History

How it all began

Our History

In 1965, a young man named Kalevi Lehtinen met a group visiting his home country of Finland. They used an outline to explain how to know God in a personal way and he translated the outline into Finnish.

A year later, he met Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, the organisation that sent the team. Bright and Lehtinen shared a passion to help people understand Jesus’ love and how to begin a personal relationship with God. Kalevi and his wife Eine Lehtinen became the first European staff of Campus Crusade for Christ (later Agape Europe), along with Bernhard and Anne Rebsch of Germany. Lehtinen was the ministry director in Europe for ten years.

Almost 60 years later, we’ve expanded to 41 countries with ministries focusing on students, athletes, families, artists, teachers, young professionals, leaders and more. We are currently lead by Javier Garcia and a team of people from all over Europe.