Andreas and Marion Pestke

We, Andreas und Marion have been married for almost 11 years and are pastoring a church in Germany (Agape Gemeinde in Eschweiler) until the end of December 2007. Additionally, we ran a small business in the IT industry. We always enjoyed studying topics like Christian missiology, cross cultural communication and leadership. We traveled a lot and went on short term mission trips to different countries. We saw the necessity of understanding cultural differences in order to convey the Gospel of Christ in a culturally adequate way.

Two years ago we began to sense that God would use our interest in other cultures by sending us to Latin America as missionaries. I (Marion) was excited about this, because I had learned to speak Spanish as a child while living with my family in Santiago, Chile!

So, in March of 2008, we will join a mission started by Sandy Carter (missionary of Globe International) using our gifts of leadership, pastoral care, teaching and organization. Sandy herself lives in the USA.

The mission consists of 2 orphanages, one near the capital Managua and one in the north of the country in Jinotega.

A guest house hosts international guests for short term relief services, like medical teams, construction teams and teams for evangelistic outreaches.

In Nicaragua, like in many other countries of Latin America there might be a higher percentage of “born again” Christians than in Europe, but in many areas there is a lack of role models: people with integrity and a holistic approach to the Word of God. This is what one of our focuses will be: to model to the children through our lives and teachings, as well as through our relationship to them, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, so that they one day can become examples to others. Maybe one day we can found new Christian churches to serve this goal!