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Kirk works with the chaplain in planning all religious life activities
on campus. He leads assemblies and devotions in dormitories. Kirk
coordinates an intervention team designed to help struggling students
and counsels adults and students on a one-to-one basis. Kirk also
teaches at KIS, currently giving classes on ethics and the theory
of knowledge.
In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Tricia also works
with the student peer-counseling program, teaches adult Sunday
school, and will direct the all-school play this year. Kirk and
Tricia’s term of service ends in June 2003.
Kodaikanal International School was founded as Highclerc School
in 1901 to provide schooling for the children of missionaries.
Despite its proximity to the equator, Kodaikanal has a cool climate
because it is located at 7,000 feet above sea level, which puts
it above the malaria line. In 1974, when the Indian government
ceased permitting foreign missionaries into the country, the school
became an international school. The school’s mission is to
provide a college-oriented education to students from a variety
of cultures and religions. The learning environment is set in
the context of Jesus’s life and teachings.
"I had been considering work at Kodaikanal International
School for about five years before I finally decided that that
was where my heart was," Kirk writes. "I was intrigued
by the school’s make-up, with students from all over the
world and from many different religious traditions, and I was
impressed that it still kept a Christian identity. I have continued
to enjoy the tension involved in this environment. We really are
a global village here. I see my mission as clarifying what it
is to be Christian and how we can live in the kingdom of God in
this life and in this place."
During his childhood, Kirk’s family moved several times,
making their home in Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Canada, Oklahoma,
Ohio, and Massachusetts. Making new friends and attending churches
of different denominations in each location, he says, sparked
his desire for mission work.
Tricia was also drawn to mission work from an early age. "I
have felt called to mission service since I was in middle school,"
she says, "but my first longer-term experience with mission
work came when I went to Argentina as a Young Adult Volunteer
for PC(USA) in 1998 and 1999. I happen to be in India since fell
in love with and married someone serving in Kodaikanal. But I
think you don’t have to leave your home to do mission work.
When I think of the dedication my mother brings to teaching first
graders and my father to administration in a high school, I realize
that they are in a mission field as much as I am. Anyone open
to God's calling in their lives and who follows Jesus' imperative
to "love one another" is a missionary."
Kirk was a computer consultant in the corporate world but gave
that up to spend 15 months working with inner-city children in
Philadelphia. He then enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary,
thinking then that he might one day open a school in the urban
center of a U.S. city. As a seminary student, Kirk was night-time
supervisor for a homeless shelter run by the Bethesda Project,
a Catholic organization in Philadelphia. After graduating from
seminary, Kirk worked for two years at First Presbyterian Church
in Ramsey, New Jersey.
Kirk holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering
from Princeton University and a master’s of divinity from
Princeton Theological Seminary. He is ordained to the ministry
of Word and Sacrament, a member of the Presbytery of Donegal.
When in the United States, he attends Paoli Presbyterian Church
in Paoli, Pennsylvania. In Kodai, he attends the church that meets
at KIS.
Tricia has joined Kodaikanal International School Church as an
associate member, retaining her membership at the Presbyterian
Church of the Master in Mission Viejo, California.
Tricia worked as an intern in the National Volunteer Office of
PC(USA) during 2001. She was a Young Adult Volunteer for PC(USA)
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working as a tutor and caregiver in
a home for 25 troubled and abused boys ranging in age from 6 to
21 during 1998-1999. She was a full time substitute teacher (teaching
all subjects and grade levels) by day and an adult education English
as a Second Language teacher at night in Mission Viejo, California
from 1997-1998.
Tricia graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington,
with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1997.
Birthdays:
Kirk - July 3
Tricia - August 1
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