The Prodical comes home
Rescued from a lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, Rennie Clarke describes himself as the Prodigal come home! And the last 25 years have been “incredibly more exciting than anything the worldcan offer”. Instead of indulging in wanton decadence, he now dedicates his days to serving others, teaching about Jesus and engaging in short-term missions including a recent visit to Israel.
After his Christian upbringing, he became a music executive in the rock industry and, later, a corporate TV documentary producer in South Africa. His lifestyle bore all the outward glamour and trappings of success, but was built, he says, “on a tissue of lies, failed relationships, broken marriages, abuse of others and abandonment of his two young sons”. That was until he lost family, work, home and possessions and entered “a pigsty life akin to that of the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ parable (see Luke 15) – alone and frightened”.
Dad comes to the rescue
But then his retired missionary dad, whom he hadn’t seen for many years, travelled from California to demonstrate a fatherly love he hadn’t known as a teenager. He didn’t preach to him but did leave some Christians books on the shelves and continued to pray for his son. Among the books was ‘The Abiding Friendship’ 1 through which Rennie came to understand and accept what Jesus was offering him – a friendship like no other. “The prodigal had finally come home, and the burdens of his life were on their way to being lifted. How true that parable is – not because of the failure and dross, but in view of God’s amazing forgiveness and restoration.”
Restoring the lost years
Now 77, Rennie is a living testimony of God’s promise to “restore the years that the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25). He returned to England, married Dorothea, and together from their Ipswich base they have since dedicated themselves to Christian service at many levels. They have recently returned from their first ever trip to the Holy Land (Israel) where they served in a practical way at an outreach centre in Haifa run by the multi-lingual Messianic Jewish congregation on Mt Carmel – washing floors, pots and pans and painting fences while spending precious time with believers for whom Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) has significantly changed their lives. When, through God’s clear leading, they first decided to go, everything in the natural seemed to point against it. The Gaza War, for instance. But they determined that nothing would stop them apart from ill-health or airport closure. In fact, things got worse through Israel’s war with Iran! But with much prayer backing, they overcame all obstacles. And they are now planning a longer visit there.
story by Charles Gardner
Rennie Clarke Rennieclarke@aol.com
* The book ‘The Abiding Friendship‘ was authored by a pre-war BBC Radio Thought for the Day presenter.
[Photo] Rennie and Dorothea pictured outside the worship centre of the Mt Carmel Messianic congregation near Haifa in Israel.
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