A Summer of Ministry: Maurice Clarke Discovers the Power of Presence

For Maurice Clarke, a young member of the Windsor Seventh-day Adventist Church studying for pastoral ministry at Burman University in Alberta, this past summer offered an opportunity to move beyond the classroom and experience ministry firsthand.

Maurice spent the summer completing a pastoral practicum with Advent Health Care Canada at Forestview and Valleyview, two long-term care facilities located on the same property in North York, Toronto. What began as another step in his preparation for pastoral ministry became an experience that deepened his understanding of people, family, compassion, and what it really means to be a pastor.

From Windsor to Ministry
Maurice was born in Jamaica and grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. After immigrating to Canada, he continued his education at Kingsway College in Oshawa. His family's eventual move to Windsor also brought him to Windsor Adventist Elementary School for Grade 8 before he completed high school in the public school system.

Baptized at 12, Maurice readily acknowledges that his spiritual journey has not always been straightforward.

There have been struggles, questions, and doubts along the way. Yet through them, he says he has repeatedly come back to God as the source of purpose and meaning. In a world filled with conflict and brokenness, Maurice has found that Scripture offers an explanation for the reality of sin while also providing hope, both the hope of salvation and of a better world.

Today, Maurice is halfway through Burman's pre-professional theology program, preparing for pastoral ministry with approximately two years remaining in his undergraduate studies.

This summer, however, his classroom became a long-term care home.

Learning to Listen

Maurice admits that he initially felt the weight of responsibility. Although he had visited nursing homes with church groups when he was younger, serving as a chaplain was different.

His days included visiting residents, helping with church and Sabbath services, joining spiritual conversations, visiting residents in the hospital, keeping visitation records, and preparing programs.

But some of the most important ministry happened without a program at all.

Maurice sometimes found himself simply sitting with a resident and listening, occasionally for hours.

As people shared their stories, relationships began to form. Residents who initially knew him only as the young chaplain gradually began to trust him. Some sought him out when they were struggling. Occasionally, Maurice stayed beyond his regular hours because someone simply needed to talk.

“When you give people your time, love, and kindness,” he discovered, “you often see that same kindness returned to you.”

It was an important discovery for a young man preparing for pastoral ministry: sometimes people need a pastor's ears before they need a pastor's words.

Discovering the Importance of Family
One of the summer's unexpected lessons concerned family.

Spending his days among grandparents and great-grandparents caused Maurice to think differently about relationships he had sometimes taken for granted.

When he asked residents what gave them hope, many did not speak about possessions or accomplishments. They spoke about their children and grandchildren. Family gave them something to anticipate and a reason to keep looking forward.

Maurice began connecting that experience with the church.

“For some residents, our services provided a sense of community and belonging,” he reflected.

That helped him understand more deeply what it means to invite someone into God's family. Church is not merely a place where people attend services. For someone who is lonely or disconnected, Christian community can become family.

Maurice met many residents with few or no family members nearby. Chaplains, personal support workers, nurses, and other staff therefore became part of their support system.

The experience also taught him patience.

Sometimes a resident might be frustrated and tell him to leave. Maurice learned not to immediately take such responses personally. Behind an angry reaction could be pain, fear, loneliness, illness, or circumstances he knew nothing about.

One encounter especially stayed with him.

Maurice sat beside a resident nearing the end of life who could no longer communicate. There was no meaningful conversation to have and no problem he could solve.

He could only be there.

And that, he discovered, was ministry too.

“Sometimes simply being present with someone is an important part of ministry.”

God Working Through Unexpected People
Maurice also learned that God does not always work through the people we expect.

One woman particularly impressed him. She was Jewish and lived independently in the retirement home, yet regularly volunteered her time helping residents in both facilities.

She brought residents to Sabbath services and sat beside those who needed assistance.

Her friendship also opened doors for Maurice.

Some residents were initially suspicious when they heard the word “chaplain,” assuming that he had come to preach Christianity or convert them. But because they already trusted this woman, barriers came down. Maurice could enter the relationship naturally, first talking, listening and getting to know them.

Eventually, some who had initially been hesitant became open to conversation, visits, and even prayer.

Maurice saw God working through a person of another faith to create opportunities for his own ministry.

“Keep Showing Up”
Perhaps the most important lesson Maurice brought home from Toronto can be expressed in three words:

Keep showing up.

The summer changed his understanding of ministry. Pastoral work, he discovered, is not only preaching sermons or leading programs. Much of it happens quietly, knowing people, listening to them, being patient with them, and demonstrating through consistent presence that they matter.

It also taught him greater empathy toward people who may sometimes be difficult to understand.

“Don't give up on people,” Maurice says. “Keep showing up, keep caring, and keep working with them.”

That lesson has particular meaning because Maurice's own calling has been nurtured by a family and church community that has continued showing up for him. He credits both his immediate family and his church family with shaping his faith, values, personality, and outlook on life. His mother, Sylvia Clarke, serves as principal of Windsor Adventist Elementary School, so Maurice has seen service to the church and its young people modelled close to home.

Now he hopes to carry that heritage of service into his own ministry.

Maurice does not yet know exactly where that journey will lead. After completing his studies at Burman, he may pursue a Master of Divinity or move directly into full-time ministry. For now, he is leaving that decision in God's hands.

His message to other young people in Windsor reflects what he himself is learning:

Make God the foundation of your life.

Whether the future involves university, a career, ministry, or a path not yet clear, Maurice believes that foundation provides something solid to build on.

“God is everything,” he says. “There is nothing truly good outside of Him. If you follow God and trust Him, He will guide your path and make it secure.”

For the Windsor church family, Maurice's summer experience is more than the story of one theology student's practicum. It is encouraging to see one of our own young people discover his calling, learn to care for people, and prepare to serve wherever God may lead him.

And perhaps the lesson Maurice learned among the elderly residents of Toronto is one the entire church can carry with us:

Ministry begins when we care enough to keep showing up.

Ruby Chand