Home Missions Names Two New Leaders in Canada

Christian Reformed Home Missions has named new regional leadership in Canada.

In the Western Canada Region, Rich Braaksma started as Regional Mission Leader late last year. In Eastern Canada, Kevin DeRaaf has accepted a Regional Mission Leader position starting May 1, 2017.

These new leaders will fill important roles in the new mission agency even as the work to join Home Missions and World Missions continues.

In the Western Canada Region, Braaksma will serve an area which includes British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

 Additionally, he is currently a pastor at New Hope Hillside church, in Calgary, Alberta, where he took part in leading the congregation through a process of embracing a missional vision and was also part of merging two church plants into one congregation.

Previously, he served as a church planter and developed The Talking Stick, a community coffeehouse in Venice and Santa Monica, Calif. He will continue to serve alongside the pastoral leadership at New Hope Hillside.

DeRaaf will serve the Eastern Canada Region, which includes Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Maritimes.

He is currently a pastor at Faith CRC, in Burlington, Ont. Previously, DeRaaf has served as a member of the Eastern Canada Home Missions Regional Team and a representative on the Home Missions board.

“I have been inspired and challenged in my own ministry journey by Adrian VanGiessen, Ben Vandezande and John VanTil, those who have served in this role before me,” said DeRaaf.

“I pray that as I transition into this role, God would use me to inspire and strengthen the mission that the Spirit calls all of us into as the CRC in Canada.”