Young leader of Prayer House in Switzerland dies in hiking accident

The founder and coordinator of the House of Prayer in the city of Thun (Switzerland) and her husband, died on 2 March in an accident while hiking in the Alps.

According to Swiss news website Livenet, Michèle Käch and her husband Christoph (married in June 2020) had just started a week of holidays in the mountain region of Bern. After a difficult search, police and Alpine emergency groups found the bodies of both.

They had sent a video to relatives of the beautiful views moments before the accident.

Susanna Rychiger, former leader of the 24-7 prayer movement in Switzerland and friend of Michèle, had “met for coffee with the couple earlier that morning”, she told Livenet. “My shoulders were hurting, and they spontaneously and naturally prayed for me. This is how they were”.

Rychiger, who was involved in prayer projects with Michèle for years, adds: “She had a passion to walk with Jesus (…) Since she was a kid, her mother would bring her to prayer rooms, where she learned about worship”.

The Prayer House in Thun was opened in 2018 by Michèle and her friend Maria Fechter. Their aim was to bring Christians from diverse churches together to pray and praise God. Several evangelical movements supported the local initiative.

Maria Fechter said: “The House or Prayer remains open, we will continue worshipping God (…) Our focus is Jesus. I have lost my best friend, and that hurts, but this is not about feeling good, but about focusing on Jesus. Even in the pain, we will continue worshipping, and we will probably be even more aware of the reality of what we sing”.

The family of ‘Mischi’, as they called Michèle, wrote: “She listened to music all day long, and often tried to imagine how heaven is. She always wanted to be near God’s heart. And now she is very close”.

According to friends, Michèle also had a heart for trafficked women and had travelled to other places to get involved with Christian initiatives against sexual slavery.