Clifford Robert Perkins was born at Peterborough SA on 1st April, 1925. He was the youngest of 7 children. His father worked on farms and during the depression years had to move frequently. Cliff started school at Waitpinga near Victor Harbour.. He said he attended 8 schools in 7 years and left the day he turned 14. When he was about 11 years old the family was living at Gawler. While there his brother, Vern, was married. Cliff had to stay home on the farm and do the chores while the rest of the family went to Adelaide. That night the newly weds returned to the farm while the rest of the family stayed in Adelaide. They told Mary that he served them yabbies for breakfast! He probably had more fun yabbying in the creek than he would have had at the wedding. He made his commitment to Christ and was baptized in the Gawler Church of Christ at around age 12.

      He began his working life at age 14 on a fruit block at Moorook. Over the years he worked in a variety of places: wood chopping for the Mildura Irrigation Trust, at a saw mill at Red Hill in Victoria, on various fruit blocks, Hannaford's grader, and share farming at Minlaton where he met Mary. In his early twenties he felt God was calling him to full time service but he hesitated because of his lack of education. At age 28 he finally accepted that when God called he would enable; and applied to go to the College of the Bible. About the same time he and Mary announced their engagement. At college he was required to do one years secular study of 5 subjects at Leaving standard and to pass at least 3 of them before he could start the theological course. For him that was a daunting task but he did manage to pass the required 3 subjects. After doing the 3 year course he was ordained in Dec. 1957 and accepted a call to minister at Roma in Queensland.

      On 4th Jan. 1958 he and Mary were married at Minlaton and then travelled to Roma. They had all their possessions except Cliff's books in a trailer towed by his Morris Oxford. On arrival he found he was totally responsible for running the Sunday School and 2 Christian Endeavour groups. He took religious instruction every week in both primary and high schools and was actively involved in the local ministers' fraternal. Ruth was born at Roma in May 1959 right in the middle of the Billy Graham Crusade which was connected to Roma by landline. It was certainly the busiest week ministry wise of his time at Roma. But he managed to counsel several inquirers that day as well as spending quite a while at the hospital with Mary but was shunted out quickly when the birth was imminent. No Dads allowed around in those days. He was a very loving and proud father. While visiting the hospital one day he met a lady who had connections with the Church of Christ but lived about 60 miles out on a sheep station. From that connection he looked into organizing services at their home. Folks from all denominations came from miles around. While Cliff led a service for the adults, Mary taught the children using flannel board and other aids which were new to those children who were home schooled in the bush with minimum resources in those days. Cliff really enjoyed that ministry. [1]

      At Easter 1961 he began ministry at Warwick, Queensland. Initially this was for one year, was extended to 3 but in the end was for only 18 months as he was approached by the Queensland Home mission director to consider taking up ministry at Charters Towers. After he had accepted that call he asked the director why he had asked him and he said it was because southerners didn't want to go so far north. Because they were in Queensland when he took up the job he thought they were Queenslanders. He didn't have any trouble getting someone to go to Warwick which is only 150 kilometres from Brisbane. John was born 6 weeks after they moved to Warwick. Mary's sister Barbara arrived a few days before the birth and looked after Ruth and ran the household for the week Mary was in hospital. That included feeding the builders who had come to build the new manse.

      The move to Charters Towers took place in Sept. 1962. The church of 40 members had only 2 adult males and a couple of lads in their late teens so most of the responsibilities rested on his shoulders. Sunday school and youth groups kept him busy as they did have plenty of children, though few of them came from Christian homes. He also helped at youth camps on Magnetic Island. On one occasion he found himself in charge of 30 children in the 10 to 14 age group with only one older teenage lass and 2 or 3 cooks to help him. He met the challenge but returned home exhausted on Saturday afternoon to get ready for Sunday services as usual. When he walked into the church on Sunday morning someone asked him how he enjoyed his holiday! They were serious. They had no idea how strenuous those 5 days were. There were a lot of widows in that congregation and he was always willing to help them with practical things when needed. A couple of them always seemed to be having trouble with their washing machines and he would use his expertise to help get them going again. It always seemed to be the same problem, water getting into the sealed gearbox. So when the family needed a new washing machine he went looking for one that wouldn't develop that problem. He quizzed the poor salesman on the mechanics of the machine. The surprised guy said it was the first time he had ever been asked questions like that. However it paid off. The machine he chose was purchased before Anne was born and with a recondition 12 years down the track was still in service after her 21st birthday! Daughter Lois was born 6 months after they moved to the Towers. After 3 years up there he decided to apply for a ministry in Victoria. This took almost a year to organize so he completed 4 years there which at that time was the longest ministry they had had. On Christmas day 1966 he began ministry at Warrnambool. Being a larger church there were more helpers with Sunday school and youth groups but of course more pastoral work, hospital visitation etc. The church at Pt. Fairy was in a circuit with Warrnambool at that time. Cliff used to take the morning service once a month. The family usually went with him. Their youngest child was born at Warrnambool in July 1968. Cliff was delighted that he was able to witness her birth. This wasn't planned but she just happened to arrive during visiting hours and the nurse in charge allowed him to stay during the birth. Mary's mother just couldn't believe that! It certainly wasn't common practice at that time. At one stage Portland was without a minister and he used to go over twice a month and stayed 2 or 3 days each time. He was billeted each time with a church family which really helped him to get to know that congregation. It wasn't easy for Cliff to leave his family for those periods but [2] Portland needed his help and Warrnambool needed the finance Portland supplied to help pay his salary. When Portland found a minister Cliff looked for other work to supplement the family income. The church paid the difference between what he was able to earn and the wage set by the brotherhood.. He worked part time cleaning schools, from 6 am to 9 am and 4 pm to 6 pm. He had trouble visiting the men of the church and he used to try and catch them after their work for the day finished so he often came home late for tea. When he started the school job he was home on time every night until he worked out that if he wore his sports trousers under his overalls he could just remove the overalls and be respectably dressed for visitation on his way home. One night Mary had arranged to be picked up at 7 pm for a ladies' meeting. Thinking Cliff would be home any minute she left the children and went out. Imagine her horror when she arrived home at 9-30 to find his tea still sitting on the saucepan of hot water on the hot plate of the wood fire and no sign of Cliff. The 3 younger children were asleep and Ruth was in the bathroom. She came out and said that Dad had just rung and said he would be home soon. He had called on a family who had big problems they needed to talk through and he had completely forgotten he was supposed to be home with the children. Ruth had faithfully stoked the fire all evening to keep her Dad's tea hot. Hot it was but what it tasted like after being kept hot for at least 4 hours one hates to think. He was also chaplain to the Psychiatric hospital and took services on Sunday afternoons for a couple of little Presbyterian churches out from Warrnambool. Again he was involved with Religious education in the schools which was very well structured in Vic. in those days, and the ministers' fraternal.

      In 1973 he began ministry at Red cliffs. Again he was very involved with youth in Sunday school, religious education in the schools and youth groups. When there weren't enough older children to form a group he took our children into Mildura to their group. He took a Sunday evening service at Nangiloc community church once a month. Ministers from the various denominations took turns there. There was also a men's brotherhood tea meeting held in Mildura which he was involved in. Cliff was easy to cook for. There were only 3 things he didn't like. Tripe, marmalade and golden syrup. The family liked golden syrup dumplings so on cold winter evenings when Dad went to the men's tea Mary would cook golden syrup dumplings for the family. Shortly before he left Red Cliffs he was visiting one afternoon when a vicious storm came up. When the storm hit he was sitting with a widow in her brand new home. He was reading from his Bible. The force of the wind seemed to be blowing the windows in so he went and pulled the heavy drapes over while she did the same in her bedroom. The wind blew the door shut behind her and she couldn't get out. The hail stones like golf balls smashed the windows anyway, but the curtains did stop the flying glass a bit. He finally managed to get the bedroom door open and they sat the storm out in a safer room. The storm only lasted about 10 minutes but did a terrible lot of damage to homes and destroyed the young fruit on the grapevines which was the livelihood of half his congregation. The next few days were taken up with cleaning up after the storm. The manse only had one small hole in one window, but the church hall had practically every louvre on the west side smashed. By this time Ruth had finished high school and started her nursing training so when the family moved to Whyalla she was left behind in Mildura. [3]

      Cliff's ministry at Whyalla began in 1978 and lasted 8 years. It was different in many ways to his previous ministries in that he was now in a fully industrial town. Many of the congregation were shift workers. The last ship to be built at the shipyards was launched during his first week there. That meant early retirement for some and loss of jobs for others. The houses left vacant by people moving away for employment were filled by people on welfare payments who moved there because housing trust homes were available. Every minister in town found their welfare resources stretched to the limit. Cliff did what he could to help and organized food parcels. There was all the usual church meetings and some different ones. The Catholic church brought a lot of Vietnamese boat people to Whyalla and when one family had church of Christ connections they asked if he would like to meet them. They had organized the very basics for them and after meeting them Cliff organized his congregation to help too. As a result of this he organized special services for these folks and their friends. Regular Sunday afternoon services were held for some time with Cliff speaking through an interpreter. This was a new experience for Cliff. It required much more concentration as it is very easy to lose one's train of thought during the pauses while the interpreter speaks. The years at Whyalla saw a lot of family changes. Ruth graduated from nursing school, turned 21 and also completed her midwifery training. John finished high school and graduated from the Institute of Technology, having turned 21 along the way too. He moved to Canberra. Lois finished school and began nursing, became engaged to Michael, graduated as a registered nurse and married. Anne finished High School. On his 60th Birthday Lois whispered into his ear that he was to become a grandfather--but not to tell anyone yet! Many of these family events brought members of our extended families to visit and at his farewell it was said that not only would he be missed but all his visiting relatives as well. Twice his elder sister came and stayed for a few months and became a loved member of the congregation. On 23rd December 1995 the first grandchild was born. We decided that he would be her Poppa as at the time there were great grandparents as well as Michael's parents. Sadly he and Mary had to leave Whyalla when she was a month old but when they returned for a visit Renee was six months old and had learned to say dad and mum. She was sitting in her cot and he put his head around the corner and peeped in, and she said in a clear little voice "Poppa". They all heard her and couldn't believe their ears!

      He and Mary moved to serve at Strathalbyn, Milang and Point Sturt circuit and lived in a farm house overlooking Lake Alexandrina. Cliff enjoyed the rural outlook but it did mean a lot of travelling and the extra meetings involved in a circuit ministry. By 1990 he decided it was retirement time. On 14th August 1990 they moved to their retirement home and began their association with Kadina Church of Christ. Almost straight away Steve handed the newly formed seniors group over to Cliff. He was made an elder the next year and this was renewed each year until he became too sick to continue. In his first years he did a lot of visitation to homes and hospitals. He took over the Wallaroo Bible study group when the previous leader left. He was also involved with busy fingers craft where he taught leatherwork and woodcarving. These two hobbies he took up later in life. Most of his woodcarving was done from his armchair, he used to pick it up as a woman would her knitting only it made more mess! [4] To save Mary cleaning he used to drop the chips into a box and cleared the rest with the dustbuster.

      Cliff loved children. First it was his nieces and nephews, then his own children and grandchildren along with lots of others. One Sunday at Whyalla a toddler wandered up to the platform as he finished the benediction so he picked her up and carried her to the door where he stood to shake hands with the congregation as they left. Every Sunday after that there was a rush of small children to the front hoping to be carried down the aisle. One Sunday a lady tapped Mary on the shoulder and said "Aren't you glad he doesn't take them all home?" He was always there for his children though at times pastoral duties interfered with his family life. Work prevented him from attending Ruth's graduation but he was able to make it to her midwifery graduation and her graduation from Missionary training college. When she left for Niger she went with his blessing and, his support in every way possible. He was able to attend the graduation ceremonies for the other children. He also proudly took the full marriage service for Lois and Michael. Later he was given the opportunity to help with Anne and Neil's ceremony too.

      We can't remember exactly when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but it was definitely before Ruth came home for her first furlough in 1992. At first it didn't bother him too much but over the last five years it took its toll, made worse from the side effects from one of the medications he took to control it. However he did every thing he could to help overcome his disabilities and keep mobile. In August last year he found he had to cut his 3 km walk down to a few blocks instead. Through it all he kept a brave face. After his fall and the broken hip he worked hard at first to get well enough to come home for Christmas dinner, then to be able to walk enough on his frame to come home, and he tried hard to keep going. The last months must have been very hard on him as he became more dependent on others.

      [Roma Culpin.] On a personal note I can't remember life without Cliff. He started courting my sister Mary when I had just started school. Their courtship was a wonderful time for me. Sunday drives, picnics, visits to the farm they lived on, mushrooming, drives to the beach especially to the Bluff when his sister's family came there to camp. There were trips to Adelaide and Victor Harbour--I still wonder sometimes if they ever did get to go anywhere without me tagging along. He also made me a doll's house and taught me to make cork dolly chairs. He read me stories and poetry with our favourite being "I don't know who done it but somebody did." This was a line we often quoted when blame for something eluded us. He fixed my unfixable doll, taught me to swim, gave me piggy back rides. When they got married I missed him (and Mary) terribly but they wrote to me regularly and I still have the letter advising me of a little baby coming. Holidays to Mary's and Cliff's were always great. Cliff knew all the local beauty spots and would take us to see them. My friend Marion and I visited them in Charters Towers. Then when I got married and had my own family, we visited Warrnambool and Red Cliffs. It was really great when they moved to Whyalla where I live. Then he became my Pastor as well as my brother-in-law. It was during this time I became a Christian and I am eternally grateful for Cliff's counsel. [5] My girls soon became very fond of Uncle Cliff. Donna remembers he was marvellous with children and April specially remembers the wizzy dizzies he uses to give. Tracey remembers the special touch of him performing her and Paul's wedding service among a lot of other things.

      But there was another side to Cliff--he was a terroriser. When he taught me to swim he said he wouldn't let go--he did. When he was trying to teach me to ride a bike he said he wouldn't let go--he did! He said the stingers at the Bluff wouldn't hurt--they did. He said we weren't going to Goolwa--we did. He told my girls that 7 year beans tasted good--they don't. He said the cliff side at Airlie Beach wasn't too hard to climb--it was. And do you know how slimy and big cane toads are in Queensland? Well Cliff made sure I did. Chased me all over the place with them. Then there was the hooked claw beetle in my bed. Guess who put it there. (I don't know who done it but somebody did.) But I have to confess that as I got older I learned the art of revenge, so I sewed up the legs of the pyjamas I gave him as a thank you for having me stay. The only trouble was Mary put them in the cupboard and brought them out fresh and new for their holiday at Mum's when I got married. He tried to get me back by putting bricks under my flock mattress. He was so disappointed that I slept in the bed and didn't even feel them. In spite of all these things I still loved him, and how boring life would have been without all those challenges. He knew I enjoyed it all deep down.

      Cliff was a keen gardener and always liked to have a veggie garden. He loved fresh fruit and consequently planted plenty of fruit trees around his retirement home. He was a very practical man and very good handyman to have around. His family expected him to be able to fix almost anything. He was always interested in the mission of the church, at home and abroad. He was a longtime supporter of the Bible Society. We thank God for Cliff's life and know that he is now with the Lord he loved and served. Today they celebrate his life and say goodbye to a loved and loving husband, father, father-in-law and grandfather. Precious happy memories and God's comfort will help them through this difficult time of parting. Others here today are saying goodbye to a loved brother-in-law, uncle, cousin or friend. Cliff's only surviving sibling is not able to be here but they know his thoughts are with us.

      In summing up we would say that Cliff loved life, he loved his Lord, he loved the church, he loved the word of God, studying it, preaching it and teaching it. Most importantly he did his best to live it. [6]