Alex and Wendy Buchnea

Germany is one of western Europe’s most difficult countries to reach. In fact, most local Germans have little interest in Christianity and are considered post-Christian in their beliefs. While 55% of Germans designate themselves as Christians, estimates sadly indicate that only 0.8% are practicing Evangelical Christians. Since we know that Christianity involves more than simply calling oneself a Christian, it is important to find new and unique ways to reach the Germans with the full Truth. With patience and persistence, our objective has been to disciple those who choose to follow the Lord, allowing them to go forth and share the Gospel effectively with their own people.   

God called us to serve in Germany and Ukraine after a family trip to these countries in 1993. In the early years, we were leading small groups, discipling them, and teaching them the best practices in reaching their circle of friends and relatives. In 2006, God introduced us to church planting and disciple-making movements and gave us this vision for Europe. We started preparing ourselves specifically for this task by starting a group in our church with a multiplication DNA. We also took an evangelistic trip to Germany, Ukraine, and a short-term mission trip to the Republic of Georgia to evangelize.   

Living in Frankfurt, Germany as missionaries for the past twelve years, we have been involved in Disciple-making Multiplication Movements (DMM). This involves reaching Germans with the Gospel and training them—usually within small house churches—to become disciple-makers and multipliers. We joined an indigenous house church movement in 2015 and are now part of a house church network in Frankfurt, reaching and discipling new Christians, training them in DMM, and helping to start new groups.   

Recently, we joined a Germany-wide team that uses social media as a way of reaching spiritual seekers and discipling them to become multipliers. This ministry is called Media to Discipleship Multiplication Movements (M2DMM) and is intended to accelerate the efforts of local disciple-makers. We have formed and trained a coalition of disciple-making multipliers in the Frankfurt area and will be directing on-line seekers to them for in-person discipling. We are hoping that this will accelerate our efforts in creating groups of new believers to multiply the Gospel in Frankfurt, which has been slow-moving in the past.  

God is good! He has opened doors for us to not only disciple people from Frankfurt, but also from Austria, Slovakia, and Ukraine! During COVID, we were able to lead a friend in Frankfurt to the Lord and disciple her remotely from Toronto; inspire a teenager in Frankfurt to read the Bible and solidify his faith through his English lessons; train several Christians in DMM principles in both Frankfurt and Toronto; organize a coalition of multipliers in Frankfurt for the M2DMM ministry; and start a 24:14 prayer network in Toronto. Recently, two of our multipliers were able to lead individuals to the Lord while doing Discovery Bible Study (DBS) together! The excitement of the Lord’s moving has inspired us to organize a joint baptism at a local swimming pool. Memorably, one of the multipliers we had led to faith in Jesus, discipled, and baptized, is now baptizing the woman she led to the Lord in the same swimming pool she was baptized in – the third generation!  

We are currently self-supporting missionaries but are always open for more prayer warriors to join us. If you do feel led to give financially, keep your eyes open for future special projects that you can give to. Thank you to those who are already faithfully partnering with us and our ministry through consistent prayer and financial support!