Our story
A story of brokenness, change and a God who brings new life out of weakness.
The story of how Friends of Jesus began is a living testimony that God loves to show his power through our weakness. That he does not depend on human strength – on the contrary, he chooses what is foolish to reveal his wisdom, and uses fragile vessels to show what he is able to do.
Gunnar & Corinna Ahrend, 1985Founders of Friends of Jesus
Searching
Gunnar and Corinna Ahrend were such vessels when, in the 1970s, like many young people of their generation, they were searching for the meaning of life. Difficult circumstances in their childhood and youth had left deep scars in their hearts, which they tried to cope with in different ways. Independently of each other, both went off the rails, looking for fulfilment in drugs, alcohol and in people who felt just as lost as they did. They travelled the world and yet never arrived …
After a failed suicide attempt, Corinna reached the end of herself one day and in her despair cried out to God. Shortly afterwards she met Christians who told her about Jesus, and her life gained a completely new perspective and hope.
By then Gunnar was dealing drugs. One day, at a party, he had a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit – from one moment to the next he realised that Jesus is alive and that he wanted to give him his life. Afterwards Gunnar was free from his drug addiction without any withdrawal. He knew that he no longer wanted to steal, deal or deceive. And that there would only ever be one woman for him.
Gunnar (second from right) with friends from the Christian commune
on the Lüneburg Heath
A commune on the Lüneburg Heath
The two of them found each other and, despite their brokenness, longed to follow Jesus and give everything for him. Their path led them to a Christian commune on the Lüneburg Heath in northern Germany, where they lived on a farm with other former hippies and seekers – with the sincere desire to live out discipleship together in a very practical way. Their motivation and love for Jesus were real, but they lacked mature Christians who could take them by the hand and teach them along the way.
When the relationships in the community slowly began to break apart, biblical foundations were abandoned and people moved into the centre, Gunnar and Corinna left their home overnight with their three children and attempted a new start in the Westerwald, where an old friend of Gunnar's lived who was a believer.
Highs and lows
From there a rocky road began for the family, leading them through highs and lows. Financial hardship, human failure and a past that was still unresolved marked the following years – but they also became a time of preparation and training for what God had in mind for them. They always had a heart for rescuing people from broken backgrounds who were in deep hopelessness, taking them in and telling them about God. Neither of them was perfect, but both were determined.
Through this whole season of their lives they never lost sight of Jesus and took his Word, the Bible, very seriously.
The farm in Ziegenhain where the work of Friends of Jesus would
later begin
Peter and Dorothee Gleiß
Learning. Healing. Growing.
After some time a retired pastor couple, Peter and Dorothee Gleiß, took Gunnar and Corinna under their wing. Here, for the first time, they experienced inner healing by working through their past and their relationship problems in a special way. They laid their whole lives before God once again and learned what it means to shape everyday life under God's blessing and to grow spiritually.
And they were always hungry for more. During this time their three children were closely connected to a missionary children's and youth ministry, and God built a strong spiritual foundation in them too. Here the whole family also came into deeper contact with musical worship, which would later shape the entire ministry of Friends of Jesus.
Friends of Jesus was born.
On their 18th birthday, Lena and her brother Marcus – both children of Gunnar and Corinna – played together for the first time in their newly formed band with Raphael, who later became Lena's husband, and his brother Tobias. That evening Gunnar shared his life story, and the Holy Spirit touched the hearts of the guests – Christians and non-believers alike. In that moment “Friends of Jesus” was born.
It grows
In the years that followed, what Gunnar and Corinna carried in their hearts began to grow: teaching on discipleship and devotion to God. Youth groups followed, services, our first own worship songs and the first album, many street outreaches at home and abroad, and care for people from disadvantaged backgrounds – while again and again people joined who decided to live their lives with Jesus. Opening a café in Altenkirchen as a place of encounter gave the group, which had by then grown to around 50 people, a permanent home.
“Israel, we stand with you.”
Our love for God's heart for his people Israel first brought us onto the streets of Jerusalem in 2014. We went there as a team to comfort people and to bear witness that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is alive – often with street music right in the middle of it. This is how the project “Israel, We Stand With You” began, a project that is still alive today and with which we regularly travel to Israel.
More about Israel →
A new generation takes responsibility
After more than 20 years of leadership, responsibility passed to a team from the next generation. With this handover came a clearer understanding: Friends of Jesus is not only a ministry but a local church – a church that lives in community.
Today Friends of Jesus is carried by a whole community together. Gunnar and Corinna remain part of this story – just not in the front row.
The story continues.
Our story is not finished. It is still being written, because the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God of generations.