He made an important contribution to the translation of the New Testament into Khoekhoe through his careful revisions of the work of Johann Georg Krönlein.
Kreft worked as an innkeeper, but after three years of service in the Prussian Army, he enrolled at the Rhenish Missionary Institute in Barmen on January 1, 1848.
Carl Hugo Hahn in Gross Barmen, Uerieta was baptized Johanna, the first convert among the Herero.
[1] Unfortunately, Christiaan's alcoholism proved influential among the locals, and the mission was further hampered by constant Herero-Nama wars, heavy drought, and plagues of locusts.
[2] One of his sons, Hermann Heinrich Gerhard Kreft (April 6, 1855 - August 11, 1927), also an industrious missionary, especially in Tulbagh.