Pascal Friedli

Pascal is a Swiss missionary kid who came to Austria with his parents and grew up in Western Austria. He is now married to an Austrian (Claudia) and together they have three children (7, 5 and 1 year old).

As a family, their vision is to strengthen community, unity and identity through God's Spirit.

In concrete terms, they do this by Claudia taking a lot of time for the children to set them free in their identity as God's children and to build community and unity as a family. As a family, they seek to be a light and a blessing for many people in their environment (work, playground, kindergarten, school, etc.).

Pascal wants to invest himself in the local Christian youth and meeting center (called “Lighthouse”) as part of the leadership team in order to be able to reach even more people and thus expand the family vision.

Lighthouse is an inter-church ministry founded by Pascal and his former youth pastor in 2011. The aim of the organisation is to be a light through good works for young people who are so often searching for hope.

The people who work in Lighthouse are building bridges to young people and extending a helping hand to them. They offer space for young Christians and non-Christians to meet through activities on Friday afternoons and evenings.

Through Lighthouse’s Learning Support Centre, pupils, mainly from low-income backgrounds, receive help with their homework and support in preparing for tests and exams.

The Friday afternoon games create a fun way to build and deepen relationships with the children in the learning centre.

The Friday Nights offer youth and young adults the opportunity to get to know Christians in a relaxed atmosphere and offer space for conversations and questions about faith. We want to immerse ourselves even more deeply and long-term in discipleship with those who are interested. 

ECMI makes it possible for Pascal and Claudia to work at the Lighthouse. The project is not big enough financially and administratively to take this on. As an Accepted Candidate, Pascal is in the process of setting up a mission partner circle and also works part-time in an after-school program at an elementary school.