This baby boy, blind from birth with eyes white and clouded over, was healed in a flash before many hundreds of Mozambicans, missions school students and visitors. This took place in a cement floor, tin roof Iris church in Mieze, near Pemba, where we now have a thriving community of believers who, in their mud huts, have been experiencing a stream of healing miracles these past few years. There we have a school, a children’s home and a church bursting with Africans thrilled with their perfect Savior! This is a resting place for the Holy Spirit, who loves to show up there with great power and joy!

Our bases in Pemba keep growing, hosting a community church for thousands, a Bible school, a missions school, a children’s center, a primary school and housing for hundreds of missionaries, students, staff and visitors. We are inundated with foreigners from dozens of countries, which is just what the Holy Spirit ordered, and hearts from around the world are being shaped for ministry to the poor. We are in a Kingdom vortex of supernatural activity, a sovereign work of God that sweeps us along in refreshing wonder and awe.

Of course we are also tested and refined to the uttermost. Wherever God is active there are responses and reactions of all kinds, and some fail the test and fall by the wayside. Spiritually we are deep in enemy territory, sustaining injuries and casualties, and keep getting threatened with our ministry’s annihilation. But our demise is greatly exaggerated, and we move from glory to glory as we learn through our hardships to trust God, who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:8-11).

The dead are still raised, the lost are still saved, the hungry are fed, the lonely are in families, the simple are taught, the poor and hopeless dream dreams, and love, peace and joy increasingly reign. All this is His workmanship, and He is able to finish what He began. He is perfect, and will perfect us!

Our Bible school for bush pastors remains a joy to us. Our students come to us for three months out of every year for three or four years, and by then they are truly immersed both in the Word and the Spirit. And then we have our fifth-year students, whom we call our “MMs” — Mozambican missionaries! These are humble, mature, solid, fervent carriers of the Gospel, God’s answer for this country, and their testimonies are a thrill to hear. Joy, visitations, healings, salvations, transformations of all kinds flow from them. We are so proud of them; they should be teaching our foreigners, including us! Here is one of our heroes, Pastor Adriano, who has been used along with many others to raise the dead.

Our school of missions in Pemba, called Harvest School, runs twice a year for ten weeks at a time, and each time results in an intensely close, joyful, filled-up, free and released family of potential missionaries eager to lay their lives down for love. We pray for power to accommodate and respond to all the interest and hunger coming from around the world. The place to learn missions is on the mission field, where every day we can put into practice what Jesus puts in our hearts. May He call many from this rich pool of lives to help us finish the task Jesus has given us of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace in the neediest places we can find around the world.

Thank you!

With all our special relief and development projects going on, we need to express our great debt of love to all of you who support our massive regular commitments to feed, house and minister to thousands in our African family already under our care. We have huge monthly budgets at all our main bases, and it is absolutely and amazingly supernatural that so many around the world are sensitive and generous enough to keep us going financially. We love and bless you, and are glad for all that will accrue to your account in the Lord!

We are also intensely grateful for so many of you who have taken on the ministry of intercession for us as we face many serious spiritual confrontations, crises and physical challenges. We know that the fruitfulness of our ministry is in answer to the love, faith and prayers of our Iris family around the world. Truly we are a family, not a business, management exercise or political campaign! May you be richly, overwhelmingly blessed in return! Stay close! More soon…

Much, much love in Jesus,

Rolland and Heidi

The Land Rover is slow and top-heavy, but utterly practical for us. Our big, heavy, flat roof rack easily handled all our tents, sleeping bags and other overnight gear. Its long-travel coil spring suspension takes us almost anywhere over deep ruts and mud. This is our missionary machine, and our teams drive lots more like it. Outreaches like this are the mainstay of our ministry, and we are used to our weekly routine. But what God does on these outreaches is anything but routine. In the face of all Mozambique’s problems, deep revival has been taking root all over this northern province we live in now. The devil can accuse of all kinds of faults and weaknesses, but we just boast in all these (2 Cor. 12:9) and revel in the sheer power that God has displayed among us in recent years. We are pleased with His workmanship, and extremely encouraged. It is obvious that this transcendent power belongs to God and does not come from us (2 Cor. 4:7).

Our outreach began Thursday, two days ago. First we sent out two big 4-ton flat-bed trucks covered with canopies to carry the main group of our visitors and Mozambican ministers. They haul our sound system, projection screen, generator and whatever else we need. All our equipment is all banged up and dented, covered with dirt, but it keeps working. This is Africa! Our team is treated to the sublime experience of bouncing for hours over rough roads cooking in the heat sitting on the hard floor of these trucks, but it’s a privilege not to be forgotten.

That group arrived late in the afternoon and right away put up a little tent village, so curious to rural Mozambicans not used to such conveniences. All they need is a grass mat! But our teams need privacy, so up they go. Then every time our intrepid revivalists hook up a generator, sound system and video projector, with a whole village excitedly flocking around anticipating another Iris night under the stars with God as the center of attention. It’s hard anymore to find a village where we haven’t already ministered. We’ve been coming to this village for three years now, and every time we keep adding to their understanding and experience of the Gospel. With around two thousand churches among this one tribe, we are excited and awed by what has happened.

We arrived after dark. We could spot the glowing screen from far off, and the Jesus Film is showing yet again. We have memorized it now in fine detail, but the whole village was out again to see it once more, mesmerized and motionless. Many can’t read, but they will never forget the film. It’s just amazing how that sound track has been produced in so many languages, even in Makua here at the end of the earth…

It was really dark, but for the light of the projector. No moonlight, but millions of stars. These villages have no electricity, flashlights or batteries. Visitors looked spooky with their glowing LCD headlights nodding around, and startling flashes went off from their ubiquitous pocket cameras… But by now our African friends in this village know about our teams, and they are good sports. The end of the movie finally came, Jesus rose in the air, the disciples bowed in worship, and we turned on our floodlights, which really strained our generator.

Heidi jumped to life, her cute, rich voice ringing out in Makua and Portuguese, to the great delight of the people. Jesus is alive, He’s here, and we can have the best night ever with our Perfect Savior! Preaching to crowds like this is always exhilarating! Our team energetically acted out the story of the Good Samaritan in a little drama, which makes a permanent impression in this culture. Heidi kept preaching, and like always here the people universally responded with shouts of joy, upraised hands and eager desire for more. It seems like everybody wants Jesus among these people, once considered so dark and unreachable. Most want the Holy Spirit! Most want prayer! Most want better hearts, more love and joy, more of His Presence. We are not ashamed of enthusiasm; meetings are to us a time for emotional release, a gift from heaven, African-style! And the Holy Spirit backs us up…

Many wanted healing prayer, so our team spread out and laid hands on the sick. The needs were relatively minor, as we’ve already been to this village so many times. It’s hard to find blind and deaf people anymore around here, a real problem(!)… But one man was healed completely who was hard of hearing in one ear, and totally deaf in the other. In recent years we’ve seen a stream of people healed of deafness, nearly every week!

The villagers were thrilled and encouraged once more by another visit by foreigners from far away. It always amazes them that people will travel so far and spend so much money to come and bless them. They know we come with no ulterior motive, and they feel loved. And they return the love by giving us their best, in the form of food after the meeting! That night we brought with us our usual spaghetti and tuna fish, but they trumped that easily with their gourmet bush chicken. Really, we’ve never tasted better. And they explained how they do it. First, you have to kill the chicken. Very important. Then you pluck it ‘n gut it, yes, yes. Toss it in the pot over the fire and stir: cha-cha-cha-cha… Then when it goes schhhhhhhh, you know it’s done. And the amazing part: they know how to add flavor. They come up with everything — incredible! Tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices, on and on, until they come up with an unreal sauce that we can’t get enough of! How do they get all these ingredients in the bush far away from Albertsons? They are so proud to explain. And we love it. They put out a whole big plate loaded with white mealie cakes, and we just launched into the chicken pot and kept dipping away into the rich reddish-brown yummy juice. They do it with goat too, and it’s awesome! But eating like this is really rare, saved for absolutely the most special occasions.

Finally at midnight we got into our tents, zipped them up tight and tried to kill every last bug around us we could with the spray we always bring. I thought I’d read the Bible and write some on my iPad, but was way too tired. That was enough Kingdom work for one day.

The day starts early in the bush. At the first glimmer of dawn village kids excitedly crowded around our tents to see what might emerge. Sure enough, out came bedraggled foreigners with mussed up hair and makeup, trying to find toothbrushes and the outhouse (one fell in, but amazingly stayed on the outreach anyway). Soon we got collected enough to brew Starbucks coffee, and started serving tea and sugar with bread and jam to our little foreign and national family. Under our overhanging thatch roof, with our view of the lush, wild African landscape before us, we felt satisfied and at home. This is missions!

No village outreach is complete without meeting with the chief, agreeing to build another school and planning where to drill a well! So we did that next. Then we had morning church. We always want to make the most of our visits. Our Iris church buildings are usually just humble mud-and-stick huts with dirt floors and a tin roof. This one was badly damaged by a wind storm, and half the roof was ripped off. No matter, a whole group of us gathered excitedly in our lowly bush tabernacle to enjoy the Presence of God together. Spine-tingling African drumming is de rigueur for our meetings, with energy and dancing to match. Soon a flood of children poured in as well, and we didn’t swat them off as so many do in Africa. We put them in front, and ministered to them too! We grown-ups have to learn to be like them, or we won’t even get into the Kingdom… And so our unlikely revival spot in the bush pulsed with the life of heaven so lacking in many staid Western churches…

We preached, making the Gospel as clear as possible yet again, emphasizing always the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit that comes by faith in the power of the Cross. We worshiped and prayed. And the Holy Spirit fell on many visitors, missionaries, pastors and even the village chief himself. God graciously fills us with more love and joy than we can express, according to our faith and desire. May God have no competition in the bush of Africa; may He be the greatest pleasure in the lives of these saints around us, who trust so simply in their perfect Savior. We revel in His power to deliver us safely into His heavenly Kingdom, and be with us all the way…

A critical ingredient of our bush outreaches is discipleship time with a select group of local believers. This time Heidi sat outside under a tree with the village’s leading Christians, by now her close friends, and taught quietly and unhurriedly from the Scriptures. This is always an extremely valuable time, the highlight of an outreach in many ways. Earnestly and hungrily everyone was asking questions and seeking all the more understanding. Many have already been to our Bible school in Pemba, but they keep pressing on to the best yet. Our aim is far more than feeding or numbers, but to “present everyone perfect in Christ” (Col. 1:28).

While Heidi was teaching, our team members spread out all over the village to visit the people in their huts and to pray for the sick. The villagers are so touched by these visits by teams with such love, and in turn visitors are deeply impacted by the reality of extreme poverty — and also the faith and joy of people who have almost nothing but Jesus and each other. Their spirits well up with a generosity that could only come from heaven.

Our outreach was climaxed by a gourmet lunch, again proudly produced and offered to honor us to the max. How can we respond to such golden hearts? Yes, we are seeing revival, with a simplicity and purity that are breathtaking. How did we deserve the privilege of being here and witnessing God at work like this? Godliness with contentment is great gain, and our people are at peace, and yet the very same time we have so much more to look forward to in the future. Those who have, Jesus said, will get even more. Mozambique is headed onward and upward!

On the way home we got another taste of revival in this land and what God can do if our focus is on His Son. We stopped at the government’s local prison, where the Holy Spirit has been breaking out under the ministry of Ania Noster, a long-time Iris missionary and close friend, and Ezekiel, an ex-prisoner. The prison interior was grim, dark and claustrophobic, as expected. A few prisoners were still locked in their dirty, miserable confines, but most gathered in a long, narrow hallway with high, out-of-reach windows for security. On entry, though, we were greeted with shouts of praise, and then with one voice the whole prison reverberated with fervent worship. We joined them, standing and transfixed, as all these “dangerous offenders” sang their hearts out with joy, energy and enthusiasm to the King of Kings. Jesus was obviously now their real reason for living, the hope of their lives, the joy of their salvation. Rarely have we ever seen such powerful evidence of a change of spirit. The prisoners shook our hands, hugged us, laughed and cheered as if they were having an absolutely great day, which they were! And they seemingly could not stop worshipping. This is the road to transformation, the cutting edge of revival: the One who died and rose again on our behalf! He is the perfect personification of the love and power we all need, and only our faith in Him will overcome this world.

The atmosphere in that dark, horribly depressing place was extraordinary, under the circumstances. In the same way, His presence in our most difficult times is all and everything we need. Our hope in Him is secure, our future safely protected and reserved for us… We may be in prisons of many kinds, but we have a Deliverer!

After the prison we drove the last twenty minutes back to Pemba, stopping just for fruit and snacks at a roadside stand. I was really itching and uncomfortable with so much stacked up on my lap. I could hardly move. What a full day. I couldn’t wait for a shower and a cold Coke. And a good snooze. Another day in the life of Iris. And another day of eternal life! On we go to the best yet! In Jesus the best is always in the future… Stay tuned!

Much love in Jesus,
Rolland and Heidi

For å komme til bildegallery: http://www.irismin.org/photo-gallery/view/december-2010-gallery

UiOs kvinnearbeid i nord India ble startet for 5 år siden, og er bygd på et profetisk ord om at vekkelsen vil komme som en respons på ropene og tårene fra kvinnene i nord India. Vårt første skritt var en liten lederkonferanse for UiO kvinner, og siden har arbeidet i nord India vokst jevnt og trutt. Fra den årlige kvinnekonferansen i Delhi har vi sett flere regionale kvinne konferanser vokse fram, mange nye bønnegrupper og lokale nettverksgrupper bli etablert, små hjelpe prosjekter bli startet opp med mer.

Hvor går vi??

Gud ønsker enhet, sannhet og nærhet mellom kvinner i nord India, både blant kristne og ikke kristne. Vi som lederskap har startet med oss selv, og ønsker å være både en profetisk røst og en modell for hva Gud ønsker å gjøre gjennom dette arbeidet. Som arbeid har vi kommet opp med følgende beskrivelse av vår visjon:

”Å utruste, trene, tilrettelegge for og forløse kvinner i deres gudgitte gaver, for å se samfunn bli påvirket og forandret til en refleksjon av Kristus gjennom Guds kjærlighet.”

Vi arrangerer nå hvert år i Februar en 3-4  dagers konferanse, hvor vi samler hovedsaklig kvinner som jobber i UiO nord India. Vi samles til fellesskap, dele erfaringer, undervisning, bønn og lovsang. Kvinnene kommer med stor tørst og forventning til Herren, og vi kan se hvor stor innvirkning den årlige konferansen har på dem og deres familier.

Vi som er i hovedkomiteen trener opp en ledergruppe av kvinner fra forskjellige steder, som fungerer som lokale kontaktpersoner for arbeidet. Deres hovedoppgave er å inspirere de lokale nettverksgruppene, jobbe for enhet blant kvinner og mye mer. De blir gitt opplæring i å lede møter, undervise, planlegge konferanser mm, og det har vært en stor glede for oss å se mange av dem ta ansvar for og omfavne visjonen for kvinnearbeidet i nord India.

1 2010 skal vi holde 3 minikonferanser i sentrale byer i nord India. I Juli holdes konferanser i Kashmir og Varanasi, og i September i Delhi.

I løpet av de neste 2 årene  ønsker vi å starte 10 nye nettverksgrupper, flere mikrofinans prosjekter for å gi trengende kvinner et levebrød, og ikke minst starte barmhjertighetsarbeid rettet mot kvinner og barn.

Så langt vi vet finnes det ikke andre kvinnearbeid i UiO sørøst Asia, og vi ønsker å være med å inspirere og oppmuntre andre til å starte liknende kvinnearbeid over hele denne delen av verden.

Vi trenger din forbønn!

Som nystartet kvinnearbeid står vi overfor mange utfordringer, og vi hadde satt stor pris på om du ville stå sammen med oss i bønn for dette viktige arbeidet i nord India. Nedenfor følger noen bønneemner:

-         Be om visdom og innsikt for Hovedkomiteen som består av Nitu, Victoria, Yoya og Lone, og ledergruppen som er Shashi, Ester, Basanti, Alice og Poonam.

-         Be for våre minikonferanser i Juli og September 2010.

-         Be at kvinner i UiO og andre organisasjoner helhjertet skal omfavne visjonen for arbeidet blant kvinner i nord India.

-         Be om beskyttelse og videre vekst for alle våre små bønne- og nettverksgrupper her i nord India.

-         Be om åpne dører til å nå ut til kvinner som ikke kjenner Jesus ennå.

-         Be om at vi skal få være til inspirasjon for andre kvinner i sørøst Asia.

Takk for at du vil stå med oss i bønn!!

Vennlig hilsen
Lone, Kvinnearbeidet i nord India

Siden den tid har det vært noen begivenhetsrike måneder for Saviours Home i Kiev.  Lora fikk en henvendelse fra fellesorganisasjonen for de protestantiske kirkene i Kiev med tilbud om å bli ordinert som pastor.  For, som de sa, hun tjenestegjør allerede sammen med sin mann som pastor, og de ville gjerne anerkjenne tjenesten og gi henne formell ordinasjon.

Organisasjonen har omtrent daglig besøk enten hjemme i egen stue eller så på senteret hvor et nytt barnehjem snart åpner.  De driver bibelskole for de minste barna, søndagsskole for barn, tenåringsklubb, kvinnegruppe og gudstjenester.  I tillegg engasjerer de flere frivillige til å følge opp gatebarn og besøke barnehjem og sosialsentrene i byen.

I forbindelse med jul og nyttår er alltid Saviours Home mye rundt for å glede institusjoner og sosialsentre.  Også denne høytiden fikk mange besøk med dukketeater, julenisse med gaver og mange spennende innslag.

Ny bil til Saviours Home

Enda en spesiell nyhet for oss i Kvinner i Nettverk:  Dere husker kanskje at vi samlet inn penger til ny bil til Saviours Home, den gamle Passaten var sliten og skulle egentlig vært byttet ut for en god stund siden.  Men Gud har sin timing, like før Saviours Home skulle starte opp med sitt juleprogram, fikk de kjøpe en nesten ny (3 år gammel) Mitsubishi Pajero 7-seter (god plass til 9 iflg Lora)!  Den har virkelig vært en velsignelse i vinter, og har allerede fraktet voksne og ungdommer, kulisser, dukker, kostymer, gaver, frukt og matvarer rundt til forventningsfulle barn.

Saviours Home har hjemmeside på russisk: www.saviorhome.org.ua

Total støtte til Saviours Home i 2009 har vært 102.000 kr.  Det består av månedlige overføringer på ca 6.000 kr, ekstra støtte til et gjerde rundt eiendommen hvor de skal sette opp et misjonssenter, ekstra støtte til medisiner og vitaminer i forbindelse med at Ukraina ble så hardt rammet av svineinfluensaen og noe støtte til besøket på kvinnekonferansen. Vi har 2 fadderbarn i Kiev med norsk fadder pr i dag.

Heidi Baker’s Uncomfortable Message to America

By J. Lee Grady – Charisma Magazine

Heidi Baker is challenging the American church to reject superstar Christianity and return to the simplicity of the gospel.

American missionary Heidi Baker is not a normal preacher. When she spoke at a conference last week in Ohio, she delivered half of her sermon while lying on the floor. She was clutching the microphone while her forehead was resting on the carpet.

“I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” she said, quoting Philippians 3:8. She interrupted her message several times with the high-pitched giggling that has become her trademark.

This was not your average, seeker-sensitive sermon.

A petite, 46-year-old blonde, Baker told the crowd at the Encounters Network conference in Cincinnati that those who want to be used by God in powerful ways must learn to relinquish power. She said: “God told me once, ‘I want you to come up to the lowest place.’”

Klikk her for å lese hele artikkelen på Charisma Magazine webside.

Heidi Bakers webside er: www.irismin.org