| HCJB Global’s Former Senior Vice President Dies at 77 |
Benny Ray Cummings, who served with HCJB Global for nearly 54 years -- 18 of those as senior vice president -- died at Intergris Baptist Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Saturday, Sept. 22, at the age of 77. He succumbed to complications related to five-way heart bypass surgery 16 days earlier.
 Born in Winters, Texas, on Dec. 11, 1929, Ben grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. He received a bachelor’s degree in radio production from Bob Jones University in 1951 and later completed his master’s degree in communications through Wheaton College in 1977. He also took courses from Northwestern University’s NBC Summer Institute and received an honorary doctorate of letters from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia in 1983. Ben said he first heard about the mission through co-founder Reuben Larson. “I was called to preach the gospel and was taking training in Bible when I sensed God leading into a ministry through radio,” he said in an interview several years ago. “I learned all that I could about radio and later found out about missionary radio and HCJB. I inquired if they needed people with radio training, and I later applied.” Ben officially joined HCJB Global in January 1954 as he began a year of Spanish language study in San José, Costa Rica. It was there that he met Mary Lee Warren, and they were married on Jan. 7, 1955. Audios
B Cummings on Walkin
B Cummings on Walkin 2 B Cummings on Walkin 3 B Cummings with Hermano Pablo Doug Peters, who serves as assistant to the president/corporate affairs, worked with Ben the past 45 years. “He was an outstanding radio producer and announcer,” Peters explained. “He had the unique ability of making listeners feel like he was speaking directly to them. His friendship, faithfulness and humor will be greatly missed by all.” Ben held numerous administrative positions in Quito throughout the years, directing the Ecuador field, the English and Spanish language services, traffic and operations, and television productions. He even temporarily headed the mission’s hydroelectric project in Ecuador, and he served as an associate pastor at English Fellowship Church in Quito. He served as HCJB Global’s senior vice president from 1979 to 1997. “Ben Cummings was my friend,” said former HCJB Global President Ron Cline. “He was so much help to me in his role as senior vice president when I was asked to serve as president of the mission in 1981. He knew Latin America. He knew the mission. He knew the people. I never would have made it through those next 20 years without him. The best lesson he taught me was to know myself and never take myself too seriously.” Ben and Mary Lee also ministered in Panama where he directed partner station HOXO in Panama City for seven years. Former HCJB Global missionary Ken MacHarg recalled, “Ben’s heart was in broadcasting the gospel, whether by shortwave or locally as through HOXO. In fact, when we were at missionary orientation and later in our first year at Radio Station HCJB, he asked if I would be willing to move to Panama and help HOXO get moving ahead. My heart and calling was in international broadcasting, but I saw that Ben could see the whole picture.” In 1989 the Cummings family moved to the Texas-based World Radio Network (WRN), one of HCJB Global’s cooperating ministries that Ben helped found in 1978, working to develop this expanding outreach along the U.S.-Mexico border, now with 23 outlets. WRN Chief Executive Officer Glenn Lafitte said it was an honor to work with Ben. “He served as WRN director from 1991 to 1995,” Lafitte related. “It was largely through Ben’s vision that the WRN applied for and obtained construction permits for 15 FM radio stations that blanket the border region and beyond with gospel programming to Hispanics and bilinguals 24 hours a day. I will miss his presence at board meetings where he would always challenge us to stretch our vision ever farther for the cause of Christ.” Curt Cole, HCJB Global's vice president of international ministries, added, “I think my fondest memory is his friendly Texan drawl that I heard while working at WRN station KVMV in McAllen during my time at Spanish language school in Texas. If he was in the office, at least once a shift, he would stick his head in the studio and try to get me to stay in ‘beautiful’ south Texas!” Ben also helped produce “Mountain Meditations,” aired worldwide via shortwave, and “Walkin’ in the Sunshine,” a program aired on Radio Station HCJB and KVMV and later added to the schedule of HCJB Global-Australia’s shortwave station in Kununurra. He also helped launch WRN’s Spanish satellite network, Radio Cadena Manantial. Ben was the narrator for two audio productions about the deaths of the five missionaries who were killed by the Waorani (Auca) Indians in Ecuador. “On those quiet, Kansas winter nights, I’m not sure whose voice came over the shortwave to my Hallicrafters receiver in the 1970s,” said transmitter engineer Tim Zook. “But the program relived the Auca story every January, and I think it was the voice of Ben Cummings. It was this story more than anything else that God used to move me into missions in 1986.” After the fall of the Iron Curtain in the early 1990s, Ben taught radio courses at the Bible institute in Donetsk, Ukraine. “This gave me a greater vision for the people of Eastern Europe,” he said. “That led to our involvement with Radio Station Center in Moscow that aired ‘Life Source,’ an English-language program that followed HCJB’s release on that local station.” Ben continued to keep active in his retirement years, serving as the mission’s historian and representing the ministry. He played a key role writing the history for HCJB Global’s latest book, Vision to Reach the World, published in conjunction with the mission’s 75th anniversary. In recent years he also took the old musical albums from HCJB Global, digitized them and produced CDs of this music still loved by many. Ralph Kurtenbach, communications coordinator for the Latin America Region, said Ben “never let his age get in the way of learning new technologies. He e-mailed us regularly with what websites he’d found that offered products and accessories for minidisk recorders. This was before English Language Service had even purchased our first pair of minidisk recorders! We also have him to thank for a clean sounding version of the Auca story. Having taught himself to use Cool Edit (now Adobe Audition) he carefully went through each sound file recorded in digital format, removing the pops, hums and other noise that occurred in the original sound recordings or during the ensuing years.” “Ben was a great friend, godly mentor and a fun comedian,” said Senior Vice President Jim Allen. “He was a wonderful example to many of us and one we just enjoyed being around. As mission historian, he had a great respect for the past, but his heart was young enough to look to the future and willing to make necessary changes. His contributions will be greatly missed.” HCJB Global President Dave Johnson described Ben as a “larger than life figure for me, not just because of his booming voice and gregarious personality, but because of the depth of experience and spiritual maturity that he brought to every encounter. One ignored Ben’s wisdom and wit to one’s own demise. His love for God and his disdain for the status quo made him one of the most intriguing and delightful colleagues and mentors I have ever known.” “When I think of Ben I think of faithfulness, an encourager and steadfastness. I always felt he was on my team!” said Dick Jacquin, vice president of support ministries. John Adams, director of the HCJB Global Ministry Service Center in Colorado Springs, added, “Ben described a heavy rain storm as a ‘trash mover and a frog choker.’ To me that represented his zest for life and his delight in seeing things move forward for the Lord. In his passing, may each of us be granted a portion of that spirit of optimism and zeal for the glory of God.” In addition to his wife of 52 years, Ben is survived by three children, Rick, Don and Cathy. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at Emmanuel First Baptist Church in Enid, Okla. A second memorial service will take place at the HCJB Global Ministry Service Center at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9. |
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