Winnipeg's Portage Avenue Church had dwindled down to less than 100 members and only three children. Now they are growing and joining with other churches to accomplish their mission.

The Portage Avenue Church used to be completely full. Current Children's Ministry Coordinator Janice Penner says that when she joined the church 40 years ago that there were close to 700 members.

"I didn't want to be here, but my husband was a member here," Penner laughed.

But then her generation of people started to leave, taking families away from the church as they joined or started other churches. The attendance continued to dwindle until almost no children were left.

"As we continued to decline, we could not do [outside ministries] anymore," Penner said.

She had tried to restart the children's ministry a few times, but every time the kids left again. So when the new lead pastor, Jedidiah Carpentier, asked Penner to start up the ministry again in 2015, she laughed. But the children's ministry got launched anyways as the leadership set in place a plan to grow the church.

When Carpentier arrived, he saw a very elderly congregation and realized they wouldn't be able to grow like that. He decided to take the church leadership and go before the Lord to see what their next step was.

"What seemed to come up [during the leadership meetings] was the idea of go, make disciples of all nations," Carpentier remembered. "The go isn't a suggestion."

What happened next was a major growth in the church as they started inviting people of all nations to their church. Everyone was welcome and the church continued to look for ways to expand. That's when they ran into the Korean Fellowship.

"We always had a group of 25-30, but most were young people," said Jennifer Choi, the Associate Pastor of the Korean Fellowship. "We tried to join with [the church we were renting from] in doing missions, but it didn't work."

So Choi and the staff prayed for a church they could join. As they knocked on churches doors, they came across Portage Avenue Church. "God just said to knock on the door, so we're here," said Choi.

"We are laughing together, sharing together, talking together. That's heaven."

They realized there was a lot they could do together instead of apart, so the two churches joined forces. The unique part of their situation isn't that both churches run under the same roof. That happens in many churches in the city. The difference is that the Korean Fellowship is actually on the board at Portage Avenue Church and are a major part of the decision-making.

"There is old and young, white, black, yellow, diversity, different language, different culture, but we are laughing together, sharing together, talking together," Choi said. "That's heaven."

Portage Avenue Church continues to grow, inviting more people and other churches to be a part of their ministry. Dozens of new members have been added over the last couple years.

Both churches are joining up and sharing contacts to make a Mexico mission trip happen next year.

Penner, Carpentier, and Choi all agree that they can see the sanctuary fill up again at Portage Avenue Church and they are excited to see where God takes them next.