Gisela: I grew up in an almost atheistic family, but I never doubted the reality that there is a God who created everything. But who Jesus Christ was and still is, I never understood. The witness of some students at high school led me to renew my opinion about God. I was impressed by their personalities and felt that they had something I missed. During this time, I was invited to an evangelism and there the Lord touched my world. I suddenly knew that I only wanted to escape God’s call with all my arguments, and so I stopped running away and committed my life to Jesus. No sudden changes took place in my life, but step by step, the Lord changed my opinion and personality. For example, it was always difficult for me to talk to many people, and now I enjoy teaching small groups and leading little Bible study groups. I was 18 years old at my conversion.

Botho: My parents were Christians, and in my childhood both of my parents were Sunday school teachers. It was no question for me that there was a God and that He sent His Son to redeem man. Already as a small child, I prayed to God and hoped to go to heaven when I die.

When I was eleven, I went to an evangelistic gathering with my parents. At the end of the last evening an old lady asked me whether I was redeemed or not. I realized that I was not redeemed, which I wanted to be. So I laid my life in the hands of the Lord and confessed my sin. From then on, I want to live under the leadership of the Lord. The results of this were, my baptism, my regular attendance at a church that served the Lord, and that I studied theology and became a full-time missionary.