Christiaan & Kseniya Kooiman

We dream of a church on the edge of society, a holy community of the poor and the broken, that follows Jesus, transforms the neighbourhood and challenges the rich.

Christiaan and Kseniya Kooiman have been living in Schwerin, East-Germany, since the end of 2009 and were officially commissioned in June 2010. Their life and ministry focuses on their neighbourhood, the 'Dreesch'. The Dreesch is a district with many problems, but many special people and much potential as well.

Christiaan and Kseniya work with a team. From years of sharing lives and participating in this neighbourhood, two own, monthly, festivals emerged, organised together with friends and neighbours. One is an open air festival (with DJ and Bible story) and the other one a family feast. Besides this, Kseniya does a lot with creative handwork and Christiaan with music.

Since October 2016, they (together with people from the neighbourhood) have been working on the renovation of a former post office into a community centre with café and workshop; the 'Patchwork Center'. This centre is the realisation of the next step towards an open, contextualised community, in which everyone is welcome, everyone can participate and everyone has the opportunity to discover Jesus.