By Will Jones
Staff Writer
This spring marks the end of Associate Professor of Communications Chris Clark’s service to Bryan College. Clark will be moving with his family to the Dominican Republic to chaplain Santiago Christian School, a private K-12 school, this summer. His presence on campus, and the presence of his family, will be dearly missed.
“Before we even seriously started dating, I looked at Carol and I told her that if we’re going to be together, we’re going to be prepared to do some non-typical things,” Clark said.
“I have a background overseas, and I love the Latin culture. I worked at a school in Honduras in the 90s and I loved it. I have a real passion for working with people who are impoverished. While it is middle class, the vision of the school is developing relationships with local schools in very poor rural areas. We’ve had a desire for a long time to work in a cross-cultural setting where there is an obvious need.”
“I want to be a bridge between kids with means and their peers who don’t have means,” Clark said. While he has loved teaching at Bryan College, Clark is excited about the kinds of ministry opportunities he will have at Santiago.
“Basically, I’ll be working with three different types of groups: the students, of course; the teachers, many of whom aren’t actually much older than most college students; and ex-patriots — American and European businessmen and missionaries living in the area who might want to sing a hymn or hear a lesson in English.”
The students he would be working with are about 80% Dominican and 20% children of missionaries and Western businessmen. “The school teaches an American curriculum, and locals want their children to learn English and maybe go to college in the states,” Clark said.
Clark admitted that the entire process had seemed like something of a blur but that everyone in his family was ready for a change.
“We’re really excited — the kids are excited as well. The kids will be in school learning Spanish, and Carol will have the option to teach English after the first year of settling in. Right now we’re spending a lot of time planning, trying to sell our house, trying to get a car down there, what clothes to take and what to leave behind. We’ll be there for five years at least. There’s a lot to think about.”
The Clarks will not be raising support. “That was one of our conditions for going overseas — we wanted a tent ministry where we would work and be paid. We don’t want that pressure of having to always ask others for money.”
Clark laughed that learning Spanish had already been an issue for him.
“Matt Benson stopped me the other day and asked ‘are you fearful?’ and I said ‘Yes, absolutely.’ I’m a 44 year-old man who will be sitting in intermediate Spanish classes again, but I’ve been practicing in local Mexican restaurants. I tried to order chicken tacos the other day and got pork instead.”
Clark said that this decision, while difficult, was very timely.
“I love my department and I love my students. I love my colleagues and I appreciate the administration hiring me seven years ago. But there have been a series of leadership missteps over the last three to four years at Bryan which were a catalyst for me to start thinking about the future. Having a President/Board who is largely unempathetic toward the faculty, particularly in areas of communication and reinvestment in the traditional faculty/programs, helped clarify to us that we needed to start looking in other areas. It was a tough decision, and because I have such great students and fine colleagues here it was extra tough.”
Clark did say that he would continue to write and investigate teaching film while serving as the school’s chaplain.
