Helen Howard
In her youth missionaries, including Clarence Jones, were often in her parents’ home. In 1942 she sailed to Ecuador to serve with Radio Station HCJB in Quito, joining Clayton who had arrived in the South American country about a year earlier. Her voyage required travel in blackout conditions due to a threat of enemy attack on the Chilean ship during World War II. During the next 42 years in Ecuador, Helen’s passion was in child evangelism. She held child evangelism classes in her backyard, and as others joined these efforts it led to the founding of Iñaquito Evangelical Church in Quito where she was a deaconess and teacher. She also did home visitation and counseled for the church’s Women’s Society. Helen assisted Clayton as host of the ever-popular shortwave radio listeners’ program, “DX Partyline,” as well as answering English-language letters from listeners worldwide. And she was involved in Andes DXers International, or ANDEX, a shortwave listeners’ club sponsored by Radio Station HCJB. She also did secretarial work, helped in the record library and taught kindergarten. “My heart has always been with children’s work,” Helen said in an interview in 1988. “We enjoyed going into the country and holding classes with children. Adults would also attend.”The Howards retired and left Ecuador in 1984, living for about a decade in Florida before moving to Oklahoma. Helen Howard died January 3, 2010 at Go Ye Village in Tahlequah, Okla. She was 89. |
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