Welcome to
Grace Church
Under Renovation:
Our building and our body (and our website too!)
JOIN US SUNDAYS AT 10:30 AM
Meet Our Team
Barbara Berends - Service Coordinator
Bev McMillen - Elder
Carol Lin - Music Director
Edwin Buis - Elder
Hilya Persaud - Elder
Indira Kramer - Elder
Restiani Andriati - Elder
Rob Parish - Deacon
Sarath Peiris - Deacon
Tim Berends - Pastor
Wil Kramer​ - Deacon
Getting Started Grace Group
Getting Started Groups at Grace Church are for those new to the Christian faith, wherever you are in your spiritual journey and help you grow in your knowledge and love for Jesus
Digging Deeper Grace Croups
Bible study or Christian topical discussion groups which welcome you wherever you are in your spiritual journey and help you grow in your knowledge and love for Jesus
Disciple-Making Grace Croups
In these groups, along with study, you will learn the practice of leading others to Jesus through Scripture engagement whether through small groups or public teaching/preaching
Grace CRC McCowan Food Bank
Grace Sheppard International Ministry
led by Sarath & Kamini Peiris
Get to Know Us
2025 Sri Lanka Ministry Trip - by Kamini Peiris
Hello Congregation, a couple of months ago you all prayed for and commissioned Sarath and I on our Ministry trip to Sri Lanka. We were so grateful for your prayers and support. Today we’d like to share a little bit about how we saw God moving in Sri Lanka.
Sarath and I first arrived in Negombo, Sri Lanka which is our home town. We were able to meet with Pastor Dias very early on. He led us in a prayer meeting with our relatives and we had communion together to mark the start of our journey. It was a very meaningful home service and we felt God’s presence amongst us.
We have been working with Pastor Dias and his family for a few years now and have collaborated to reach and bless rural villages in the past. In Negombo, together with Pastor Dias and his family we planned which remote villages to visit, with their local knowledge and guidance.
We first visited a predominantly buddhist village, there we met the pastor of a church plant named Pastor Suman. We learned about their lifestyle and how they lived by faith and prayer. We also learned about the the day to day concerns and needs of rural villagers in this area. We learned that despite distance and difficulty with reliable transportation this pastor with his wife and toddler would regularly visit three different villages to host three different services in order to share the gospel. Recently the family wanted to build an addition to their home to use as a fellowship hall. They faced a lot of persecution from buddhist opposition in the area. Eventually they ended up having to go to court where God used people to help them uphold a legal right to build. We were able to see the progress of the church building that Pastor Suman and congregants have been working on. It had come to a halt due to lack of funds for building materials. When we came back to Canada we shared some of these stories with friends and family and were thrilled when a donor came forward. These next photos show the rest of building work starting up again. It was amazing to hear how God remained faithful to those who were so obviously faithful to Him.
We went to other villagers with Pastor Dias and Pastor Suman, there we met with different villagers, we prayed with them and heard about their daily life, struggles and joy in that area. One of the challenges they face is regarding safe transportation. Some villagers are interested in attending weekly church gatherings and prefer to go after work hours. Their main issue is that it is dangerous to walk during those evening hours in general but especially because of wild elephants where there is a real risk to their life. Another one of the challenges they face is regarding population loss, there isn't much work available there. Most of their young adults leave to cities and never come back. Villagers raised concerns about this and want to find ways to boost employment and education that help villagers and the villages as a whole. We also heard many stories and many different struggles from individuals who are facing family dysfunction and grief. There was so much need that was brought up and that's exactly what we were hoping people might share with us. We may not have all the answers to all these needs but sitting down and giving a chance for these villagers to be heard was, in our minds, the first step towards change.
Another one of our goals during this ministry was to help Pastor Dias with his home church goals. Since we have been working closely with him for a while, we asked him if there was any needs in his own community. He brought up wanting to focus on empowering teens and young adults, through classes that would teach them important skills that they could use in the real world. Thanks to a generous member of Grace Church we were able to bless this community with 5 laptops to start a computer lab. It was such a beautiful moment to open the computer lab for these young people and to see the joy and excitement on their faces.
During this trip, we had so many incredible moments to hear and see God move. A notable experience was when we visited a pastor down south named Pastor Lalith. Pastor Lalith along with congregants from their area restored a Dutch church that was built during the 1800s. This Pastor is also located in a predominantly buddhist area. I should mention that Sri Lanka is a buddhist nation with 70% of the population practicing buddhism. This is why many of the church plants tend to be in buddhist areas, sometimes hindu areas as well and they often face a lot of opposition and even persecution. We were inspired to see that Pastor Lalith and congregants were focused on reaching out to a buddhist school where many of the children were facing extreme poverty. Many of these students were going to school hungry and even fainting from hunger. The church came together to pool funds, despite most of the congregants also facing low income. They began to offer free lunch to students three times a week. It was amazing to see the relationships and trust built between this buddhist school community and this church. During our time there were were able to meet a young student who had a serious dysfunction with his leg. Thanks to support from Canada we were able to help this young boy and his family to purchase a dearly needed upgraded leg brace.
​​​​​​​We truly came away from this trip in awe and humility at the greatness of our God. God is moving mountains and softening hearts all around us and we are so grateful to play a small part in his mighty plan for this world. Sri Lanka, like many countries, has so much need, we are thrilled to have been able to visit and learn, bless and be blessed through this ministry. We hope to continue supporting these ministries and we ask that you keep Sri Lanka in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to find new ways to serve.