Quick Facts

• Role: Apostle, Author & Spiritual Mentor for Leaders

• Location: Frankfurt am Main

• Church: Gebetshaus Frankfurt

• Books: Sustained, Known, Jesus, and now what? (Vol. 1–2), The Sharpest Mirror, Help – My Wife Is in Menopause, Beneath the Surface, Hidden Dynamics

 

Origins & Family

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Alexander Bench grew up in Frankfurt — in a family that gave him more than he perhaps realized at the time. His father, born in Uruguay, worked for Lufthansa and traveled a great deal. What he was at home, he passed on: craftsmanship, a mind of his own, and the knowledge that the world is bigger than your own neighborhood. Trips to Uruguay to visit his grandparents were part of his childhood — an early lesson that home can be more than a place.

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An Encounter That Changed Everything

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At 15, his parents sent him to Canada alone. The following summer, at a youth camp, he experienced for the first time something he could only describe one way: a personal encounter with Jesus. He came back to Frankfurt, carrying the fire with him — but there was no one to help him understand what he had experienced. After six intense months, it faded.

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A Life That Finds a New Direction

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After finishing school, having started a degree in electrical engineering that quickly proved to be the wrong path, he traveled with a friend on vacation — and met Janaina, now his wife. Out of their conversations came a plan: a venture in Brazil. Janaina started it. Alexander realized it wouldn't survive without him. So he stayed.

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Faith, Building, Formation

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In Brazil, the venture became far more. Together they found a church — Janaina from a Baptist family, Alexander with a grandfather who had preached among the Mennonites. The church met in a tent. Services lasted three, four hours. Here, what had begun in Canada came alive again: Bible school, inner formation, deep encounters with the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the business grew — almost unstoppably. By 2006: 33 employees, three stores, international distribution. They moved through three churches. In each there was growth — and disappointment. Both were part of it.

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The Return

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In 2005, on a visit home for his brother's wedding, God began to speak differently. Clear, but quiet: It's time to go back. On the first Sunday of December 2006, the first service took place — in his parents' living room in Frankfurt. From this small beginning, Gebetshaus Frankfurt was born.

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Today

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In 2018, Alexander was recognized as an apostle by Dr. Don Lynch and Hudson Medeiros — confirmation of a path that had begun long before. In the years that followed, he led international pastors in Frankfurt. Today he is less interested in structures and more in people: organically grown friendships with leaders in the Kingdom of God that arise not from positions, but from shared convictions. At the same time, he and the church are stepping eagerly into new territory — open to what comes next. The fire from back then is still there. Just grown more patient.