Carel V. van der Merwe   Teaching Elder

Carl V. van der Merwe was born in Klerksdorp, South Africa and grew up in Western Transvaal, South Africa. He received his BA from the Potchefstroomse University for Christian Higher Education in 1985 and his BD from the University of Pretoria, Faculty A in 1990. He was ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa in 1990 and served as Chaplin in the South African Defense Force. He has ministered in churches in Clocolan and Vryburg, South Africa before he was called as a Church Planter to Greeneville, Tennessee in 1995. Since January 1996 he served first as Church Planter and was later called as pastor of Grace Reformed Church, a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Carl and his wife, Elsie are blessed with two children, Mariska and Stephan.