Jared and Elizabeth Crabtree
Hi! We’re the Crabtrees: Jared, Elizabeth, Jonathan, Ally, and Mackensley. Since March 2021, we’ve lived and served in Pforzheim, Germany. This is a city in the Southwest with 125,000 people representing over 140 different nationalities.
Our vision is to plant a doctrinally sound church where people in Germany can worship together in unity regardless of their cultural background.
This requires a lot of relationship-building. Any given weekday, you’ll find us leading intercultural small group Bible studies, building community through our partner church’s afterschool program for immigrant children, hosting people from all over the world, and helping people integrate into German culture.
On any given Sunday, we’re serving in the church. Jared’s either preaching, in the tech booth, or singing, and Elizabeth’s often helping in children’s ministry.
Our Testimony: We were both profoundly impacted as children by the community that grows up in churches where the good news of Jesus Christ is believed, lived, and proclaimed. Where church becomes a critical part of life as you join with others who are learning from Jesus, loving like Jesus, and living for Jesus.
I, Jared, have long wanted to nurture this fellowship interculturally among people who haven’t gotten to experience it yet. I completed training specifically for this purpose during my bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies. Since before we got married in 2007, Elizabeth and I have served in our local churches while launching careers in Education.
God used the 2015/2016 movement of Middle Eastern refugees into Europe and knowledge of the relatively weakened presence of local churches here to open our eyes to a really unique opportunity to minister interculturally.
In 2017, we both felt God leading us to step out NOW into a multicultural place to church plant – somewhere we could humble ourselves, join others as outsiders, and share the peace, hope, and community that is found in pursuing abundant life in Christ (John 10:10).
In March 2018, we took a trip to explore ministry in Western Europe with Rob Harris from Kontaktmission. We met pastor Karsten Maul and became acquainted with his church during our first day of the trip and experienced an instant connection.
We’ve been partnered with Pastor Karsten since we arrived. Together, we anticipate the Lord growing his Kingdom in Germany
Support the Crabtrees!
Germany: The poster child of post-Christian
Although Germany is known as the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, it is a country in need of the Gospel. Germany is what many would refer to as "post-Christian".
The German news channel Deutsche-Welle has reported record numbers of Germans leaving the Lutheran and Catholic state churches over the last three years. Deutsche-Welle also reports that out of those who do still belong to the church, extremely few actually attend services. Only 4.3% of Catholics report going to church most Sundays. Germany needs Jesus.
We seek to build the Kingdom of God here in Germany by:
1. supporting and strengthening existing churches in their ministries.
2. equipping and assisting churches in church planting.
3. equipping churches and existing ministries to serve their communities.
4. making disciples of Jesus through personal relationships.
In all of the work that we do, our ultimate goal is to make disciples of Jesus. We believe that achieving this goal will also lead to future church plants and reform in the community.
Support our ministry
It is no secret that from the very beginning of the church Christians have taken an active role in being missionaries and sending missionaries. Yet not all are called to be missionaries. (We are all called to make disciples)
Being a missionary is a calling, but have you ever considered that sending missionaries is also a calling? So what is your calling? Are you the missionary or a missionary sender?
All Kontaktmission staff live on support, meaning we believe that God will provide for his mission, through his church. We would ask for support for our student center. We have rent, electricity, and then general supplies in running the space and serving coffee. We are fully supported missionaries and can only live and serve here as long as we have support to sustain us.
Please consider joining our sending team by partnering with us in prayer and partnering with us financially.
Prayer Needs
- Pray for connections with young people.
- Pray for open hearts to hear and receive the message of Jesus.
- Pray that a generation of young people would rise up to make a change in Albania.
Sign up to get our newsletter
Your partnership through committed giving meets a tremendous need.
GIVE MONTHLY
ONE TIME GIFT
Find us on social media
ADDRESS
PO Box 825
Humboldt, TN 38343-0825
Email: office@gokmusa.org
Contact us
