Pioneer African Educator

 

Ecclesiastes 3:11

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

¹¹ It is beautiful how God has done everything at the right time. He has put a sense of eternity in people’s minds. Yet, mortals still can’t grasp what God is doing from the beginning to the end of time.

C. Fred Clarke, my father, worked as a missionary educator in Africa for 42 years, starting in 1936. He loved Africa. He worked in South Africa for the first 18 of those years. He picked up enough Afrikaans so that he could communicate in it. This helped endear him to the people there. His sons were born in Africa. In 1974 he buried his first wife in Zimbabwe, just six weeks before they were to retire to the U.S.

He had pretty much a type A personality. Working in Africa north of the Limpopo helped him rein in his impatience. Africa is not to be pushed or hurried, ever. When people come to you about a problem, they normally will not broach the subject until they have enquired about your health and fortunes as well as that of your family and apprised you of their health and fortunes. This could take a half day to explore to the fullest. Only then will they bring up the topic of their mission.

Dad’s years in South Africa were used in developing a strong science program at Helderberg College. Under his leadership scores of his students were prepared to step into the rigorous medical program at the University of Cape Town and from thence branch out all over the southern sub-continent of Africa as doctors and hospital administrators. The rest of his years in Africa were spent founding Solusi University in Zimbabwe and carving a new school, Rusangu High School, out of virgin bush in Zambia. Rusangu has since continued to evolve into Rusangu University. Solusi has become a premier University while Helderberg has languished somewhat due to indifferent leadership. But it, too, has the potential to redeem itself and become a university in its own right. Dad firmly believed in the soon return of Christ, but his planning was long range—for eternity.

After my mother died and was buried at Solusi, Dad returned to America. He sought out an old college classmate and proposed to her: “Would you be willing to go to Africa with me for two years?” She accepted and became his worthy companion for another 28 years.

The picture shows C. Fred and his second wife Helen in their retirement.

May my endeavors and plans also be guided by eternity, O Lord, the initiator and inhabitant of eternity.