Winston T. Clark was born in Canada in 1923, and two years later sailed with his parents for China.  Ben Clark and his wife Phyllis had been appointed to mission service in China and were accompanied by their three sons: Willard, 5, Harold, 3, and Winston, 2.

For the next 16 years, through some of China's painful and unsettled political conditions, the Clark family lived and served in the Central China area.  A fourth son, Richard, was born in 1928. Educational opportunities for Winston and his brothers were not lacking, because Mrs. Clark's special training was in elementary education.  A superb teacher, she gave her sons a solid background for future educational growth and development.

Far Eastern Academy in Hong Kong and later in Shanghai provided Winston three years of academy (1937 – 1940) followed by graduation from Pacific Union College Prep School in the spring of 1941.  By this time the rest of the Clark family had returned to the USA.  It goes without saying that the sixteen years spent in China had a powerful influence on my later years.

Upon graduation from Pacific Union College in 1946 and following four years of pastoral work in northern California, my wife Helen (Bergherm) and I accepted an invitation to work in Japan as missionaries.  This country was just beginning to recover from the effects of eight years of military adventures in China (1937-1945) and disastrous military campaigns against the United States, several European powers, and the countries of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in World War II.

Because of severe government restrictions on all church activities, particularly in the educational field during the war years, there was a noticeable lack of national workers in the ministerial, educational, medical, publishing, and other lines of church activity.  When we, along with several other young missionaries, arrived in Japan in 1949-1950 most positions of church leadership were in the hands of overseas (missionary) workers.  But this would rapidly change over the next few years.

From 1958 to 1967 (my tenure as Union president) we endeavored to strengthen national leadership on all levels in the church, emphasize evangelism, and build a solid spiritual base in the churches, among the institutions, and with the working force.

In 1967 the Division asked me to serve as President in the South China Union Mission, headquartered in Taiwan. It was a thrill to be among the Chinese-speaking people again, although my Chinese was limited.  But we enjoyed the challenge of a new field, and found that the pleasures of working for and with the Chinese people were most rewarding. The work of the Seventh-day Adventist church in the Far Eastern Division had its beginnings in Hong Kong, with pioneer Abram La Rue doing ship evangelism among the crew members of the large ships, both naval and commercial, that called in at this large seaport.

With two colleges, three hospitals, and three mission organizations comprising the union, and large numbers of youth attending not only the colleges but also mission schools, opportunities for gospel work were limited only by our lack of faith and the powerful appeal of a materialistic society.

My three short years in South China ended when the General Conference elected me to be secretary of the Far Eastern Division.  For the next fifteen years my wife and I lived and worked in Singapore, first as Division Secretary, and then for ten years as President.

At this time the FED included the countries from Korea in the north to Indonesia in the south, and from Thailand to the Far Eastern Island Mission in the Pacific, later to be called Guam-Micronesia.  Transportation within the division, from union to union, was largely by plane, although ship travel among some of the islands was still common. The Division also had an aviation program, directed from the division, with pilots stationed in key locations.

The Far Eastern Division was one of the larger world divisions, with a wide variety of languages, nationalities, and cultures.  Traveling division personnel relied largely on local workers to provide translation services as they visited the different countries of the division territory.  My Japanese helped me in Japan, and to a lesser extent in Taiwan and Korea, where Japanese was still spoken by some.

Because China was not a part of the FED, yet provided a base for limited contact with Chinese on the mainland, a major effort was made to establish radio facilities that would broadcast shortwave to China.  The result was a powerful radio station on Guam that today is part of the Church's Adventist World Radio program.

The Division carried on, through its various departments and agencies, an active program of soul-winning endeavor.  Over the years it has been my privilege to work with some of the finest people in the church.  Dedicated, hard-working, and committed to spreading the good news of the gospel to the peoples of the Far East, they have been an inspiration to me and to the church.

The last five years of my active ministry were at the General Conference headquarters in Washington, D.C. Area, working as Administrative Assistant to the General Conference President.

On a personal note, my wife of 50 years and who shared all my active service for the church, passed away on June 15, 1997 of cancer.  Both of my sons were born in Japan.  Douglas works with Adventist Health System in California. He is married and has a daughter, l5, and a son, l2.  David is a pastor and is also married, with a son, l9, and a daughter, 15.  It gives me great satisfaction that they are both strong supporters of the Adventist Church.  Recently I remarried and my wife and I are now living in Paradise, California.