South America

Bob and Bob's Big Adventure - July 1959

In July of 1959, Dr. Robert Hoffman and his friend Bob Steed and Harold Van Broekhoven left Grand Rapids for a trip to South America.

Dr. Robert Hoffman kept a brief journal of the trip on the back of folder over flyers from the Bible Institute of the Air.

This is a transcription of that journal.

Tue – July 14- 1959

Capitol – late out of Grand R.

missed connection xxx at Chicago

Had to wait till 1:00AM for plane to Miami –

Harold got Capitol to pay for our dinner in Chicago.

Watched 707 jet take off for L.A.

Took cab to Midway Airport.

MIAMI AIRPORT 1959

Wed – July 15 – 1:00 AM

Took off for Miami from Midway Airport.

Only 20 passengers on plane.

Each person had 3 seats.

Took off middle seat arms and were able to sleep fairly well.

Arrived Miami 5:00AM

Missed 2:30 Plane to Quito –

Talked to TAN ticket agent

Arranged to leave Miami thur 10:30AM.

Had breakfast in terminal.

Collected our luggage –

Rented a car –

Drove to Sky-View Motel at airport entrance.

Got a nice room –

Drove to Miami and did a little sightseeing.

Drove back to motel.

Room was ready –

Bought swimming trunks and went for swim in the pool.

Setup radio 1 in motel room.

Made some calls but band was not good.

Harold called Bill Walker at Miami Bible Institute.

Went for another swim.

Very nice pool.

Got a little sunburned –

Went to call on Bill Walker, Former CAM missionary and General Secretary CAM.

Now Dean of Miami Bible Institute and working on a Spanish translation of the Scofield Bible and notes and concordance –

A nice fellow and dedicated to this project

Back to motel swim & good dinner –

Made some radio contacts but band haywire.

Bob called Mary on telephone.

Told her we were delayed.

Went to Bed –

THUR – 1:00AM – telephone call from TAN,

Flight delayed 24 hrs.

To bed again

7:00 Had breakfast –

Back to Airport

Harold talked with agent.

Arranged to take 7:00 Fri AM flight to Guayaquil,

Talked TAN into paying our meals and motel for Thursday

Back to motel –

Swim –

Lunch –

Hour Radio –

Stop + Sock Golf –

Swim

Dinner –

Hour Radio –

Bed

Fri – July 17 – 7:00 flight to Guayaquil –

Breakfast on plane -

Stopped at Kingston, Jamaica -

Panama City

Called Bob Beukema at HOXO

He telegraphed Guayaquil that we were coming.

Dr. Larson and wife met plane at 4:00pm

He took us on a tour of the city.

Saw bananas being loaded –

Cocoa Beans drying in street and being bagged –

Saw market –

Had dinner at Larsons

Nice visit with them.

Slept there and breakfast next morning

Sat – July 18 – 7:00 plane to Quito.

Arrived 9:00,

Dick Brock was at airport.

He took us to HCJB.

Put up at guest house run my Marge Saint.

Harold immediately to meeting of board of trustees – We met Abe V.P., Dr. Paul Roberts, Bill Caldwell, Bob Whitaker, DS Clarke, JD Clarke, Vern Van Hovel, Ben Cummings, Joe Springer, Keith Evans.

Had Charcoal Steaks with Marge Saint, Betty and Joe Springer, Kathy, Steve and Phillip Saint, Marilou McCully, and her children,

Dr. Tidmarsh and Bill Caldwell and I went to Pifo in the afternoon.

Rugged road.

Dinner with Vander Puys.

Met Steve Hunter

Set up KWMI –

Talked on Radio program –

Talked to Grand Rapids on KWMI

Sun – July 18 – Breakfast with Marge Saint and Children –

Looked at her scrapbook ‘we rest on thee’.

Went to airport

Discoteca Productions

Met with the people about their recordings –

Plane delayed

Had dinner at Gene and Ruth Jordan

They sang and played for us

Steve Hunter came in and joined in the singing

Went to studio and gene played the marimba

To airport

Plane finally arrived

Left Quito at 6:30pm just before sunset

Had chicken dinner on plane

Arrived Lima, Peru at 11:30PM

Roy LeTourneau and Jack Hough met us at the airport.

Got thru customs with no trouble –

Stayed at the Savoy Hotel

Savoy Hotel, Lima, Peru (SAME HOTEL TODAY)

Mon July 20 – 6:00AM Airport –

Plane to Tournavista

Arrived at 9:00AM –

Jim LeTourneau met us.

Showed us the place.

Helio plane at 11:00 to CaCo –

Arrived Caco 11:30 –

Met by George, Mary, children and Indians

Airstrip and football field directly in front of their house between house and river –

Mark took Harold and me to see the jungle and look for alligators -

Ucayali River

Saw Indian village and Indians –

Went swimming in Ucayali River

Bit by a fish,

Had Peruvian Indian supper –

Fish and bananas roasted over an open fire –

Fried Bananas, rice, beans, Turtle liver and turtle eggs –

Had meeting in School house after supper –

I spoke,

Bob Steed spoke,

Harold preached,

Indians gave testimony and prayed –

3 languages Eng – Span – Shipibo

Made RADIO contact with grand Rapids – 2 ½ hr G.S.O. talked to Mary S, Lorraine H, Lorraine V.B.

Tue – July 21 –

Had school for George Baker, Don Briskie, Don Stoner on extractions and anesthetics.

Have to get some Dental Equipment for Don Briskie

Anesthetic for George and Don

Extracted some teeth

A good dispensary

Took some boat rides

Watched Indian boys fish with bows and arrows

River is so full of fish that they would shoot arrows in the air and they would drop down straight into the water and hit a fish.

You could tell a school of fish by the swirls in the water

Had another GSO in evening after prayer meeting and time of fellowship

Harold told about La Voy del Europa

Heavy rain about 11:00PM

Wed – July 22 Plane came for us at 7:00AM

Left Caco

Arrived Tournavista 9:00AM

Left 10:00AM – arrived Lima 12:00

John Shenk [OASB] met us at plane

Took us to Lima House of Wycliffe Translators

Had lunch

John took us to see Lima

Had lunch and time of prayer at Lima House

fellowship and prayer meeting after dinner

Harold spoke on Europe [OASES]

Had fellowship at Ray Le Tourneau with his wife Shirley and the Jack Houghs also

THUR – July 22

John Shenk and Roy took us to airport after breakfast.

Took off 7 –

Good Service and meals

Traveled Lima, Guayaquil, Quito, Panama City, Jamaica

Arrived Miami 8:35PM

click on image for larger image of diary (desktop only)

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Harold – Harold Van Broekhoven – longtime fixture of Berean Baptist Church - From 1940–1956 Harold was a missionary with CAM International, serving primarily as a professor at the Central American Bible Institute in Guatemala. He was also the founder and director of Radio Cultural TGNA, Guatemala City. From 1956–1964 Harold worked with WRMF, Inc., and has since served as the executive director of Outreach, Inc., and the Institute of Theological Studies, both in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Harold by Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Harold was a¯liated with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches.

After a bout with pancreatic cancer, Harold suffered a stroke and died on June 30, 1997.

Bob – Bob Steed – Long time friend of Dad – Square Real Estate Founder

George Baker – Baker served with his wife, Mary as a missionary under the American Sunday School Union in Missouri for four years; under the South American Mission in Peru for 17 years and in Colombia for four years;

Mary – Mary Steed Baker – Bob Steed’s sister – wife of George Baker

Bill Walker - The Rev. William H. Walker, 69, former dean of the Miami Bible College for four years, died Friday in Kissimmee, Fla. The Rev. Mr. Walker was born in Bryan, Tex., and ordained in Miami. He served for six years as a missionary in Guatemala and for 10 years as general secretary of the Central American Mission in Dallas. He edited a Spanish edition of the Scofield Reference Bible and had just completed another in Portuguese.

Bob Beukema – Radio Station HOXO, Canal Zone

Dr. Larson and wife (Reuben Larson WRMF/HCJB Global co-founder)

Lois Larson – wife of Reuben Larson

Dick Brock – Not Identified

Marge Saint - Wife of Nate Saint, mother of Steve, and a Mission Aviation Fellowship worker. She later married Abe Van der Puy.

Kathy, Steve and Phillip Saint – Children of Nate and Marge Saint

Marilou McCully, and her children - Wife of Ed McCully, mother of Steve, Mike and Matt, and Plymouth Brethren missionary to Ecuador. After Ed’s death, she ran a home for missionary children in Quito for several years before returning to the United States.

Abe Van der Puy - Head of the Foreign Missionary Fellowship in Ecuador in 1956 and staff member of HCJB short wave radio station. He served as president of HCJB/World Radio for 20 years, voice of Missions for Back To the Bible Radio Ministry for 12 years, president of National Religious Broadcasters for four years and president of WRN (World Radio Network) for 17 years. He also served on the board of I-TECH (Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center)

Dr. Paul Roberts, HCJB Staff, Director Medical Dept.

Dr Wilfred G Tidmarsh - Plymouth Brethren missionary in Ecuador who was somewhat a mentor to Jim Elliot, Ed McCully and Peter Fleming.

Bill Caldwell - HCJB Staff

Bob (Mel) Whitaker - HCJB Quito Engineering

DS Clark - WRMF/HCJB Global co-founder

John D Clark - HCJB Staff

Vern Van Hovel - HCJB Staff – Spanish Religious Director

Ben Cummings - HCJB Staff – Station Manager

Joe Springer - HCJB Staff – Program Director

Betty Springer - wife of Joe Springer

Keith Evans - Not Identified

Don Briskie - Not Identified

Don Stoner - Not Identified

Steve Hunter - HCJB Quito Engineering

Roy LeTourneau – Head of LeTourneau, Inc’s Tournavista Project

Shirley LeTourneau - Wife of Roy

Jim LeTourneau – Relative of Roy?

Jack Hough – SAM Missionary

John Shenk - [OASB] Not Identified

Gene Jordan – HCJB Music Director

Ruth Jordan – HCJB Correspondence Office

PLACES VISITED / MENTIONED

Kingston, Jamaica - is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island.

Panama City – capitol of Panama Canal Zone - an unincorporated territory of the United States from 1903 to 1979, centered on the Panama Canal and surrounded by the Republic of Panama.

Guayaquil, Ecuador - officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the second largest city of Ecuador. It is also the nation's main port.

Quito, Ecuador – HCJB Headquarters - formally Saint Francis of Quito) is the capital of Ecuador, the country's most populous city, and at an elevation of 2,850 meters (9,350 ft) above sea level, it is the second highest official capital city in the world, and the closest to the equator. It is located in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains.

Pifo, Educador – site of HCJB Transmitters 30KM east of Quito

Lima, Peru - is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean

Tournavista, Peru city built by LeTourneau, Inc. once company was engaged by Gov’t to build a

road through virgin jungle. As payment Peru Gov’t provided a million acres of land for development. More than just a business venture, LeTourneau saw it as an opportunity to conduct a lay missionary work as well.

Ucayali River is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about 110 km (68 mi) north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of Pucallpa is located on the banks of the Ucayali.

THINGS

CAM – Central American Ministries

TAN - Tansportes Aéreos Nacionales SA, also known as TAN Airlines, was a Honduran airline, headquartered at the Edificio TAN in Tegucigalpa. The carrier was set up in 1947 and merged into SAHSA, another Honduran airline, in November 1991. In 1959 they had 3 flights A WEEK from Miami to Guayaquil

HCJB - The Voice of the Andes", was the first radio station with daily programming in Ecuador and the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. The station was founded in 1931 by Clarence W. Jones, Reuben Larson, and D. Stuart Clark. HCJB now focuses on Ecuador with unified programming on FM at 89.3 MHz in Pichincha, at 92.5 MHz in Manabí, at 96.1 MHz in Tungurahua and Cotopaxi, at 98.3 MHz in Esmeraldas and with separate programming on AM at 690 kHz. Broadcasts in Spanish and indigenous languages on 6050 kHz (1 kW), continue on an intermittent basis with a new solid state transmitter which in 2017 replaced an older (5 kW) transmitter. These broadcasts were not listed on the HCJB English website as of February 2016.

Discoteca Productions – Recording department of HCJB

WRMF - World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc. – Parent organization of HCJB

KWMI – HAM radio set brought along on trip by Bob Steed

Savoy Hotel, Lima, Peru – Hotel in downtown Lima – Still in operation

La Voy del Europa – plan for missionary outreach to Europe via radio

Lima House of Wycliffe Translators – Wycliffe offices in Lima, Peru

Radio Station HOXO, Canal Zone – Sister Station of HCJB

CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD BROCHERE

BOB and BOB's BIG ADVENTURE

This trip would have been the year before I was born almost to the day.

Growing up I remember that we had a pile of odd bows and arrows in a downstairs closet and a cloth bag of Peruvian money, beads and a big tooth of some animal.

We also had a furry monkey skin that my older brothers would terrify me with.

Our kitchen wall had a collection of paintings of native scenes over the fireplace.

And there were various other artifacts and bowls and such from some far away place.

But I never heard the story of where all this stuff came from.

In the back of mind I half remembered stories of a trip my Dad took to South America but I never heard the complete story.

Also Dad told stories of flying over the Andes in small plane and breathing oxygen through a rubber tube in his mouth.

And Dad told a story of being bitten by a piranha.

Well, that's what he said.

Seems to me that he liked to tell that story when we were surrounded by alewifes in Lake Michigan.

Also seems like I told the story once for show and tell and got yet another lecture about 'telling stories.'

But what else?

I am not sure how I came into possession of this - it might have been in Dad's WW2 letters, but when I read it, I realized that I had a journal of the trip.

Dad went with his friend Bob Steed and Harold Van Broekhoven to visit Radio Station HCJB in Ecuador and then fly on to Peru to see Bob Steed's Sister, Mary Baker, at a SOUTH AMERICAN MISSION location in the Amazon Basin.

They brought along a state-of-the-art short wave radio to keep in touch with folks back in Grand Rapids.

And off they went.

This was just 3 years after 5 missionaries had been killed by rain forest natives.

Dad would meet widows of two of those missionaries.

Dad would also perform some extractions in the jungle.

But when you think that he had been doing dental work in the field in Europe just 14 years earlier, these doesn't sound so odd.

The journal is interesting in itself.

Dad wrote on the back of a flyer that had been folded into 3rds.

He more or less jotted things down that happened and in transcribing the journal I kept to his spelling and punctuation but tried to break out each note into one line.

Also interesting to note that he switched back and forth in the same sentence from cursive script to text letters.

I am very curious as to what you older kids might remember of this.

I included some modern photos that WERE NOT taken on the trip

I also include a list of Persons, Place and things that I try to identify that are mentioned in the journal.

What doesn't come through in the journal though is just what did Mom think of all this?

Dad was 39 and had a family with 7 kids.

If I remember though, he never much had much good to say about flying.