HCJB

HCJB is the flagship station of one of the most popular and far-reaching international radio ministries in the world - HCJB Global. Its official title is World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc. Together with local partners worldwide, broadcasts emanate in more than 100 countries in more than 120 languages via shortwave, and in Ecuador via medium wave as well as FM, satellite and the Internet. The organization's international headquarters are at the HCJB Global Ministry Service Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Senior Vice President Jim Allen became acting president on June 16, 2008, replacing David Johnson who resigned after nearly seven years as president.

Organizational structure and goals

Mission Statement: To empower dynamic media and healthcare ministries that declare and demonstrate Jesus Christ.

Key Ministries: HCJB Global works through its two key ministries - HCJB Global Voice (media) and HCJB Global Hands (healthcare).

Key Distinctive: The dynamic integration of media and healthcare around the world to impact lives for Christ.

History

HCJB Global began in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, on Christmas Day, 1931, and was founded by Clarence W. Jones [http://www.hcjb.org/about_us/hcjb_world_radio/mission_profile.html] , a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute, and Reuben Larson along with other American evangelical Christian missionaries.

In 1927 Clarence and Katherine Jones felt called by God to go to Latin America and start a pioneer missionary radio station. Clarence traveled to Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Cuba in 1928, looking for a suitable location, but was unable to get the necessary government permits to start a station. Two years later, back in Chicago, Clarence met several missionaries from Ecuador: Reuben and Grace Larson and John and Ruth Clark who were with the Christian & Missionary Alliance, as well as Paul and Bernice Young with the Bible Society. These missionaries encouraged Clarence to come to Ecuador to start a missionary radio station.

Reuben and another C&MA missionary, D.S. Clark, along with Luís Calisto, an Ecuadorian lawyer, helped procure the initial contract with the Ecuadorian government in August 1930. The station’s inaugural broadcast occurred in Quito at 4 p.m. Christmas Day, 1931, making it Ecuador’s first radio station and the world's first missionary radio station.

What do the call letters mean?

HCJB, which the broadcaster interprets as Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings, is the actual call sign of the original station. In Spanish the call letters stand for Hoy Cristo Jesús Bendice, and in German it is Höre Christi Jesu Botschaft.

Broadcasting milestones and achievements

The HCJB Global Technology Center (formerly the HCJB World Radio Engineering Center) began in an effort to design and build specialized, cost-effective shortwave transmitters. The first time a group of HCJB Global engineers accepted an offer from the Moore family to work in Elkhart, Indiana, they were tasked to build a 500,000-watt shortwave transmitter capable of overcoming any Russian jamming effort.

A special relationship existed between HCJB Global and Crown International via its founder, Clarence Moore, who had served at Radio Station HCJB in Ecuador as chief engineer during its early days.

* Project Outreach began in 1975 and was completed in 1980 with the installation of the HC500 (500,000-watt) transmitter in Ecuador.

The Moore family (with Clarence's son, Clyde) again extended the invitation to HCJB Global to take up residence at Crown International, this time at the technology center. The goal was to build HC100 (100,000-watt) shortwave transmitters for HCJB Global and its ministry partners in the World by 2000 challenge.

World by 2000, started in 1985, was a joint effort of HCJB Global, Trans World Radio, Far East Broadcasting Co., FEBA Radio, SIM, Words of Hope and other evangelical broadcasters to make Christian broadcasts available in all of the world's major languages by the year 2000. It was later renamed World by Radio.

* In 1986 the HCJB Global Technology Center was officially established under the direction of David Pasechnik.

Staff members have been involved in research, development, training and technical support for AM, FM and shortwave radio stations as well as satellite distribution and satellite-based Internet services. In recent years they developed station automation systems and a fixed-tuned, solar-powered SonSet® radio that can be pretuned to pick up a specific Christian radio station. They have also been pioneers in the development of equipment for a form of digital radio broadcasting called DRM.

In the 1940s Clarence Moore obtained a patent for the development of the cubical quad antenna. This antenna is frequently used by amateur radio operators around the world. He developed this after problems developed with his beam antenna due to the thin mountain air, the type of antenna and the power of his transmitter. The tips of the beam antenna developed strong coronal discharge which caused his antenna to melt.

HCJB Global Voice is directly involved in many engineering activities such as hydroelectric facilities in the small Ecuadorian town of Papallacta and an international transmitter site in Pifo, a town 18 miles west of the nation's capital, Quito. Various other communication systems and equipment are part of the engineering efforts of this mission.

Starting in the early 1990s following the fall of the Iron Curtain, HCJB Global has become increasingly involved in a ministry now known as "radio planting," working with local partners to develop Christian radio ministries worldwide. More than 300 outlets are on the air in more than 100 countries. The mission provides any or all of the following: equipment, technical and programming support, and training. Each site has its own local governing powers, programming and follow-up strategy.

In 1994 HCJB Global began to regionalize. Five regional offices are now operating in Asia Pacific, Euro-Asia, Latin America, North Africa/Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Non-radio ministries

Although HCJB Global began solely as a radio ministry, in recent decades it has diversified substantially with outreaches in healthcare and education.

HCJB Global Hands, the mission's healthcare outreach, operates a wide variety of medical ministries. Hospital Vozandes-Quito, founded in 1955, is a modern urban hospital in Ecuador's capital city, providing a full range of medical services to local residents and expatriates. As of 2007 this hospital has 76 beds.

Hospital Vozandes-Shell (Hospital Vozandes del Oriente), located in the jungle town of Shell, has provided medical services to the people of Ecuadorian Amazon since 1958. This 28-bed hospital works in close association with a ministry called Mission Aviation Fellowship which often flies patients to the hospital from the surrounding, otherwise inaccessible, communities.

Vozandes Community Development is responsible for projects in needy areas around Ecuador. These include clean water projects which aim at ensuring rural communities have access to pure water supplies, mobile medical clinics that travel to remote communities about once a month to provide dental and medical services, and community clinics in a variety of poor neighborhoods in and near Quito that provide affordable medical aid to local residents. All of these ministries attempt to provide medical aid to those who need it while presenting a clear Christian gospel message. In 2007 HCJB Global Hands served nearly 325,000 Ecuadorians.

HCJB Global Hands is now branching out beyond Ecuador and Latin America, joining with medical partners in countries such as Malawi, the Republic of Congo and South Africa. In recent years the mission has also sent short-term emergency medical teams to Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Peru and the Solomon Islands to help in relief efforts following various natural and man-made disasters.

Underlying nearly all of HCJB Global's ministries is education. Radio training is held in all five of the mission's regions.

The Christian Center of Communications (CCC) is a three-year higher education program based in Quito, Ecuador, that teachers Spanish-speaking students about radio, television and the print media. It is an accredited branch campus of Northwestern College in Roseville, Minnesota and is also accredited by Ecuadorian authorities.

Apoyo, Wpanish for "support" in Spanish, is an outreach that focuses on evangelism, developing the local church and equipping Latin American church leaders to be pastors. This ministry, which began in 1992, is a cooperative effort of HCJB Global and a U.S.-based group called Leadership Resources International. One of Apoyo's key projects is called Training National Trainers (TNT), an intensive three-year program that trains national church leaders so they can teach others in their own countries.

The Christian Academy of the Air (formerly called Bible Institute of the Air) is operated by the World Radio Network, a cooperating ministry based in Texas. This outreach, dating back more than 50 years, focuses on teaching a wide range of classes centered on the Bible, theology and Christian ministry.

The Radio School of Mission, first held in Singapore in 2005, is a weeklong course that provides training to broadcasters from across the Asia Pacific Region. Radio School of Mission II is the more advanced course. Radio seminars are also held in Euro-Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa/Middle East.

HCJB Global has become involved in media outreaches such as television and the Internet. The television ministry, called Televozandes, produces and distributes TV programs across Latin America. Televozandes relocated most of its ministries to a partner ministry, Canal 27, in Guatemala in March 2007.

See also

Related topics

Missionary related
* Mission Aviation Fellowship

Broadcasting related
* Shortwave listening

External links

Official HCJB sites
* [http://www.hcjb.org/ HCJB Home page]
* [http://www.vozandes.org/ HCJB Global Spanish site]
* [http://www.hcjb.org/about_us/history/our_rich_history.html/ HCJB history]
* [http://www.hcjb.org/healthcare/hospital_vozandes_del_oriente/hvo_overview.html/ HCJB Hospital Vozandes in Shell, Ecuador]
* [http://www.radioplanting.org/ Radio Planting]
* [http://www.moody.edu/ Moody Bible Institute]
* [http://onelovestudios.com/one_love_studios_022.htm One Love Studios Global Outreach]