Creative Blessings

 



One of my great blessings this Thanksgiving season is a contact I made recently on Facebook.

Byron Grant was one of the young people in my first youth group. During college days I served the church in Fairmont, Minnesota, where Byron and his parents attended. He left for LeTourneau College after graduation, and I lost contact with him.

The blessing comes from what Byron has been involved in since those early days. In 1979 he and his family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, to work with North America Indigenous Ministries. They started home Bible studies which grew into a Native church with an emphasis on First Nations People.

Along with teammates they opened a counseling center called the Tillicum Native Centre. Tillicum is a word from the trade language of the West Coast Native people, meaning “very good friend.” “We desired it to be a place where we could bridge the divide between the First Nations people and the church,” writes Byron. “Our focus there was evangelism and discipleship.”

In 1997 the Grants opened Canada’s first SAY YES! Afterschool tutoring program for elementary age children. They directed that program for the next twenty years.

For the past 28 years Byron has worked with a Baptist church that started out of the Tillicum Native Centre. He serves as Senior Pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church, located right in the center of the Native community in Vancouver. His ministry partner and wife, Diane, went home to be with the Lord in 2024.

Byron is mentoring a Korean man in First Nations ministry with the hope that he will be able to co-lead the church and allow Byron to retire. But as Byron says, “I will stay in the community, still involved with the many friends we have made over the 46 years God has given me to serve Him among them.”

The picture shows Byron with a friend named Stephen who has Cerebral Palsy and is the president of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disabilities Society.

What a blessing it has been to re-connect with Byron and rejoice with him in his fruitful ministry for the Lord.

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