In 1844, Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary working for the Church Missionary Society, established the first Christian mission station in what would become Kenya, at Rabai near Mombasa. He learned Swahili, translated the New Testament and became the first European to see Mount Kenya, which he called Kirinyaga after the Kikuyu name for it. He recorded the name as Kenya, which eventually became the name of the country. In his mission at Rabai, he planted a seed of Christianity in the interior that would grow into one of the most Christian countries in Africa.