Meet another Board member - Brian Kirby!
HopeCo is grateful for the expertise, experience, and energy that our board members bring to the organization. Our board members support the development of strategy and goals, oversee our mission and vision, and raise support for our work!
Brian Kirby has significant experience in the areas of education, international missions, and Christian nonprofits. Brian is a pastor at Community Church, one of HopeCo’s invested church partners. After being introduced to HopeCo by Mwita and Monica Chacha, two other board members, Brian felt a call to serve with us and he joined the board in January 2021. Brian holds degrees in education and was a music teacher for many years, which makes him especially excited to be able to speak into the educational aspect of HopeCo’s programs. He loves different cultures, languages, and ministry!
Brian is originally from North Carolina but has lived all across the world doing mission work. After college, Brian served with the International Mission Board for three years in an international church outside of Paris. Here he met his wife who was also living abroad and serving in the church. After getting married, Brian’s wife became a US diplomat with the Department of State and her role created unique opportunities for their family to engage in mission work. They have lived in Washington DC, Bangkok, Paris, and Rome!
After pastoring in Bangkok, Thailand, Brian and his wife moved back to the US where he completed seminary in Richmond, Virginia. “Then, beyond our wildest dreams, God sent us back to Paris where my wife was assigned to the U.S. embassy. I was a senior pastor at the church where we had met years before, and although diplomatic assignments normally only last three years, we were there for eight years! God just kept opening doors for us to stay - now we are kind of legends at the state department since that never happens!” he laughs.
Rome was next for the Kirby family, and during their four years there, Brian taught at an international school and planted an international church that still exists today. In 2017, Brian and his wife moved back to the Washington DC area, and in 2018 he joined the staff at Community Church where he manages programming, worship, creation, and production.
Brian is dedicated to helping HopeCo grow its church partnership program, and his extensive experience as a missionary and pastor allows him to understand the dynamics needed to help the program thrive. He is also working to help HopeCo develop child protection protocols and standards.
“I would love to see HopeCo expand and develop other programs in Kenya and then beyond! I dream of seeing both impact and funding grow, and for more children to be sponsored and helped,” he says.
When asked what dream he has for his life, Brian responded, “I hope that we will continue to be involved in international missions through HopeCo and churches, and that we will be able to see people from all nations and all backgrounds experience the love of God. Whether we are in America or abroad, we want to be used by God to reach the nations.”
There are many ways you can partner with HopeCo to provide life-changing hope to children in Tanzania and Kenya. Sponsor a child and change their life forever, or consider becoming a Hope Partner and help rescue women from violent situations in Kenya. Become a Hope Partner and invest in the program of your choice, or bless a family by giving food or medical care through our online gift catalog. Whatever your interest is, there is a place for you in the HopeCo family!