InterVarsity Alumni - Joe Kirk

Although he had grown up in a Christian home, Joe found himself, as a sophomore in college, heavily into drugs and flunking many of his classes. Then his father died. As he worked through his grief, Joe had two responses to his loss. He was sad that he had not done anything in his life that his father would have been proud of and he saw that his mother was handling the grief better than he.

Joe attributed his mother’s strength to her Christian faith.

Although he had grown up in a Christian home, Joe found himself, as a sophomore in college, heavily into drugs and flunking many of his classes. Then his father died. As he worked through his grief, Joe had two responses to his loss. He was sad that he had not done anything in his life that his father would have been proud of and he saw that his mother was handling the grief better than he.

Joe attributed his mother’s strength to her Christian faith. A short time after his father’s death, Joe was sitting on the water’s edge in front of his parent’s home, and as he says, “I gave myself an evangelistic sermon, complete with an altar call. I responded to that altar call, making Jesus my Lord and Savior.”

When he returned to school at the University of Florida–Gainesville, Joe connected with other Christians, who invited Joe to InterVarsity. Joe found a community where he could grow as a Christian. That summer he attended the three available training events, a week-long manuscript study of the Gospel of Mark, a four-week discipleship training camp and a week for the chapter leaders to plan the coming school year. During that summer, Joe learned that Jesus was Lord of all, all his life and dreams and actions and Lord of the world, the society and the culture.

After graduation from college, Joe became an InterVarsity staff member, serving on the University of West Florida campus in Pensacola. While on staff, Joe hardly had a life outside of the ministry and after four years needed a change. He decided to leave staff.

During the process of career testing and exit interviews, Joe realized that he had a gift for entrepreneurial endeavors. He went back to school to get training in business and information technology and spent the next several years honing his business skills setting up a telecommunication company.

After about five years, Joe and Betsy, his wife, had three beautiful daughters, a nice home and a good Christian community. But as Betsy says, “It was totally unfulfilling. The problem was that our lives were focused on us. So I asked God to change us. We loved children, so I looked into adoption, making a lifetime commitment to someone.”

Eventually Joe realized that God was calling his family to adopt children who would not otherwise have a home. From that time, the process moved quickly, and in the summer of 1993, the Kirks adopted four sisters, ranging in age from three to nine years of age, adding to their family of three girls.

Joe and Betsy had found their calling as a family, not only in the raising of all of their children in a Christian home, but to bring the plight of the many thousands of older foster children who are waiting for adoption to the attention of the Christian community. Betsy and Joe know that inviting an older child to be part of ones family entails difficulties, but they have also experienced hope, trusting God for the lives of the children that God has entrusted to them.

Joe acknowledges that God has given him innate abilities and business acumen that he has used through the years. But he acknowledges that the training he received in InterVarsity, the understanding of the Christian view of culture, the integration of faith into all of life, and the leadership skills mentoring and small group leadership, have effected the way he has done business and raised his family.