Christoph and Kirsten Koehler
Globe Europe Missionaries to
Brazil| Origin: | Germany | | GEM missionaries since: | December 1999 | | Country of ministry: | São Paulo, Brazil | | Education: | gardener, merchant | | Status: | married, 3 children | | Newsletter: | Download (german) |
Christoph was raised in Erfurt in a Christian home. When he was eleven he made a decision for Jesus; he has already experienced some miracles in his lifetime. He learned the profession of Gardener for ornamental plants.
Christoph and Kirsten were married in 1985. They have three girls. In 1992 God spoke to them specifically about working among orphans and street children in Brazil. As a family, they went to Bible College in the Glaubenszentrum (“Faith Center”) in Bad Gandersheim, where they later stayed on to work with the children’s ministry and gained experience.
In July of 1999 their ministry with "ARCA DAS CRIANÇAS" (Children’s Ark) started. The ministry currently involves evangelistic children’s programs, a Bible Club, daily kids’ clubs, soccer training, annual camps, and other highlights for the children in Jardim Noronha.
The central vision is to reach the children in the Favelas with the gospel before they are caught up in drugs, prostitution, or crime and flee to the streets. The work has a preventive character, as it is essentially more effective to reach children in their current, often chaotic, life circumstances than getting them off the streets later, when they are already destroyed. |
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