The Omnibus

Issue date: 4/22/04 Section: Feature

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With a quick smile and a contagious laugh, senior Cristi Clark spills out the joy of her relationship with Christ. Whether playing the violin, playing intramural volleyball or playing with children in the Ukraine, Clark wants to share her life in all areas.

Senior Cristi Clark performs in her senior violin recital on April 13.

As a music education major, Clark may be most well-known on campus for her talent on the violin. She began playing when she was eight years old, inspired by seeing Itzhak Perlman play on "Sesame Street."

"I didn't even know what the instrument was," Clark said. "I just said to my mom, 'I have to have that; I have to play that instrument.'"

A year and a half ago, Clark had the opportunity to see Perlman perform.

"I cried when he got onstage," Clark said. "My family wasn't watching him, they were watching me to see my reaction."

This passion for music has continued through Clark's life. When the time came to choose a college, she knew she wanted a Christian school with a string program, but Southwest Baptist University came as something of a surprise.

"We had an SBU card that was at the bottom of the pile of college stuff," Clark said. "And Mom found this little purple card and said, 'Let's call SBU.' It's ended up being an incredible blessing. I can't think of a better place for me with the things that I've learned and the things the Lord has taught me."

While at SBU Clark has taken advantage of a variety of opportunities. Besides playing in the orchestra and the Clara Fuson String Quartet, she participates in intramural volleyball and the 9:16 discipleship group where upperclassmen are paired with underclassmen.

"It's like an iron-sharpening-iron sort of thing," Clark said. "It's really cool."

Clark has always had a desire to work with others. In high school, she went to Russia twice on mission trips and knew she had a heart for the people.

"I felt like God gave me the opportunity to go to Russia the first time to get this big picture of what is going on in the world," Clark said. "He took me outside my American box and showed me the world is so needy."

On those trips and on two SBU mission trips to Kiev, Ukraine, Clark has been permanently impacted by the recognizable joy of people in different situations.

"I think in America we've been kind of calloused to the kindness of God because we see it so much," Clark said. "In Russia, I saw believers with joy that wasn't conditional. It wasn't based on anything they owned or anything going on around them, it had to come from the Lord completely."

To spread the joy of the Lord even further, Clark plans to get involved in a church-planting ministry after graduating next December.

"I feel that the Lord is specifically calling me to be a church planter by not necessarily taking the Western church with me," Clark said. "I want to go wherever the Lord leads me and work with the local people to build up their own church with their music and their culture. I want to be a missionary that goes to these countries to help them build churches and ministries and watch them bloom and then go to another place and do it again."

Though she loves Eastern Europe, Clark is open to wherever the Lord will lead her.

"Right now there are some countries that are open right now that are not going to be open in five or 10 years," Clark said. "I feel a sense of urgency. If there is an opportunity to go and enter the field white for harvest, I should take that."

For now, Clark is looking forward to finishing the semester and is glad her much-anticipated senior recital is over. As a requirement for graduation, Clark passed a hearing in front of three professors and then performed her senior recital on April 13.

"I practiced like a madman," Clark said. "Close to the recital I was practicing a couple hours a day. It was such a blessing because I felt that I was giving back to my professors, to the school and to my friends for all the support they've given me. It was for the Lord first, and then to all my family and friends."

Clark played in front of a packed Meyer Recital Hall.

"When I walked out on stage and saw that it was almost full, I almost burst into tears," Clark said. "I wondered how I could have gotten an education like this anywhere else. All these people are so involved in my life, and it's been such a blessing."

Clark will student teach in the fall and graduate in December. Then she will be on to share her music and her ministry with the world. 

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