Emergency and Latest News

Report on Rolland's Health, May 29, 2009

We want to thank all of our family and friends around the world for your love and prayers for Rolland and all of us over the past many months. Rolland has been living in Pemba and receiving care from some amazing youth who have come to us over the years from the streets and many missionaries who have all pitched in with meals and hugs and help of all kinds. Rolland has truly been honored by so many who have walked with us at one time or another over the years. He has been spending his days resting and has truly been enjoying praying for many, watching Holy Spirit touch many and minister to hearts.

Medically speaking, we still face some major challenges in the days ahead. Tests conducted by the physicians have reported minor damage to cells within the brain believed to have been caused by two serious bouts with malaria and perhaps a series of small strokes. After much prayer, we have decided to take Rolland to a clinic in Germany that specializes in a blend of intense prayer and medical and nutritional remedies. These friends are a very loving and caring team who are praying for wisdom from Holy Spirit. They truly believe we will see a very good recovery. At present, Rolland's physical suffering is intense, and so we covet your prayers.

Many of our dear friends have been asking us how they can help cover Rolland’s growing medical costs. We are greatly touched by these expressions of love and offers of support. Nothing is impossible with Jesus! We have set up a fund within Iris for those who wish to give specifically for Rolland’s care and recovery, which has been titled “Iris Medical Mercy Fund”. We will keep you updates on the progress we are making from time to time! Rolland and I remain continually encouraged by the lives of the thousands upon thousands of laid down lovers pouring out continually to Jesus and to the poor!

Heidi Baker

US Office Address:

Iris Medical Mercy Fund

Iris Ministries, Inc.

PO Box 493995

Redding, CA 96049-3995

Email:  irisredding@earthlink.net

Phone: 530-255-2077

Link to Support Webpage

News from Pemba, May 23, 2009

Elder, Brian, Lorena, and Tufa

Dear Friends of Iris,

God is moving in the hearts of many children at the Pemba base. Some of you may already know that we feed the children lunch every day from the surrounding village. Jesus has shown Heidi that “love has to look like something.” These children come from very poor families, and in this culture’s pecking order, the kids receive last priority on everything. So, our program targets children up to age 13. Many are hungry, but in more ways than one. When my husband, Brian, and I arrived at the Pempa base in June 2008, we, along with some Harvest Mission students, started teaching regular Bible lessons each day to this group of children as they waited for their food. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” With help, we’ve continued this program (similar to “Sidewalk Sunday School”) five days a week and seen incredible growth in these precious children. The numbers have grown as well, from 300 in June to the current 800 or so. Just this week, a new building was completed and dedicated for the program as well as for teaching God’s Word to the Iris Elementary School. It’s positioned at the top of a hill, which Elder, our Mozambican co-worker, now appropriately named “Mount Sinai”. He comments, “The Word of God is emphasized each day, just as God gave his commands to Moses, and Moses passed them on to the children of Israel. Likewise we pass on God’s Word…”

We trust and pray that His Word and Spirit will grow these children into mighty warriors for His kingdom. Already we are seeing fruit. The following is a testimony from one of the children, translated from Makua, the local tribal language:

“Hello, My name is Tufa. I’m 10 years old and I’ve been going to this program for about seven months. I’m thankful to God for His love and bringing me to this place where I can learn about God and the Bible. I’m thankful because He’s changing my heart. Here I’ve learned how to talk to God. Before I didn’t know how to pray. But now I pray every night before I go to bed. I used to be tormented by evil spirits in my room every night. I couldn’t sleep. But then I learned about God here and I started to pray. Now the spirits don’t come any more. My parents are happy that I’m not afraid to go into my room.

Recently I lost my school uniform blouse at the playground. I started to pray. Then when I went back to the school, I found it! I’m thankful to God for His love, in answering my prayer. “

In conclusion, I asked Tufa, “What is the most important thing you’ve learned here?” She answered, “To listen to the Word of God and follow it.” I was so excited to hear this answer!

Elder is our Mozambican translator and much more. God has placed a deep desire in his heart to see children come to Christ all over Mozambique. He hopes to attend the internship program with Metro Ministries soon and envisions training many leaders for children’s ministry in the future. God has gifted him tremendously in this area and we feel so privileged to be able to work with him. Following is his brief testimony about the children’s feeding/teaching program.

“What is the best thing you’ve seen come out of this program?” I asked Elder. He answered, “Kids knowing who is the true God and seeing their lives change.”

“Before, the kids who came for lunch each day had no respect, no love, and no obedience. Now I, and many others here, see a change in them. They know the love of Jesus, they sing, they talk about Him, how He is the way, the truth, and the life. They will help impact the villages where they live. It’s fun to be with children that want to know Jesus and accept Him. I love seeing their faces – they have peace and joy. These children are seeds in the community. I believe when they grow, they will produce large trees where others will come and eat the fruit under their shade.”

Because of your donations, we are able to continue feeding this multitude of children every day. On behalf of all those families and the Mozambican team that helps us daily with both the teaching and feeding, we thank you for remembering the poor. We consider it such an honor to be here and minister to these dear ones. Every story and lesson is brand new to them! Most are illiterate or read very poorly, so what they hear is received with eager, hungry hearts as they learn more about their Heavenly Father each day. Thank you for helping us meet both their spiritual and physical needs. God bless you.

Much Love!

Lorena and Brian Wood

Rolland and Heidi Baker

UPDATE to Emergency Prayer Request for Iris Ministries, Evangelism Boat, Pemba Mozambique, 15 May 2009

Dear Prayer Partners,
Thank you for your fervent prayers and for your many notes of encouragement. Here is a fresh update from Don Kantel in Pemba:
Everyone returned safely from their boating adventure...although Heidi and a few others had quite a harrowing journey back (including a ride in a fishing boat, whose engine then quit...then in a tiny dugout canoe...followed by a long walk through a village in the pitch dark...wet and cold!).
The ailing boat has been towed back to Pemba. It seems the salt water which incapacitated the bilge pump has also damaged the electrical connections to the engines and the batteries. Our boat mechanic will begin assessing the situation today.
Heidi is very grateful to all our friends who joined forces around the world in prayer to avert more serious consequences.

With Love and Blessings, Don Kantel, for Heidi, Rolland and all the Iris family

Emergency Prayer Request for Iris Ministries

Evangelism Boat, Pemba Mozambique, 13 May 2009

Dear Prayer Partners,
This emergency prayer request has just be relayed to us by Brian Wood at the Pemba base: Heidi and Rolland, and a team went out today (Wednesday, May 13, 2009) on an evangelistic outreach to the area of Londo across the bay from our Village of Joy Pemba center. Londo is the unreached area that we have been sharing about over the last couple of months.

Upon arrival off the shore of Londo, the boat experienced mechanical difficulty. The engines will not start. The waves are extremely high today so water has been entering the boat with each large wave. The pumps do not currently work. If the water continues to enter the boat faster than it can be removed, the boat could sink. Three team members stayed with the boat, which must be anchored about a half a mile off shore because of the shallow reef.

Most of the team members, including Heidi and Rolland, have been taken to shore on the outreach dinghy.

We need your prayers! Please pray with us that everyone will be safe and that the Lord will miraculously save our evangelism boat.

Latest news from the frontlines

Following are emergency and latest news items from the frontlines. Some missionaries and Iris leaders do newsletters that may be presented in whole or part when they present a unique current perspective or testimony expressing the Kingdom. Some editing will be done to remove items not relevant to the Iris audience at large or to clarify for those who may not know the author.

March 19, 2009, From Heidi Baker

Greetings from Iris to all our friends and family around the world; blessings, joy and peace.

As another wonderful outreach in the north of Mozambique concludes, I want to thank all of our amazing donors once again. Your love for the poor and your remembrance for the downcast, the orphan, and the widow are enormously appreciated. Without your generosity, it would be impossible for us to continue reaching the lost and feeding the hungry. You have a great part of all the fruit from this Iris family.

We have just returned from ministering in some of the northern coastal villages, where a deaf mute was miraculously healed on the first evening. As always, it was a truly awesome experience. Everyone in the village had known this person, so the healing was greeted with widespread excitement, exuberant cheering and clapping. Now the whole village wants to follow Jesus!

We stayed at this village overnight, and began our next day fresh at 4:30 am, when the whole village awakened. That morning we held a beautiful wedding at a church in a mud hut. The church family and all the local children sang and danced loudly in celebration of this couple’s union. After that, we went to visit people in their homes and pray for the sick. God continues to do glorious miracles among us! So many people were hungry for spiritual food, we might almost have forgotten how hungry they were for natural food — but after breakfast we also saw children scraping out the bottom of our pans after the pastors and visitors had eaten. The Lord again put it strongly my heart that love looks like something. So we prepared lunch, and everyone in the village who was hungry came and ate. We left solar-powered audio Bibles and a soccer ball, then we had to leave for another village.

The next village was one we had planted a church in several years ago. The pastor there has been through two training sessions at Iris, and is doing well. No words are enough to thank you all for helping us train these young, motivated Mozambican leaders! We won’t stop until every village and tribe is reached by the unending, bottomless, ceaseless love of Jesus. His love compels us. We have been so blessed by your ongoing generosity — God bless you all! And we ask you to remember us in your prayers.

Now I would like to share another story, one that is really close to my heart. In part it is about the boat that took us on our outreach, but it is really about Tenacious Love.

One day my husband, Rolland, was flying me in our little bush plane over a certain area of Mozambique. I noticed that there were no roads at all, but I asked Rolland to take me as low as the plane could possibly go, and when he did I looked down and saw village after village passing below me. And I started sobbing! I was sobbing because there were no roads, and it seemed like there would be no natural way for me to get to those people. I was weeping because I have read the Book, and I know my God — I can’t imagine anyone on this planet not getting the opportunity to know this beautiful Savior! I can’t imagine not doing everything I can to give them the chance. I wept and asked God what I should do. And He said, “get a boat!” So, we began to pray and believe for a boat.

For two years I was told again and again how impossible it was to get a boat to Pemba. Likewise, many of you reading this are chosen and called by God for great tasks, but there may be a lot of people telling you why you cannot go, why it is impossible for you to do what God is telling you to. They may try to explain it to you in detail. They may quote books about what they think we cannot do, and what they think God cannot do. I have read those kinds of books. But the Book tells us what we can do! I know my God, and if He says “get a boat,” He means that we should really get a boat.
So — we got a boat!

The government said that we could not bring it into the country without paying a seventy percent import duty. God provided, and I said, “Here is the money; give me the boat!” No one is going to stop me! Actually, I got really angry at the devil. How could he think he could possibly stop us? When you are in love, you are unstoppable!

It took two years and ten days for the boat to finally get here. On the way, while it was being hauled overland on rough roads, the transporters damaged the hull and put cracks in both the engines! At one point the donors who had paid for the boat came to see us, and it was still just sitting, waiting for repairs, covered in dust and dirt in the backyard of a non-Christian man who owns most of the city. Their investment was not looking very impressive. I thought, “God, this is not what I had planned.”

Sometimes it is like that. It looks like your vision is in the camp of someone who doesn’t even know God. It looks like your vision has been captured and carried away. It looks like it is full of dust, covered over, and without any fuel. And yet God says: “Believe what I said! And do not stop!” Love is tenacious. Faith is tenacious. Love doesn’t give up, even when the engines are toast and you have to pay seventy percent duty! Do not stop short of your promise. Do not stop short of your destiny. Do not stop short of His glory.

I had to keep searching for somebody to fix that boat, and even some of the people I love most told me repeatedly that it could not be done. Finally, I found a Filipino man who said he could repair it — but it took another year just to get the parts!

After that, I was told that the hull was too deep, and I wouldn’t be able to get close to those villages because their coasts were so shallow. So I asked them to get me a dingy. I was told, once again, that this couldn’t be done. For some reason we couldn’t get a dingy in Mozambique. But I was convinced that there surely must be a dingy available somewhere! I had seen them! Someone said to me, “You just don’t stop, do you?”

I cannot stop! Everybody needs to know! Every tribe, every nation, every tongue! I am a woman possessed by His heart for the lost. Wholly possessed by the one I am in love with!

After another few months, they finally found me a dingy somewhere. And the day we finally took the boat on our first outreach, one of the engines blew. But the other one worked!

Of course it would have been nicer to have two. But since we had the one, I told the captain to keep going. When we got to that first village, by boat and then by dingy, everyone who lived there came running to us. And I was able to tell them that I had come with good news!

I shared every word that I knew in their tribal tongue of Makua. They had never heard the name of Jesus before that day. We sat in a little carpenter’s shop, which consisted of a few sticks and a ripped piece of plastic, and shared all about Jesus while some of the villagers made furniture. Everyone came. I shared, I sang, and I gave them some little solar-powered audio New Testaments in Makua. When I asked them who wanted to receive Jesus, they all said yes!

What if we had stopped short? What if we had given up?
Do not be stopped by difficulty! Never stop short of what God has promised you! He has a destiny for you.

A few months later we went back to this little village, and even before I had the chance to get out of the dingy, almost the whole village had run up to me, singing songs and quoting scriptures they had memorized from their solar Bibles! What a joy! God has made Himself known to this village, which had been totally forgotten by the outside world. We are now in the process of building a church and a school there, the first of either that this village has ever seen.

What a privilege we have, to share the gospel about Christ Jesus! Oh thank you Jesus! We get to be part of bringing people into His presence! We get to give our little lives. Without Him we are just dry twigs. But He calls us to fruitfulness, to intimacy, and to fearless, tenacious love. Whatever it costs… we count it all joy!

Love and blessings,

Heidi Baker

U.S. office for mail, support and information:
Iris Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 493995
Redding, CA 96049-3995, USA
Tel: 1 530 255 2077
Web sites: <www.irismin.org> www.irismin.com
Email: admin@irismin.org

Iris Ministries Canada
3092 Shannon Crescent
Oakville, ON L6L 6B4
CANADA
(905) 847-7749; fax (905) 847-7931
Web site: <www.irismin.ca>
Email: info@irismin.ca
Contact: Janis Chevreau

Iris Ministries (UK) Ltd
PO Box 351
Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1WQ
UNITED KINGDOM
Web site: <www.irisministries.co.uk>
Email: info@irisministries.co.uk

Iris Ministries South Africa
730 Dikhoorn St.
Moreleta Park, Pretoria
SOUTH AFRICA
Tel: 27 12 998 8220
Web site: <www.irismin.co.za>
Email: irismin@absamail.co.za
Contact: Peter Wheeler

February 23, 2009, News from Rolland and Heidi Baker

The Lord has been speaking to me about the process we are in as a movement. I feel that many in the Body of Christ are going through similar things. Because the Lord values intimacy with him above any other thing and longs for us to bear much fruit, He prunes us.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing”.

In love, Father God cuts away every branch that does not bear fruit in us. It is an excruciatingly painful process. It hurts, and at times we feel like there is nothing left of us. It is, however, the only way we will ever get to the place of supernatural fruitfulness that flows from intimacy. I feel the Lord calling us to a more intense place of clinging to Him, to remaining in His love and to a radical obedience. He longs for His joy to be made complete in and through us. Again He calls us to an unending and unstoppable love. The kind of love that calls us to lay down our lives for Him and those around us. He is calling us to a deeper friendship with Him. In the midst of global crisis and intense shaking there is only one place we can run to: The deepest place of His heart.

Again, I feel the Lord shifting my schedule; reminding me of what the most important things are: Deeper intimacy with Him and with those he has called me to serve. He is reminding me of how all this began and where I need to remain. First, we are called to love God powerfully, deeply and intensely. Secondly, we are called to love our neighbors in the same way. Relationship is of critical importance to God. His main concern is neither what we do for Him, nor how much we do every day. Rather, he asks the question: “Have we done what we have done in love, through love, and for love?”.

We have just had the incredible joy of seeing a new life birthed into our Iris family. Jacinto, my Mozambican spiritual son who has grown up with us for the last 14 years, and his wife Katie, a missionary and spiritual daughter of mine, gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy yesterday. His name is Micah Samuel. This child was born out of their loving union. Both Jacinto and Katie were needed to bring forth this beautiful child. The labor was long and hard but seeing a healthy child born is, with out a doubt, one of the most profoundly beautiful experiences on earth.

John 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

I believe Iris and much of the body of Christ is in a time of labor. The presence of God is with us in the midst of our toiling and pain. He never leaves us for a moment. It's time to push. It's time to breathe. It's time to push. It's time to bring forth a a spiritual child. In the end the joy of birthing spiritual children will be greater than anything we have ever hoped for or imagined. The miracle of new life.

Phil. 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Much Love in Jesus,

Rolland and Heidi

Thank You! We have been blessed!

Followed by reports from base centers in Pemba; Zimpeto; Lichinga; and Chimoio, Mozambique; Iris Madagascar; Iris Sierra Leone and Iris Sudan

Heidi teaching at the Pemba Mission School, Bethel Prayer Center

Rolland continues to be a favorite at the Iris Harvest Mission School

God has been blessing us at Iris. We wanted to send you some testimonies from a few of our Iris bases around the world. We are so thankful that you care, and bless us to continue this awesome mission. Because you have walked with us, we have taken in and educated even more beautiful children, reached more villages with the love of Jesus, drilled more wells and trained more pastors. There is so much happening we don't know how to share it all. Our heart’s cry is for even more of Jesus’ love and presence to be poured out among us. Thank you for being a huge part of the Iris family!

A spectacular bush outreach scene by photographer Jared Kohler

I want to share with you some of the highlights from my Mozambican Christmas week. Bouncing down a road, dust flying as we hit incredibly huge potholes, my heart was filled with intense joy as I sang and prayed with our Mozambican children in the truck. We were on our way to share the love and power of Jesus with another village. We performed our impromptu drama and preached a message. Before long, people were clapping all through the crowd, receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I went around to the back of the crowd with friends to pray for the blind and those too sick to make it to the front. After the first blind lady was healed, they started bringing more blind people to us. God healed them all! I will never grow tired of this! What a privilege to be alive right now.

Heidi passing out donated Christmas gifts to the children

A container arrived from Iris UK after years of preparation and we opened it to discover enough fabulous Christmas presents for all of our children at the Village of Joy in Pemba! White teeth glistened and eyes full of wonder appeared as our children received their beautiful gifts. For our new treasures, this was the first time they had ever received a Christmas gift. I hope you enjoy the pictures and share our joy with us! There were enough gifts for every child. The house parents and missionary parents were with me as their special kids opened their presents. We all had a blast!

Harvest Bible College and Harvest Missions School graduation was also a highlight for me. I sobbed as Rolland was awarded an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree. All the students and children stood and cheered as Papa Rolland was honored in such a powerful and meaningful way. Dr. Don Kantel appropriately ended his speech with a charge to go "lower still". Students from all over Mozambique and twenty other nations laid their lives on the altar as they were commissioned to go the the ends of the earth and carry the glory as holy given, laid down lovers of Jesus!

Baptism with Chad and Shawn assisting in the Indian Ocean

We had a powerful Holy Spirit baptism time in the turquoise Indian Ocean, with Makua and Makondi converts willing and longing to die to their old lives and be resurrected to the new as they followed their Lord Jesus in baptism.

Some of our extended family at Pemba wave and thank you

Rolland and I want to thank you for standing with us in this amazing revival. We have had a challenging year and have had some painful times as well, including laying off 160 of our Iris staff. We continue to press on for the goal. We love Jesus more then life. We appreciate how you continue to sacrificially give during such challenging times. The fact that you love and care for so many you will not see until eternity fills our hearts with His passion and purpose. You are awesome, and we love and appreciate you!

Pemba Base (Submitted by Don Kantel)

The focus of this report is harvest, natural and supernatural. It may seem a little late in the year to be thinking about harvest, but harvest, both spiritual and material, is our year-round focus here at the Pemba Base and in our many ministry centers surrounding Pemba.

The Harvest, Down on the Farm

Some of our chicken and egg farmers, Mieze Village near Pemba

At the nearby village of Mieze, our residential children’s village and our wider ministry into the whole Mieze community continue to be a source of much spiritual fruit. But part of what brings delight to the 40 resident kids in the “Village of Love” these days is enjoying the fruit of their patience and labors in our farming projects. For example, we currently have a fourth cycle of 400 meat chickens almost ready for the table. And that’s a harvest that is now eagerly anticipated by these young farmers for whom a chicken dinner is the best reward imaginable.

We’ve also been feeding and caring for 80 laying hens which arrived as day-olds six months ago. Six months is an eternity in a culture where planning and working for the future is a rarity. But right on schedule, the first eggs appeared a couple of weeks ago. The kids were so excited and couldn’t wait to show them off. Several hundred eggs later the kids are still excited to retrieve every egg that’s laid. They love hard-boiled eggs and are gradually being introduced to other egg dishes. Eggs for food are a rare luxury in rural Mozambique and our kids and staff are very thankful for the blessing of God they are experiencing through this bounteous harvest.

Our Mieze goat herd of 40 very young goats bought last March are now beginning to reach maturity. That will mean baby goats. The first arrived two weeks ago and has become quite a pet for the resident children! Milk and much-coveted goat meat are in the weeks ahead. More harvest!

On our 40-acre Mieze farm, the mango harvest is just beginning. We have over 50 large mango trees laden with delicious fruit, and this harvest will continue for about three months. A church in Ontario recently took a special offering to “buy” the yield from the farm during this harvest time so we could give it away instead of having to sell it. So we’re now supplying quantities of mangos to hundreds of Mieze children through the church, as well as providing mangos for kids at the Pemba Base and the adjacent Noviane Project.

We have just begun to divide the open farmland into half-acre plots for assignment to church families to grow produce for food for their families and to sell. A portion of what they harvest will be given back to the church for distribution to the poor and for use in the children’s village. This “church co-op” will be an interesting farming experiment. And we look forward to many kinds of harvest resulting in the months ahead!


The Harvest, Spiritual Bounty

The Iris Pemba Base is surrounded by nearly 50,000 poor villagers, almost all of another faith. One of our challenges over the past few years has been to develop effective ways of reaching villagers, especially kids, with tangible expressions of the love of God. We’ve had various kinds of food programs but hadn’t been able to combine these very effectively with Christian content until recently.

Our Christian primary school has been our first successful sustained effort. About 580 village kids attended this past year in addition to about 130 resident Iris kids. We had to turn some village kids away due to overcrowding. Now we’ve added three more classrooms for the new school year which begins in late January.

In the past few months, we have begun a daily program of Bible teaching, stories, games and a hot meal for village kids at the Pemba Base. This is a high-energy program, conducted mostly in Makua, involving many staff and helpers each day for an hour and a half. We’re now getting close to 600 kids out every day! Many have already accepted the Lord, are praying, and are even having visions of Jesus! More and more of these kids are also now coming regularly to our Pemba church services, where we’ve also just begun to have a separate children’s hour. Then we feed 800 or more children plus hundreds of adults every Sunday following church.

The Mieze Bandeira Club for children

We’ve recently been training leaders from Mieze to run a similar village children’s program there, as a Saturday-only program. This new program is being attended by well over 300 enthusiastic children. We’re trying not to let the word get out too widely because we don’t presently have covered space for more until our new church and community building is completed in five months or so! The first week, we had prepared rice and beans to serve an expected 150 children; and yet all 300 or more received a full serving. God seems to like doing that for these precious Mieze kids!!

Finally, after many months of planning and praying, it looks like we may be about to acquire some property on Ibo Island to begin our next major project based on the “Mieze Model.” This will be a challenging new initiative for many reasons. We’ll write more about this in a future report.

For information and pictures describing the “Mieze Model” for village transformation please see http://web.mac.com/kantels For pictures and updates on the new adaptation of the Mieze Model in Noviane village, please see http://www.irismin.ca/nmohsp

Zimpeto Base (Submitted by Steve and Ros Lazar)

Our new baby house nursery expansion

The baby house has been over full, so we have built a nursery for

8 babies under 6 months old.

Our Maracuene youth project continues to expand. There are now 10 houses and 23 youth there plus a blossoming church. Samaritan's Purse Ireland has helped us build a carpentry workshop which will be equipped and running in early 2009. This hopefully will provide both skill training and employment for several youth.

Our new widow's home nearing completion

Pure religion is to minister to orphans and widows. We have partnered with Iris Canada and Homes of Hope to build our first widows house which is just above the property and will house 8 "elderly" women who will run our small farm and chicken project.

Washing feet and giving shoes...a blessing

We were blessed to partner with the US Embassy and Samaritan's Feet to give over 2000 pairs of shoes to 8 very poor communities, with every person having their feet washed, medical and dental attention, prayer and encouragement as well as new shoes!!!

Our re-integration team at Zimpeto

God continues to bless the re-integration program with about 20 children reunited with their families in the last week.

We continue to be challenged every day but God is faithful and generous to us in both pouring out His spirit and with amazing people and financial help.

Lichinga Base (Submitted by the Wilcox Family)

Dearest Family in Jesus, All Around the World!!

We thank you so much for your incessant prayers for us in our little corner of Mozambique. The locals consider the Province of Niassa to be "the forgotten Province". During the war, it was the "Siberia" of Mozambique. To here, the despised, disabled, unemployed, prostitutes, and you name it, were sent.

Now Jesus is taking that which is despised and making it into something great! He takes what is "small" and "unattractive" and turns it into something beautiful, so that "from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My Name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My Name, and a pure offering; My Name shall be great among the nations," says the Lord of Hosts. (Malachi 1:11)

Victo and Anold pictured with their evangelism motorbike

God has given us two precious brothers, Victo and Anold, who have been evangelizing local villages with a great passion. They provide this recent testimony of the power of Jesus.

Victo and Anold sharing the gospel from our Lichinga Base

Victo and Anold found themselves ministering to a mad man and his family. The family was at a loss of knowing what to do with this nephew of theirs. Their solution was to tie him up and keep him in a dark little room to prevent him from beating others. He could not speak sensibly and all that came out of his mouth was nonsense. The witch doctors had been called for to begin applying their traditional medicines.

"But all this is not working!" the uncle explained to Victo and Anold, "My nephew just gets worse and worse."

Victo began to share truth. "The evil spirits that are in the witchdoctor are friends of the witchdoctor, and they work together. Darkness will never flee from darkness! Light causes darkness to flee!"

When the family was met with the challenge of choosing to believe either in God's power or the witchdoctor, they admitted they were too afraid to remove the traditional medicine that had been placed around the mad man's neck.

"No! The madness that has come upon him could be transferred to us if we take off the necklace and burn it! It's better to call the witchdoctor himself to come and remove it."

Anold and Victo said, "We believe that our God will never allow this madness to come upon us. He has power and He protects us. If you would like it, we can take off the necklace ourselves and burn it."

They did, and the family watched these men of God, Africans like them, walking in the authority of Jesus Christ, sure that the evil spirits the people here live in fear of, had no power over them.

"And they have seen we are perfectly fine!" exclaims Anold triumphantly, "Nothing is wrong!"

We prayed for the mad man and encouraged the family that he would be well. Since that day,the Lord has been doing an amazing work in this young man's life. The family recognizes it is God! He has been set free from bondage and is simply recovering now from all he went through, both physically and emotionally.

A week later, Peter Wilcox went to visit this man and was thrilled to see him in his right mind. Neither was he tied up anymore!

"You must arise," Peter told him. "You must make a decision in your heart and mind to overcome because the Lord has great things for you. He loves you very much and has a plan for your life. Do you understand?"

The man nodded, "I understand."

We praise Jesus for His awesome power and His liberating love! Please pray that after seeing God's hand in such a miraculous way, both the family and the young man will give their hearts to this Jesus who set him free from from demons. May all fear of what their neighbors might say, flee away in the light of His glory.

Iris Madagascar (Submitted by Caroline Thomas)

Caroline holding one of the Malagasy babies

At the end of last year, I really felt God leading me to Iris Ministries to do the mission school this past summer. I learned so much and really enjoyed spending time with the children. During the last two weeks of school, God began speaking to me about my future. Heidi challenged us one day in class, that if we were prepared to lay our lives down for Jesus, if we felt like we had to answer His call to missions, to come to the front and ask God to show us His plans. I went up and as I began to pray I had a vision of a room of abandoned babies, lying in rags in the darkness, still, cold and silent. I began to cry and ask God to give me these babies. One by one the babies started to die, first one, then another, until they had all died. He then showed me one more vision of a baby being left in a dumpster and abandoned at night in the dark. I cried and cried and begged God to let me have them, that wherever they were, please, could I go to them and please, could they live and know that they were loved.

When I opened my eyes with my face soaked with tears, sitting in front of me was one of the precious little Iris girls, only nine years old. She grabbed me and just held me. I heard God whisper then that she was sent right then as a prophetic sign. I would get to hold the children, that they would live and know love, and that just like I was holding her, I would hold them.

The next day in worship, God took me back into the room of dead babies. I didn't want to see it again. But He said to me "Caroline, look up!" I looked and above the room was a shimmering translucent heat haze. Jesus said, "the Holy Spirit is here, He's hovering above the room. Just sing over the babies".

I started singing over them. As I did, the Holy Spirit swirled throughout the room and totally transformed it! First, windows opened up in the dark room and sunlight flooded in. The room vibrated with bright color, the dirty rags disappeared from the children and they were dressed in beautiful clothes like princes and princesses. At the same time, they came back to life. The babies started moving and smiling. They became chubby and started waving their little arms in the air and laughing. It was a total transformation. I again had tears running down my face as I said "But Jesus, I didn't even touch them, I didn't do anything!" He said, "exactly, it's not just about holding them and feeding them. I want you to know that as you pray over them and sing over them, that it's me who is going to transform these babies back to life".

Heidi was teaching that day. At the end of class she said that she felt like the day before people had seen pictures of their future, of God's calling for them, but that they didn't know where, and if that was you, and you wanted a country and a city, to come up and pray and ask God where this place is. I was up at the front like a shot! I asked God where these babies were, and He said, "Madagascar!" I could hardly believe it since Madagascar is the country that I love, having previously spent six months there as a midwife! I felt like God was saying to start an Iris base there, as this was the DNA of Iris, to save abandoned babies and let God restore them back to life. I spoke with Heidi about it and she said that she'd been praying for someone to go to Madagascar for years! So after speaking with her and some of the long-term staff at Iris, we decided to start Iris Madagascar with a baby house in Madagascar!!

I had already booked a ticket to Madagascar on the way home from Mozambique to visit my friends there. So, I used this time to ask them all that I could about abandoned babies. They all told me that babies were abandoned in the capital, and that they had heard of babies being abandoned in dumpsters and being left to die. Many of the orphanages are currently full, which leaves no where for these babies to go, so there was a big need for a baby house there!

I am in the process of setting up this baby house, God's baby house where He can restore His precious babies back to life and they can know that they are loved. I am working on the paperwork to get Iris registered, praying in money and getting a team together. I would really appreciate prayers for these three things, especially on getting the right team, the team that God has chosen for this very special and exciting work!

Chimoio Base (Submitted by Jennifer Wenningkamp)

What a major blessing for the city of Chimoio! Since 8:00 p.m. last night, the skies have been filled with rain clouds. They have stayed over the city and rained. Praise God that he heard so many simple prayers lifted by our Mozambican friends for their small crops that were beginning to wither in the African heat. Now, we have the joy and blessing to share that God has answered our prayers as one united body from all around the world.

Iris Sierra-Leone/No Boundaries International (Submitted by Andrew Sesay)

When I started the Beach Road Church, I was led to teach them about the Holy Spirit. After teaching them how to pray for the sick to be healed, they people believed it. They are going all around and seeing the sick healed. We have many testimonies of how God has healed people in this three-month old church.

Emmanuel saw a young lady of another faith in serious pain from a chronic headache and asked if he could pray for her. While praying, he felt something moving from his hand, but nothing happened and he went on his way. Weeks later, he saw her again and she related what had happened. After the prayer, she felt dizzy and went to sleep and had a dream that a man in a long white robe came and performed surgery on her. He split her head open and removed something and when she woke up, there was no more pain. She was completely healed.

Iris Sudan (Submitted by Michele Perry)

Mama Michele with Victoria Joy in the Sudan

• We have grown from 63 children to 84 on compound at Yei Children’s Village. Plus, we adopted a second center on the border of Kenya with around 10 more children.

• We began an "In Community Care" program to care for orphaned children within their extended family structures when possible to do so through providing various degrees of assistance with schooling and food. We have around 40 children we are caring for in this way.

• Bricks of Hope has helped us to raise over 60% of the needed funds for the initial development of our land. We are scheduled to move onto our land the first week of January 2009.

• We now have multiple churches we have planted and regular outreaches. There are several more churches that we are partnering with in our newly formed Iris Sudan Revival Alliance to disciple leaders and unite for prayer and intercession, joining our hearts and voices to see God’s dreams come to pass.

• Our long term missionary team is growing! God has provided Jennie-Joy, a precious gal to be on my personal administrative team and there are several more on their way coming to serve in different capacities.

There is so much more to tell you and thank Jesus for but I have run out of space! So, I will refer you to my online i.journal for more stories from Sudan and my journey into His heart from this past year at www.lovehasaface.blogspot.com I thank Jesus for each of you and
love you more than I can say!

From Heidi, November 21, 2008

We are so thankful that you remember our Iris tribe and us. Holding a chubby baby God placed in our care on Sunday with perspiration dripping down my face, dancing up a praise storm with leaping children all around, I was reminded of why we are here.

Lying on a grass mat worshipping the Lord, praying with one of the girls I brought home from the garbage dump years ago, reminded me of why we are here. When we got her she had five STDs, major anger issues, and she had never known what it was like to sleep in a bed or feel safe at night. She just turned fifteen and celebrated her birthday with all her sisters at our house Sunday. There was a huge slumber party, lots of chocolate cake and singing and life all around us. Watching our children, old and young, crawling up on the bed and laying hands on their Papa Rolland praying for his healing, drawing him pictures, reminded me we are family -- and our Father has brought us together. Walking through the mud hut village just above our Village of Joy, dedicating a shoe project and hugging hundreds of children in our village feeding program reminded me of why we are here.

Teaching our Harvest Missions School and Harvest pastors and watching them open their hearts and dedicate their beautiful lives to bringing the lost home to the Father's house, reminded me of why we are here. Thank you for believing in us, supporting us and this ministry. Thank you for praying for us, and making it possible for us to be here. We are so blessed to be here for such a time as this!

School is out. This is the challenging time of year where we reintegrate our children into the local towns and villages. We have a desire to build seven houses for our older youth all together in Maputo province. God has strongly put it on our hearts to plant a church in the capital city where we could minister to the hundreds of street children and also reach out to the educated youth of the city. We have a heart, we have a powerful team, we have a vision - and we found a building! Now all we need to do is purchase the building.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Please keep praying for us and this ministry. We are so privileged to be alive to see what we are seeing now. We love what God has entrusted for this ministry to do. Thousands are coming to Jesus every month. Orphan children are being brought into our villages weekly. They are finding out they are adopted by Father God as they meet His Son Jesus. Wells are being dug bringing fresh water, and children and pastors are graduating from our many schools. Thank you again for being such a very important part in all this.

Much love in Jesus,
Heidi

From Dr. Don Kantel, our Pemba director:

A recent miracle in the neighborhood of the Iris Pemba Base has made Jesus the increasing focus of people's attention.

A widow in the area had been ill for several weeks. When her condition suddenly became more serious, her five children and a number of Iris believers gathered at her house and were praying through the night. About 4 am, she died. While the children began to prepare for her burial, the believers -- led by one of Iris's construction leaders, Mossa Calisto -- continued to pray. A couple of hours later, the woman opened her eyes and sat up. She told them she had been with Jesus and he had given her an hour to return to earth to settle her affairs and make provision for her children. She busied herself with these things...then she asked the people to leave the room, closed the door and died again! This account has been widely circulated and many are asking to know more about Jesus!

Under the supernatural anointing and favor of God, Iris Ministries has
expanded dramatically over recent years. Today, we are in at least 26
countries; we have over 7,000 churches; over 3,000 indigenous
evangelists and pastors have been trained and equipped through our five Bible schools; 1,000 students have completed our Iris Harvest Missions School; and we are feeding and caring for over 8,000 orphans and vulnerable children in several countries of Africa and beyond. But with all this growth, the core values and Mission of Iris remain the same as they were when Heidi and Rolland first began ministering in Mozambique in 1995.

The mission of Iris Ministries is to help bring the Kingdom of God to
all the earth...strategically and aggressively (Mt. 11:12), as God's
Spirit leads and enables us. And the three main ministry focuses through which we daily walk out our Mission are:

1) Evangelism, church-planting, and training and equipping of indigenous evangelists, pastors and leaders; 2) ministry to the poor (Is. 61:1) -- and especially to widows, orphans and vulnerable children; and 3) spreading the revival.

We'd like to share one recent strategic initiative growing out of this
statement of mission and priorities. It's a prototype for village
transformation referred to as the "Mieze Model" which has been developed in the village of Mieze near the Pemba Base in northern Mozambique. This model has evolved as the Holy Spirit has led and enabled us...with the clear purpose of replicating it in many other village settings over the next few years. Heidi and her team have prayerfully sought the Lord's direction for the location of the next center for development based on the Mieze Model and we expect to take the first steps within the next couple of weeks. The Mieze Model has already proved a compelling and tangible expression of the Father's love for "the least of the least" and is a brilliant, God-given strategy for establishing his manifest presence in the life of a traditional African village.

For a comprehensive overview and pictures of Iris's Mieze Model for
village transformation, please see http://web.mac.com/kantels

June 4, 2008: From Heidi, on the wedding of Crystalyn Baker and Brock Human

Thank you for your love and prayers. Rolland and I had a spectacular
time at our daughter Crystalyn and Brock Human's beautiful wedding in Redding, CA. God's presence was so strong as He smiled down on us with a "Mozambican" African blessing of rain during the ceremony! In our culture, rain is a sign of God showering us with His love. We lifted our hands to Jesus, worshipping to the song "Oh How He Loves Us" as God kissed the ceremony in a most precious way.

All of my Mozambican sons and daughters were thrilled at the news of
rain. In our nation, this is a sign of God's tears of joy. Not only did
God smile on us with rain, but He also came in power. Crystalyn was a
gloriously stunning bride. Brock's love for her touched me deeply. Since she was in my womb, I have been asking Jesus for a husband who would adore her with a marriage full of joy. God has answered my prayers.

Our family felt the beautiful love of dear friends who ministered with
their gifts of service and prayer. Rolland prayed a powerful father's
blessing. Sue McDonald planned the wedding in the most amazing and
anointed way. With her team, she spontaneously moved a reception to a house that was loaned to us at the last minute. Our son Elisha was a very handsome groomsman. Georgian and Winnie carried the most joyful, full of the Holy Spirit reception as we all danced together. Che, Shara, Stacey, Beni, Kris, Lesley, Juanita, Vera, Denise, Brock's parents, Chad and Julie blessed the bride and groom with prophetic prayers. Dr. Tim and Virginia sang a beautiful Hebrew song to the bride and groom. We are so grateful for such astounding love poured out on our family.

Twenty-eight years ago, Mel Tari was Rolland's best man in our wedding. This day, Sunday, May 25, he served as the perfect M.C. After decades of documenting our life of friendship, Joyce Tari put together a touching DVD collage of pictures set to Brock's original worship songs.

I am now home in Pemba planning for Christy and Brock's second
celebration in Africa. We expect three thousand guests including the
poorest of the poor. I flew home to Mozambique to also celebrate
"Children's Day" with over a thousand extremely happy children. My great joy was to go to each child living in our Village of Joy and pass out presents. I felt our Heavenly Father's love celebrating each one's life. Our Mozambican aunties, uncles, cooks and missionary team worked for weeks preparing for Children's Day. In both my own daughter's wedding and our glorious Mozambican party, I felt so thankful for how our lives have been enriched by God's unending love as well as the love of our family and friends who work together to bring His presence on earth as it is in heaven.

Thank you for holding up our family and for remembering the poor.

Much love in Jesus,
Heidi
--

From Heidi on the wedding of Crystalyn Baker and Brock Human

Rolland prays a powerful father's blessing.