About The Clark Family
Jim and Sharon Clark have shared their home with forty-eight children. Married for thirty-eight years, they share a total of ten natural children between them. They opened their home for nine of their grandchildren to live with them, as well as three nieces (one for fifteen years). Some of the grandchildren lived with them for a year or two. One family lived with them for a while, but when the parents left, the Clarks raised one of their two daughters for fifteen years. One of the children, an adult woman, physically and mentally handicapped, still lives with them today. They also opened their home for children of numerous bus families to live with them. Sometimes they took In the children of homeless families, while the parents lived with friends. Often, Jim helped the father find a job and at times drove him to work until he became more stable. Eventually, they became licensed foster-care parents leading to the adoption of four of their foster-care children.
Sharon recalled that old four-bedroom house: one bedroom for the boys; one for the girls; a room for the small children, (Including several older ones to help with the younger); and lastly two cribs in their own bedroom. Their dressers lined along the walls in their hallway.
On many occasions, Sharon and Jim bought clothes at Goodwill. Once, they found a nice coat in great condition but knew of no one there who could fit into it. Then, Jim said “Buy it, someone will probably come next week that can wear it.” Sure enough, that next week, someone came that could wear the coat.
Sharon recalled God’s provision through it all. She remembered how people, knowing of their need with all these children, dropped off multiple sacks of children’s clothes at their doorsteps for them. Many times they found buckets of vegetables from someone’s garden left for them. Sharon marveled at God’s providing hand.
The Clarks exhibit genuine humility and do not want any of the credit to go to them for anything done by them. Sharon stated, “Do not give us the glory; God did it all.”
His grace is sufficient! The Bible says in II Cor. 12:9, “…my grace is sufficient for thee…” Should you ever dream of children, make sure the Lord is in your life; then, God will teach you how to pray through your life with children. The job will not be easy; but, remember God remains the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. You will need to forget your own personal self. Remember, it is His will and not your own that counts. The Bible teaches us to continue on in His will; you will need to be praying all of the time and remember to thank Him for each day. Be ready to recognize your mistakes and know where they came from. Don’t forget that God makes no mistakes. Ask God for forgiveness and go on. We should not play the blame game between mom and dad: many times you do not have a heart to win! You need a heart to build first. We also believe, if you correct a child in anger you have already lost; always try to give a Bible verse when making the correction. Some of our children memorized the Bible verses we used during their time of reproof.
When asked why we were taking in more children, we simply stated that we were “rescuing the perishing.” Matthew 18:14 says, “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” We adopted a “Clark Crew” saying: “Move over and make room for one more.” Every child came as different as the other; and we needed God’s grace with every situation. God faithfully sent it; we just needed to be ready! It seemed like every time we turned around, something new came our way to pray about. Prayer time continued 24/7 at our home. When the church doors opened, we went together as a family; most of the time we drove two vans, while the bigger kids always helped with the little ones. Church camp, as well as family camp, filled our summers.
We believed that an idol mind was the Devil’s workshop, and always tried to keep the children busy. We had many jobs for all ages. We praise the Lord for helping us understand this and teaching it. Another saying at the Clark’s house came from their Uncle Jim. As our niece, Karie, puts it to all the younger children, “Boredom is an affliction of the dumb and lazy, and I know you are not that!” She would then proceed to tell her story of how she learned this by moving a rock pile from one end of the garden to the other. We told anyone who asked, without God you face a job you will not be able to do, and without prayer you will find it next to impossible. We experienced God’s grace in his miraculous hand of provision upon us. It Is Impossible to share a short testimony on God’s goodness and grace toward the “Clark Crew.” The short of it all, be ready to pray and ready to listen to God’s Word. He will guide you, and grace will just show up. (Titus 2:11-13)
Written by the Clark Family
