Holger and Laarni Tetzlaff

Background

Holger and Laarni have been sent out as missionaries by a small Pentecostal church (F.C.G.En.eV.) in Germany and since November ’06 they are also with Globe Europe.

They met in Hong Kong in 2002 with YWAM. There they successfully completed a spiritual training course and took part in evangelistic outreaches. After their wedding in 2003, they moved to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, in order to work with children in the slum areas there.

Our work in Metro Manila (on the Philippines)

In Feb. 2005 we started a Sunday school in a slum, for kids from the slum who were on the streets. At first we had 15-20, but this quickly grew to 60 kids and God opened doors for us to be able to use various rooms for the meetings and to hold meetings for different age groups. We are now able to use church rooms in two slums for our Kids Church. And we are building up increasing contact with the parents…

The second slum area in which we have started Bible sessions for kids is in Payatas, very close to Metro Manila’s biggest rubbish heap (about 30 000 people in the area live largely by collecting, sorting and sometimes eating the rubbish). Since 2008, a total of about 180 kids come to our children’s services in different groups.

This year we have also started a small Bible study home group for adults and plan to start a church in the near future. Laarni still interprets into Tagalog for me at the Bible study meetings for teens and adults. This year we had our second intensive discipleship camp with 22 young teens from the slum. We also have regular weekly times when we feed the children (sometimes just with snacks). A couple of the children from the slum are supported by us here through school sponsorships. At Christmas we are often able to distribute presents. On a small scale we sometimes help individual families in practical ways and in the future we hope to be able to provide long-term aid projects, too, with the aim of helping people help themselves.

Vision and goals

1. We want to get to know God better, be captivated and transformed by Him.
2. We want people to get to know God personally and be saved !!
3. God has put it on our hearts to work specifically with children and young people (Laarni especially with the really small kids, and me more with the teenagers and adults)
4. For people (particularly from an early age) to be led forward in following Jesus and in discipleship and to be given a foundation in the Bible and in their faith. (Those new to the faith should be taken care of within a fellowship or home group / church)
5. To pass on to others an evangelistic and missionary heart and to lead the way ourselves.
6. We want to help and encourage people to enter into their calling, become co-workers and leaders and follow God with conviction.
7. We want to try (on a practical level) to meet the needs of the poor and help them.

We know that we ourselves still have a lot to learn, but God has touched us with His love and we want to tell others about the love of God and help them to get to know Him and follow Him!