When summer arrived, Clarence rented a campground across Lake Michigan at Berrien Springs, Michigan, and the boys went camping.
Paul had such confidence in Clarence’s ability to get things done that when the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle bought its own conference ground near Muskegon Heights, Michigan, he asked Clarence to oversee the ministry there as well.
Again Clarence accepted the challenge, but it took much of his youthful energy to keep everything running smoothly. He was also kept busy at home. By now Katherine had borne two bouncing, blonde daughters. Marian was born in 1925 and Marjorie in 1927.
Despite the hectic schedule, Clarence felt satisfied with his life, until one night in early summer 1927. The Jones family was staying at the conference ground near Muskegon Heights, where Paul was delivering a series of messages to those attending a summer camp. Clarence played his trombone in the band on Sunday morning as the campers joined in some rousing singing, and then Paul stood and spoke about the need for missionaries around the world.
Until this point, Clarence and Katherine had considered themselves “home missionaries,” especially since thousands of people were hearing the gospel for the first time through the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle and its ever-expanding radio ministry. But this morning as Paul spoke, Clarence felt a strange stirring in his heart. Even though he was the camp director and music leader, at the end of the service, Clarence felt that he should go forward to the altar and surrender his life to missionary service. Clarence couldn’t help but notice how stunned Paul looked as he put down his trombone and made his way to join the others at the front.
“Well, God bless you,” Paul said to Clarence after praying with him. “We need you here in this work, but if God wants you in missionary work, then that’s what we want for you as well.”
Clarence was grateful for Paul’s encouraging words, and after the service he returned to the cabin where Katherine had stayed to look after their two daughters. He decided not to say anything to her about what he had done until he was sure he was doing what God wanted him to do.
Later that week two missionaries came to speak at the camp. They were a young couple in their late twenties who had been working in Tibet. Both of their children had died in Tibet as a result of the harsh conditions. Despite the grief they felt, the couple had continued serving God there. The missionary couple’s story touched Clarence deeply, and he began to pray that God would direct him to a specific country where he, too, could serve as a missionary.
That night, as Clarence sat in the meeting at camp, he heard a voice saying to him, “Arise and go south—with radio.” The voice was so clear and startling that Clarence immediately looked around the room to see whether anyone else had heard it, but no one seemed to be reacting to the strange occurrence. Clarence sat stunned. He had prayed for a specific country to go to, but he felt that God had instead given him a direction in which to go—south. He drew a mental map in his head and came up with about twenty countries south of Michigan. How would he know which country he was meant to go to? And with radio! What did that mean, especially since at that time there were few radio receivers in either Central or South America?
Despite the questions, excitement rose in Clarence as he thought about the possibilities of taking radio overseas. But as quickly as his excitement arose, his heart sank when he contemplated telling Katherine, who was struggling with two small children. Clarence was sure that there was no way Katherine would be willing to leave the United States to “go south with radio.” Katherine had made it quite clear from the outset of their marriage that being a home missionary was challenging enough for her.
As he drank his nightly cup of cocoa before heading back to the cabin, Clarence felt sick to his stomach. He had prayed for guidance and had gotten it. But now he was unsure what would happen next. He decided not to tell Katherine about the guidance right away. Instead he spent much of the night in bed concerned about her reaction to this new direction in life.
By the time breakfast rolled around the next morning, Clarence knew that he had to tell his wife what was going through his mind. He pushed his poached egg around the plate a few times with his fork and then began. “Katherine, if the Lord were to call us to the mission field together, would you go?”
Katherine got up from her chair and walked around the table to Clarence. She wrapped her arms about him. “It’s all right, dear,” she said gently. “Last night, when I was putting the girls to bed and you were at the service, the Lord came to me, and He asked me very plainly, ‘Katherine, will you go?’”
Tears streamed down Clarence’s cheeks as he listened to what his wife was telling him. Surely everything would go smoothly now that God had led them both into mission work. Little did Clarence dream of the obstacles that lay on the path ahead for him and Katherine.
Chapter 5
Going South
Clarence dreaded one task—telling Paul of his and Katherine’s decision to “go south with radio.” Clarence had been Paul’s right-hand man for five years now, and he knew how much Paul relied on him. Still, he had to tell him, and so when the family returned to Chicago from Muskegon Heights, Clarence gathered his courage. He met Paul in the tabernacle hallway after the Sunday evening service. “I have to tell you something,” he said to Paul. “Katherine and I have been called to be missionaries. We have prayed about it together and separately, and we are sure of it.”
“Wonderful, wonderful!” Paul said as he gave Clarence a congratulatory slap on the back. “Just what I was hoping to hear. Since I learned that you have a missionary call on your life, I’ve been eyeing just the right place for you to serve. I believe it’s India. There is much to be done to bring the gospel to that dark land. Why, my own daughter Pauline believes that God is calling her to serve there.”
“But, Mr. Rader,” Clarence replied, “God is not calling me to India. He is calling me south to Latin America.”
Clarence watched as the smile lines on Paul’s face hardened. “You won’t consider helping me in India, then?” Paul asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Clarence said. “It was a specific call to take radio and go south.”
“Oh,” Paul said. “Then I guess you will be going out on your own.”
Clarence could not think of an adequate reply to the statement. He could hear something final in Paul’s voice that seemed to say “good-bye” and “I’m not going to give you my blessing” all in one. Clarence watched as Paul walked past him and on down the hallway, shaking hands with various people as he went. It was a bittersweet moment, a moment in which Clarence knew that his ten-year relationship with Paul Rader had been forever altered.
While Clarence was a little shocked at the lack of encouragement he received from Paul, he was determined to continue on and pursue his call to missions. That night, after the girls were asleep, he and Katherine got out an atlas and peered at it. A dizzying array of countries lay to the south of the United States. There were enormous ones like Brazil and Argentina, a long, thin one called Chile, and tiny states huddled together like Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. The question that Clarence and Katherine asked themselves was, which one of these was ready for a Christian radio station?
The answer did not come like a flash in the night, and Clarence and Katherine set about examining their options. Eventually they settled on Venezuela as the most likely candidate for a place to set up a Christian radio station. Things began to fall into place when Clarence learned that the Scandinavian Alliance Mission worked in the country. He sent in an application to serve with the mission and convinced his brother-in-law, Chet Churchill, to go with him to Venezuela on an exploratory trip. Chet, who was married to Katherine’s sister Ruth, was in construction and at the time was looking for business opportunities in South America, and he was happy to accompany Clarence.
The two men set sail from New York City on February 1, 1928. Neither man could speak a word of Spanish, but that did not daunt them. On the way to board the ship, they stopped off to buy a Spanish-English dictionary to help them communicate when they got to Venezuela.
Clarence found his first ocean voyage to be more challenging than he had anticipated. He battled seasickness as the swelling waves lifted the ship high and then receded, leaving the vessel to crash back down into the trough between the waves. Despite the queasiness in his stomach, Clarence, with the aid of Chet, held daily Bible studies for the other passengers, and he entertained them at dinner by playing his trombone. Clarence soon learned that most of their fellow passengers were headed south to seek their fortunes in the newly opened oil fields of Venezuela.
Six days after setting out from New York, the ship reached Puerto Rico, where everyone was allowed to go ashore. Once on dry land, Clarence found it almost impossible to stay steady on his feet. He had become so used to the rocking motion of the ship that the ground seemed to move under him, causing him to stagger along the main street. Eventually he fell flat on his face in the gutter. Clarence lay there with his eyes shut for a moment. When he turned his head and looked up, a police officer was standing over him. Clarence knew that he must appear to the officer to be drunk. At the same time, he noticed Chet frantically reaching into his pocket for the Spanish-English dictionary. Using gestures and pointing to words in the dictionary, Chet was eventually able to convince the police officer that his brother-in-law was not a derelict but was a man who had been at sea so long that he had lost his “land legs.” Finally the officer waved his hand and walked on. Chet then helped Clarence onto his feet and guided him back to the ship.
Although Clarence seemed to be having trouble with his land legs, he began to get his sea legs on the second part of the voyage to Venezuela. Soon he was enjoying strolling along the deck at midnight, watching the moon and stars reflect off the water of the Caribbean Sea.
Finally, several days after the ship had set out from Puerto Rico, the coast of Venezuela came into view. Clarence stood at the rail of the ship and gazed out at the lush, green foliage that stretched up from sea level to inland mountains. The jungle was denser than any forest Clarence had ever seen. As the ship steamed along parallel to the coastline, a small village came into view. The red- and brown-roofed houses of the village were painted in bright colors and were nestled together at the edge of a narrow beach. The place looked almost idyllic to Clarence, who watched transfixed as small fishing boats plied the bright-blue ocean water off the village. By late afternoon the ship was tied up alongside the dock at La Guira Harbor. Clarence and Chet planned to head into Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, the following morning.
As the early morning sun stretched its rays across La Guira Harbor, Clarence and Chet disembarked and were driven to Caracas. The road they were on was concrete and in much better condition than Clarence had imagined it would be as it snaked its way from sea level up into the mountains. As it switched back and forth on itself, it afforded Clarence and Chet wonderful panoramic views across La Guira and the Caribbean beyond. Finally they crossed over the mountain ridge and descended to Caracas, located 3,300 feet above sea level.
From Caracas, Clarence and Chet began a tour of Venezuela, staying with missionaries serving with the Scandinavian Alliance Mission and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. At one of the missionary homes they stayed in, renovations were under way to provide room for four missionaries coming to serve in the country. Clarence decided to stay there for a week, climbing out of bed at the crack of dawn and helping with the renovation project.
