The proverbial cat was out of the bag for Rev. Greg Kirk when Lt. Col. Oliver North not only recognized the former soldier, but addressed him by name during a visit to Poplar Bluff. Despite a rousing military career, Kirk said the reason he gave it up was to pursue a calling from God to join the ministry.
The chance meeting with North, however, unexpectedly merged the United Gospel Rescue Mission director's current and former lives.
There were many questions following the encounter, likely because it took place during a crowded First Midwest Bank luncheon a few years back.
Kirk admitted last summer in a story featured in the Daily American Republic that he spent the early part of his career working as a US Air Force encryption specialist with a top-secret clearance.
He said at one time he served in a special operations unit under North, then-commander of the Alternate National Military Command Center.
"I worked with all top-secret people, but I was the only one with code word clearance," he said of his three years in the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, also known as Site R and "the underground Pentagon" located six miles from Camp David, a presidential retreat in northern Maryland.
Kirk was assigned to the Middle East peace talks at Camp David in September of 1978. He later was attached to the National Security Agency and assigned to Araxos base in southern Greece for one year where his job was to call in air strikes and obtain emergency help, he said.
Kirk's Air Force experience combined with two years of National Guard service and six years in the US Army Reserves makes a person wonder how in the world he ended up here, running the Mission.
"I wanted to stay in (the military), but God put a calling in my heart to go into the ministry," the 58-year-old explained.
Kirk spent his childhood bouncing around the world from one military base to another. He nearly was born in London, but his mother's doctor allegedly felt a bicontinental plane ride was not the best idea. Instead, Kirk was born in California before moving to England.
"I've lived everywhere in the world three years at a time," he said.
Upon his father's retirement in 1976 from the Air Force, Kirk's family moved to Springfield, Mo. His dad enrolled at Baptist Bible College to pursue a career in the ministry. Around this time, Kirk said, he turned 17 and joined the Missouri National Guard the next day. Two years later, he joined the Air Force. Kirk said he "ate, drank and slept the military" four years later when he decided to get out.
"I finally had the job I wanted in the place I wanted," said Kirk of his assignment to the US airborne command and control center Looking Glass. "But I just felt this strong inclination from the Lord that I should get out, but I didn't want to get out. So I re-enlisted. My heart was sick. In fact, I re-enlisted for another six years."
Kirk said the day after signing his re-enlistment papers, he received a phone call from the Air Force's retention office. They told him the official who swore him in wasn't on the agency's approved list. So Kirk went back and was sworn in again. Twice more he received calls from the retention office and twice more he was sworn in. After that was the weekend, Kirk said, but first thing Monday morning he received another telephone call, this time from a Maj. Fields.
"So I go in there and he says take a seat," Kirk said. Fields then asked Kirk if he was a Christian. Kirk said, 'Yessir.'
"He goes, 'I'm a Southern Baptist. I've been in this war for 20 years. Your paperwork is absolutely gone like it never existed.' He said, 'We've lost it.' He said, 'They brought it to my attention this is the third time and in my career I've never seen this. If God is calling you to do something, son, I suggest you do it,'" Kirk said.
With that push, he decided to follow his heart. Fields arranged an early out to allow Kirk to enroll in Bible college for the spring semester. He decided to pursue a degree in education.
When he first entered the civilian world, it was very difficult for the veteran to hold a job in tandem with his service in the US Army Reserves.
"I was raised in the military and then I went in the military," he said. "I wasn't ever given the freedom to think until I was out."
Because cooking is one of Kirk's hobbies, he thought working at a restaurant would feed his passion. It didn't, he said. Eventually he found a job working security at a prison - a perfect blend of the civilian and military world and he liked it.
"I had three kids and a college education and I worked for $4.70 an hour," he said. "Looking back, the Lord was using that to train me to do what I do, because who do I work with now? Either veterans or guys coming out of or going into prison."
Three years into the education program, Kirk said he knew he wasn't following the right path.
"My dad was a preacher and my wife's dad was a preacher and I didn't want to do that," he said. "I was supposed to start my student teaching, but the Lord just convicted my heart that I was not going in the right direction."
Kirk said he "basically started college all over again" when he switched his undergraduate degree path to theology.
"I crammed four years into seven," he said.
Kirk said his first job in the ministry was as a youth pastor in Pennsylvania, but, as it turned out, youth ministry wasn't his "thing." It was 1992 and by this time, his father had long finished Bible college and was directing a rescue mission in Sacramento, Calif.
Kirk, his wife and children moved to Sacramento and he began working with his dad. Kirk said "it was a large mission with small resources." The budget was $450,000, which Poplar Bluff's rescue mission operates with now.
"In a five block radius, we had 1,500 identified homeless," he said. "We fed 400 people every single night, 365 days a year. Never failed."
Within 90 days of his arrival, he raised his entire annual salary in private donations "because the Lord was in it," he said.
By 1994, Kirk began working on his master's degree in clinical counseling when he developed a 90-day curriculum to aide people suffering from addiction "because there was nothing out there." It is the same curriculum he uses today.
Kirk continued with the Sacremento mission until 2005 when his father died suddenly. He said it sent him into a tailspin that led to his departure from his job. Kirk decided to invest in a new career and bought into a Domino's franchise.
"I learned from that experience you should never make big decisions in times of grief," he added.
Once he walked away from the pizza business in June 2006, Kirk said he had no idea what to do. In an effort to clear their minds, he and his wife retreated to their condo in Branson, Mo.
While on vacation, he was contacted about a job opening in Poplar Bluff. Rev. Jim Dunn, whom he was familiar with, was retiring.
"So I called the mission and talked to Jim. I said, 'Jim, you're leaving,' and he said yeah. I said, 'Well, I'm thinking about applying,' and Jim said, 'Do it,'" Kirk explained.
Once the application was in, Kirk was asked to follow up with a video of himself answering a series of questions, which he didn't like. He said he felt "very uncomfortable." The UGRM's Board of Directors did like it, however, and he was hired.
Kirk came to work in September of 2006 and has been here ever since. A licensed clinical counselor, Kirk leads on average 25 men through a one-year recovery program and has transitioned the Rescue Mission into a local resource during natural disasters.
The number of people fed during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays has continued to increase under Kirk's leadership and the various grants he has spearheaded have helped the United Gospel Rescue Mission operate debt-free year after year.
In the meantime, despite not having a high school diploma, Kirk earned a second master's degree in Christian service from Union University in Jackson, Tenn. He is currently pursuing his doctorate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Kirk said he feels "very unqualified to do this work."
"I don't think I'm the best guy for this job," he said. "I just want to see people change."