Africa Brings a Pastor to Kittredge
The need to find a new pastor became a challenge. Village Missions didn’t have anyone to come to Kittredge at that time. The Kittredge Church knew Lovejoy Tirivepi from friends at Colorado Christian University. He was from Zimbabwe and in the states for more education. The Kittredge Church asked him to step in as an interim pastor while VM searched for a new one to come to Kittredge. The parsonage was empty, and they had nowhere to stay after finishing school. It was an ideal situation. After just a couple of Sundays, people were whispering to one another, “Can’t we keep him?”
So the Board looked into it, sought out information from VM on how to get Lovejoy to join, and then asked if Lovejoy was willing. It was the first time in VM’s history that a pastor came in from the back way by having a church first and then becoming a VM missionary. He had a successful ministry here growing to two services, a radio program on 56 KLZ called “Identity in Christ”, and his all-important ministry to Africa called Grace Fellowship Africa.
During the Kirby’s ministry, talks started on adding Bible to the name of the church so that people would know what kind of church it was, but that wasn’t to happen yet. During the Tirivepi’s ministry, that name change was done and the church officially became known as the Kittredge Community Bible Church or the KCBC.
The old cathedral windows had become too dark for many and they weren’t efficient for the high heating bill, and the opportunity arose to replace them. The men in the church got together again to install them making the sanctuary brighter and more up-to-date.
Another favorite memory of many people was the time that Pastor Joe came back and with Pastor Lovejoy did the most hilarious scene ever to be performed at the KCBC. Joe Kirby writes as to how it all came about with the help of a popular song during those years:
Jack Canady asked Lovejoy and me to do a skit for the annual VM conference. We got the audiotape of the song “Pharoah, Pharoah” from Sally Johnson, VM’er at the Chapel in the Hills. As Lovejoy and I talked about it, we were talking about rhythm. He had some and I didn't have any. So I said why don't you paint yourself white and I will paint up black? The rest is history. Sally gave us the Biblical garb and off we went. It brought down the house that July at the VM annual conference in Estes Park. We were at the YMCA camp. Later we did it at Kittredge and at the 50th Anniversary of VM in Estes Park again. After that Lovejoy and I hung up our Israeli suits.
I remember our entry that first time....we came into the auditorium from the back, both of us were very hyped up, and we ran helter skelter throughout the place, sitting on people’s laps, messing up hair, yelling and just going nuts. We finally got to the platform and went into our Pharaoh, Pharaoh act, Lovejoy as the white guy was right on with the moves to the music....I, as the black guy was very klutzy all over the platform. It was fun; I'll never forget that moment....was it spiritual? Well, I hope the Lord was laughing.