Letting Love Lead

Tim Brand ’02, Bev De Cook Brand ’67, Steve Brand ’96 and Shelly Brand Nelson ’98 stand before a newly constructed Love-In-Action Center in Mé Bel Mé, Haiti. This center was dedicated to their late husband and father, Denny Brand ’65, who devoted years of service to Haiti and inspired Tim to start Many Hands (Many Hands for Haiti).

Little did Tim Brand ’02 know, a night of prayer in Pietenpol Hall would change his life forever.

During the summer of 1998, Brand, a recent graduate of Pella High School, joined a church group to help build a new school for Christian Mission of Pignon in Haiti. This trip not only challenged Brand’s perspective on God’s global heart but was also instrumental in laying the foundation for his future.

Part of that future included Brand choosing to attend Central College. It was here where he found his life’s calling, rooted in prayerful obedience.

“One night during my sophomore year at Central I was praying about the direction of my life,” Brand says. “In that moment, I heard a voice say to go back to Haiti.”

Inspiration

In 2008, ten years after his first trip to Haiti and eight years after his prayer on the first floor of Pietenpol Hall, Brand established Many Hands (Many Hands for Haiti). He continues to serve as founder and chief executive officer of the nonprofit, living out its mission: “Transforming together, to be love in action, in a broken world.”

Brand graduated from Central with a degree in computer information systems. He also earned his master’s degree in business management from the University of Phoenix. Brand credits his education as the catalyst for the realization he could leverage his business skills for nonprofit work.

“It was always really important for me to get a liberal arts education,” Brand says. “I saw how being well-rounded in my education could help me no matter what I ended up doing after graduation. Taking on so many different types of coursework throughout my Central career allowed me to see that when I finally said yes to my calling, I thought, ‘Ah, this is why I have all these skills.’”

A Family Affair

For Brand, Central has always felt like home. In fact, he’s part of what he calls a generational Central family with parents, Denny ’65 and Bev De Cook Brand ’67, brother, Steve Brand ’96, and sister, Shelly Brand Nelson ’98, all being Central graduates as well. His wife, Catie Ruefer Brand ’04, graduated from Central with a degree in education and teaches language arts at the middle school in the Pella Community School District.

Being part of the Central family is more than just a title, it’s a lifelong connection that, for the Brands, is rooted in generosity.

“What I’ve seen in my life is a person who is truly generous isn’t just generous in one area of their life,” Brand shares. “They’re generous with their forgiveness, time, resources, hospitality and with how they view life.”

The Brands exemplify this type of true generosity in how they have chosen to give back to Central. The family supports the Central Dutch basketball and volleyball team crowdfunding campaigns through Ignite, serves on multiple advisory councils at the college, guest lectures in classes and volunteers during Homecoming and Scholar Days, just to name a few.

Through the work that Many Hands is doing, Brand has also been able to give the gift of experience to different groups from Central.

“We’ve taken several groups from Central down to Haiti,” Brand says. “These groups have served in ways that expand their worldview and give them a different perspective. It’s been a great partnership with Central, one that allows me to give back in appreciation for all that I learned during my time there.”

Whether it be at home, working in Haiti or anywhere in between, Brand strives to live a congruent life that is grounded in love, leading to an outpouring of generosity.

“Generosity comes from a point of love,” Brand explains. “So, when you can love well is when you can be generous. And my time at Central taught me how to love well by bringing me into this family — a generational Central family that continually showed me how to love well. Because of this, I’m able to, in turn, love others in the way they want to be loved in this world today.”