. By 1951 the World Radio Missionary Fellowship had fifty foreign missionaries serving in Quito and at the clinic at Shell Mera, and over one hundred Ecuadorians worked for the organization. But no matter how big the staff, there was always plenty to do.
One of the projects that Clarence turned his attention to was development of the new land they had purchased at Pifo. First the land had to be cleared, and here Clarence led the way. At 6:00 each morning he climbed onto a bulldozer and worked to clear the old cornfield so that construction could begin on a new transmitter building, generating plant, and other utility buildings.
By January 1953 Clarence and Katherine were back in the United States promoting the radio ministry. Their children were nearly all grown. Marian was married to Bob Clark, who was leading the development of the site at Pifo. Marjorie was still in Ecuador, Richard was a decorated Korean War hero, and Nancy was a freshman at Wheaton College in Illinois.
With their family raised, Clarence and Katherine gave 100 percent of their time to the World Radio Missionary Fellowship. Many people asked about working with HCJB, and Clarence always offered the same challenge, “First you need to be totally committed to God, then to the country you are serving in, and finally to the mission. Then you have to be a specialist in one or two areas and be very good at serving others. Bring along a tuxedo or evening gown so that you will be fit to meet the president, and overalls so that you will be fit to do the work.”
By January 12 Clarence and Katherine had finished a whirlwind round of speaking engagements on the West Coast and were driving east. They were on the outskirts of Santa Barbara, California, when Clarence decided to pull over for gas. He was just slowing down when a car coming from the opposite direction pulled out to pass a slower vehicle and sped toward Clarence and Katherine’s car in their lane. Clarence watched helplessly as the other driver realized his mistake and pulled frantically on his steering wheel. But it was too late. Bam! The two cars hit head-on.
Chapter 16
Recovery and Change
Clarence took a deep breath. The pain has not set in yet, he told himself. Do what you can. Very slowly he turned his head, reached around, and turned off the engine. Then he looked over at Katherine. Her head was embedded in the windshield, and blood was spurting from her forehead.
Clarence heard shouting in the distance, and someone shined a flashlight into the wrecked car. Clarence reached into his pocket and pulled out a notepad and pencil. Then, although he could not properly see what he was writing, he scribbled down “Romans 8:28,” tore the page from the notebook, and grasped it in his hand. There, he thought. When I die, they will know what my last thoughts were. Maybe they will even preach them at my funeral. Romans 8:28 read, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”
“She’s dead.” Clarence heard the words and was vaguely aware that the person who said them was talking about Katherine.
“The two in the other car are gone, too. Looks like this man is the only survivor. Let’s get him out of here, boys,” someone else said.
Clarence heard the door being wrenched open and felt strong arms pulling him free of the wreckage and onto a waiting gurney. After that it was hard for him to concentrate. Painkillers were shot into his arm, and when he arrived at Santa Barbara Hospital, he was whisked straight into surgery. When he awoke, his entire face was a ball of bandages. He had no way to open his mouth to speak. Clarence soon found out why. His jaw had been shattered by the impact on the steering wheel and windshield. The surgeon had counted forty-two separate pieces of shattered jawbone and had threaded them together on a wire while they healed and the bone knit back together.
Clarence motioned for a piece of paper. “Where is Katherine?” he wrote.
The nurse smiled weakly. “Can you hear me?” she asked.
Clarence lifted his hand to indicate that he could hear.
“Okay then, Mr. Jones. I need to tell you that your wife is alive, but she is very seriously injured. I will ask the doctor if I can wheel your bed into her room so that you can see her.”
Soon Clarence was being wheeled down the hospital corridor. Although no one said it out loud, he had the distinct feeling that the staff were not expecting Katherine to live much longer and they were setting up one last encounter between him and his wife of twenty-nine years.
Clarence would never have recognized Katherine. She was hooked up to various tubes and monitors as she lay unconscious. Clarence lay in his bed beside her, praying and waiting for her to wake up. She did not.
One day passed, and then two, and three. “Frankly,” the doctor finally told Clarence, “it might be better if she stays in the coma and slips away from there. The EEG shows so much brain damage that she would have massive problems if she regained consciousness. She will never be able to feed herself or think clearly again. And it looks like we are going to have to amputate her feet. They are too mangled to ever be restored by surgery.”
