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Heidi Baker's Miraculous Ministry

BIRTHING THE MIRACULOUS
For many years Heidi longed to witness healing miracles. She received a promise from the Lord that the blind would see. For a year she prayed for every single blind person she found, but not one of them saw. Then one day it began to happen. She prayed for an old blind lady named Mama Aida who received her sight. That night she prayed for an elderly woman also named “Mama Aida” and she too began to see. The day after she visited a third village and a blind woman was led through the crowd for Heidi to pray for her. The woman’s sight was restored and her name was “Aida.” “Mary had to wait nine months for her promise to be birthed. Sometimes we must wait years to see what the Lord has spoken come to pass,” shares Heidi.

One day God gave Heidi a vision of freshwater wells and a particular church. “When God tells us to do something while we are in his presence, we need to respond,” reveals Heidi. She felt Him call the ministry to drill wells near the churches. Two well-drilling rigs were purchased through Iris Global. Almost immediately they lost the keys to the first rig. Then the only trained engineer left because his visa was revoked. For two years, the rigs sat there. Then a friend told Heidi about an engineer from Georgia named David. He came to Mozambique and drilled the wells because God told him to. Later he shared with Heidi that he never even finished high school. He had a company, and they did drill, but only sideways. Thousands of people are now drinking fresh, clean water because one yielded vessel said yes.  Today an engineering team continues to dig new wells in Mozambique.

One night after ministering to a village in the bush, people were healed, saved, and delivered. The next morning a witchdoctor named Nachuha came with his girlfriend, who was also a witchdoctor, into the village. He arrived with three venomous snakes. Nachuha wanted to disrupt the celebration, but God had other plans. Heidi prayed and talked to them. She shared with Nachuha what the Lord told her, “You are tired of the darkness...come into the light.” Nachuha agreed he was tired of the darkness. Heidi told Nachuha they would have to kill his snakes so, they dug a hole and burned them. Nachuha and his girlfriend then came to Jesus. “There was suddenly this peace around them,” shares Heidi. As Heidi and her team were praying for them, Nachuha began looking at his hands. Venom and blood began to ooze out of his hands because he had been bitten so many times in the past. God completely healed him! Heidi asked Nachuha and his girlfriend if they wanted to get married and be baptized once they were set free from the witchcraft. They agreed. Later Heidi learned that Nachuha was hated by everyone in the village. The village was amazed as they witnessed Nachuha’s transformation. Today Nachuha is enrolled in Bible school and his wife has been healed from leprosy. Heidi says people often ask her why she sees so many more miracles among the poor than among wealthy, comfortable westerners. She says, “The answer is simple: The poor know they are in need…They stay desperate. They stay hungry.”

THE SECRET PLACE (GOD’S PRESENCE)
“If we want to fully walk out the callings the Lord places on our lives, we must spend time with Him, cultivating intimacy in the secret place,” shares Heidi. Moses knew the importance of dwelling in God’s presence. He told God, “How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?” (Exod. 33:16). “As we abide in the presence of the Lord, our hunger increases, and we find ourselves birthing glorious new life,” shares Heidi. When she is home in Pemba Heidi says she likes to swim out in the ocean, “It is one of my favorite ways to get into the secret place.”

EARLY YEARS
Heidi grew up in a privileged environment in Laguna Beach, California but always loved Jesus. She had an experience at the age of about 16 that set the course of her life. Rolland was inspired by his grandfather who was a servant-hearted missionary in China and at the center of a revival that still influences the underground church in that nation more than 50 years later. Heidi and Rolland were married in May 1980. Two weeks later they left for the mission field with simple instructions from the Lord, one-way tickets and thirty dollars in their pockets. They went to Asia and founded Iris Global where they worked with the poor in the slums of central Jakarta, Indonesia and central Kowloon in Hong Kong. Jackie Pullinger’s work among the drug addicts was a major influence in their lives. Heidi and Rolland spent 12 years in Asia and saw thousands come to Jesus. In 1992 they left to do their PhDs at Kings' College, University of London, but could not stop ministering to the poor.

In 1995 they were drawn to Mozambique, the poorest country in the world at the time. They were offered a horribly neglected and dilapidated orphanage with eighty miserable orphans in rags. Alone and without support, they took over the center. Within months the children were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, weeping while still in rags with gratitude for their salvation. Jesus provided miraculously as the children prayed night and day for their daily food. Eventually, with help they improved the center and took the children to the streets to testify to more orphaned and abandoned children. After they got up to 320 children, the government evicted them and denied the children permission to pray and worship on the property. The children marched off the property barefoot without a home. Heidi and Rolland lost everything, but they were only beginning to taste the power of God in Mozambique. Land was donated by a nearby city and they received tents and food from South Africa. Provision came in from supernaturally touched hearts all over the world. Soon Heidi and Rolland were able to build dorms for the children. Bush pastors longed for a Bible school, and to receive what the children had received from the Holy Spirit. Graduates went out and began healing the sick and raising the dead. Church growth in the bush exploded all across Mozambique’s ten provinces.

Throughout their ministry Heidi and Rolland have endured poverty and hardships. They have been shot at and stoned. They both suffered life-threatening illnesses and were healed by God. Indeed, miracles of healing and provision are a daily feature of their lives in Mozambique. Heidi and Rolland are quick to testify that all of their success flows out of intimacy with Jesus.
                    
IRIS GLOBAL
Iris has over 36 bases in about 29 nations led by teams of missionaries and local leaders. In Mozambique, Iris Global has networks of churches in all ten provinces in Mozambique in addition to their bases in main cities. Church-based orphan care and children’s centers are located in certain areas, not every providence. In recent years they have concentrated on a people group who were listed by missiologists as “unreached and unreachable.” With tremendous help from missionaries and nationals, around 2000 churches have been planted among these people in the last eight years.  Heidi is now “Mama Heidi” to thousands of children, and oversees a broad holistic ministry that includes Bible schools, medical clinics, church-based orphan care, well drilling, primary and secondary schools, evangelistic and healing outreaches in remote villages and a network of thousands of churches.

Iris Global officially began the 'Stop for the One' program beginning of 2009. The initial goal was to create a sponsorship program. Heidi’s hope is to care for one million children who have been stuck in a cycle of poverty by ministering to them, feeding them, and helping to support them in their communities. Since then Stop for the One has grown into to a movement, connecting like-minded people around the world.

ROLLAND’S HEALTH
In October of 2015, Rolland began experiencing another round of health issues. As a result he has not been able to travel. Rolland had a similar battle with his health a few years ago, when he contracted cerebral malaria. He took several months off and made a full recovery. After several years, some symptoms of the illness returned. Currently, he is on leave for a year.  He will have to complete a few medical tests before returning to work full time. Heidi is happy to report, “Rolland has made a powerful recovery.”

Mentioned in the Video

Guest Info

Guests
Credits

Author, latest, Birthing the Miraculous, (Charisma House, 2014)

Co-founder Iris Ministries

Missionary to Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and London

Started missions work in Mozambique in 1995

Founded over 7,000 churches and care for over 10,000 children

Oversees a national Bible college

BA & MA, Vanguard University in southern CA

PhD studies, Kings College, University of London

Husband: Rolland

Adult children: Crystalyn and Elisha

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