From environmental problems to corporate greed, Christoph didn’t like what he saw in the world. So in college, he gravitated toward business ethnics and philosophy. If he just found the right person, he thought, the world could be changed.
In 1989, he had met Maike, a woman he began to date shortly before moving six hours away to attend the Catholic University in Ingolstadt. Maike, although not a believer herself, was raised in a Christian home and held to a clear sense of right and wrong. Her confident morality appealed to Christoph in contrast to the wiggle room of philosophical logic.
After meeting Maike, the Bible became more appealing to Christoph too. To help himself sleep, he relaxed by listening to sermon tapes that Maike’s parents periodically gave him. One tape discussed the great problems of the world. The message claimed that when human beings try to solve the world’s problems, people like Hitler, Napoleon, and Caesar arise. By his bedside, Christoph listened to these thoughts over and over. The truth was sinking in that only Jesus has the right combination of power, wisdom, and love to save the world.
Maike’s eyes were also opening. Phone conversations with Christoph were dominated with discussions of the taped sermons and the Bible. They were drawn to the messages but couldn’t find others who lived out those truths. That is, until Christoph met Charles Ellis, a missionary church planter.
In September 1996, Christoph began attending the Bible studies Charles led at the Independent Baptist Church of Ingolstadt. The people at the church were kind and friendly to him. Christoph and Maike still lived six hours apart, but their spiritual discussions only intensified. By January 1997 they both were on their knees, confessing their sin and receiving Christ’s salvation. They married six months later, and Maike joined Christoph in Ingolstadt.
For both it was also a surrender to serve God. They participated in church wherever possible. Charles and his wife, Nancy, discipled the couple, as did Nancy’s parents, Virgil and Dolores Bunjer, also with BMM. They saw Christoph’s hunger for the things of God. In September 1997, Todd and Dawn Daily returned from furlough, and Todd organized a church-based pastoral training program for Christoph.
Christoph and Maike eagerly embraced their training, and in 2001 they were called as the Independent Baptist Church’s first German pastor and wife. Since 2005, the church has been completely German-led under Christoph’s leadership. Maike, once shy, has developed a love for people and gladly accepts the sacrifices of ministry. Christoph, too, has said he can think of no greater thing to do with his life than to serve God.