Our church Leaders

Date of Birth: May 14, 1950.
Country of Birth: Trinidad (West Indies).
Date of Marriage: August 28, 1977.
Wife: Patricia. (Patricia is a public school teacher).
Children: Tristan (October 1979) Steffan April, 1988).

As his name suggests, Pastor Semurath is the grandson of East Indian immigrants. Through research he has been able to verify the following: his paternal grandparents came to Trinidad in 1907 from Uttar Pradesh in India. His paternal grandfather, Sieumurat, (anglicized to “Semurath”) comes from a family of Brahmins, most of whose descendants still live in Uttar Pradesh. Pastor Semurath is the second child & son of his parents Ralph Rampersad & Elizabeth Semurath. His parents had ten children, seven boys and three girls.

The Lord saved Pastor Semurath's father in 1958 through the witness of a godly man, Alfredo George. It was primarily through the influence of the gospel changes that took place in his father's life and his teaching of the Bible to his family that Pastor Semurath came to know the Lord at age 12. He was baptized shortly thereafter and became a member of the Missionary Baptist Church of Curepe. Pastor Semurath's father was very zealous for the gospel and became involved in evangelism and church planting. With the Lord's help he was able to plant and establish a church in the village in which the Semurath family resided, LaPaille Village, Caroni.

Pastor Semurath began to sense the Lord's call to the ministry very early in his Christian walk. With a team of three other young men, they began and taught Sunday Schools (& V.B.S. programs) in three villages. At age 16, with his father lying near death because of a vehicular accident, Pastor Semurath had to prepare and preach his first sermon. The experience was disastrous and the result was a decision to abandon all thoughts about the ministry. Just over a year later, a couple more difficult providences would lead him out of the church for a period of two years.

It was at a young adults' camp in 1969 that the Lord would restore Pastor Semurath. By that time the Semurath family had relocated and Pastor Semurath became a member of the Evangelical Church of Sangre Grande. This led to a very gradual involvement in church activities. The first involvement was the church's youth group. During this period, the Lord would deal with Pastor Semurath once again on the issue of the call to the ministry. This issue was finally settled one Sunday afternoon.

The result of the Lord's dealings was a step by step increase in ministry involvement : teaching Sunday Schools (& V.B.S.) in nearby villages; street preaching; preaching in evangelistic meetings; involvement in the Evangelical denomination's youth work; directing youth camps; distribution of gospel tracts in various villages; preaching in public markets and selling Christian books; and preaching in his home church and other churches whenever given the opportunity. In most of these activities, Pastor Semurath worked with a youth team that included the young lady who would eventually become his wife. In 1971 & 1972 Pastor Semurath led small youth teams to do evangelism in Grenada.

In January 1972, under deep conviction about the Lord's call, Pastor Semurath resigned his job as an assistant Fisheries Officer and entered into full-time ministry, simply standing upon the Lord's promise in Phil.4: 6-7. He continued his labors with the Evangelical churches, trusting the Lord to provide his needs. At the same time he began extension theological studies, a program that was linked to Jamaica Bible College. The ignorance of God's word in the churches began to deeply trouble and greatly burden Pastor Semurath. He began to pray for the Lord's help to become a Bible expositor. It was during this period Pastor Semurath's vision for the church in his country began to take shape.

In 1974, the Lord led Pastor Semurath to Jamaica Bible College in Mandeville, Jamaica. There he met a godly pastor and his life would change in ways he never dreamt would happen. This pastor's ability as a Bible expositor greatly affected and influenced Pastor Semurath. The Lord would also use this pastor to change Pastor Semurath's theology to Calvinism. During this period his vision for the church began to solidify. In 1981 a visiting missionary told Pastor Semurath that he had become a Reformed Baptist. That was his introduction to Reformed Baptists.

Before he graduated in 1977, Pastor Semurath was called to become an associate pastor in the Newtown Evangelical Church, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad (at present : The Reformed Evangelical Church, Tunapuna). He accepted the call and began laboring in this church on May, 01, 1977. On August 28, 1977, he and Patricia were married. The Lord has blessed them with two sons. He remains forever thankful to the Lord for Patricia, a gracious and excellent woman who continues to work tirelessly and sacrificially behind the scenes so that her husband can fulfill God's calling upon his life.

One year later the senior pastor moved on to another church and Pastor Semurath was installed as the pastor of the Newtown Evangelical Church. At present, by God's grace, Pastor Semurath continues to labor as the primary preaching / teaching pastor in The Reformed Evangelical Church. And after more than three decades, his zeal for the Reformed faith and its spread in the Caribbean not only remains unabated but continues to be intensified.