Formation of the Church
In 1996 Missionary Joy Selvathasan was sent to the "Ruhrgebiet" by the "Kontaktmission" to work among Tamil people. Since then he is living in Herne with his family. At first his work was mainly
evangelistic. A small but growing church was the outcome of his hard work. In 2005 Joy Selvathasan became Pastor of the GraceGospelChurch in Herne.
In the beginning the service was only in Tamil. But as the church grew more and more German speaking people joined. Today the whole service is held in German and Tamil.
The Pastor
Pastor Joy Selvathasan is a Tamil from Sri Lanka. In 1984 he came to Germany as a refugee. He became a christian in Germany and five years later he married a german lady. Today they have three children and live in Herne. Joy studied in Biblecollege "Bibelschule Brake" from 1988-1991. Afterwards he did an internship in a church called "Evangelisch Freikirchliche Gemeinde Melsungen" for two years. From 1994-1996 he studied in "Freie Hochschule für Mission" a Colombia University external studycentre. He graduated as Master of Arts in Biblical Studies.