Iris Ministries, Inc.

Introduction

Iris Ministries was founded as a dedicated Christian missions organization in 1980, by Rolland and Heidi Baker. At first based in the United States, it encompassed short-term evangelism trips to the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, until in 1985 Rolland and Heidi moved to Indonesia. Eventually denied permanent visas (on the grounds that they were missionaries) Rolland and Heidi then moved to Hong Kong. Iris’s activities in Hong Kong were focused on the care and evangelism of residents of the poorest and most crowded slums. After four years, Rolland and Heidi left the church they had planted to enroll in graduate studies at the University of London. While in England they planted another church, Believer’s Center, and continued to work especially with drug addicts, gang members, and the homeless.

In 1995 Iris Ministries relocated permanently to Mozambique, where it remains headquartered.

Chihango to Machava

Upon arriving in Mozambique, the Bakers - along with a small team of Iris staff from England and South Africa - were offered charge of the Chihango center, a previously government-run orphanage forty minutes from the capital of Maputo. Conditions were bleak. Nearly thirty years of on-and-off warfare with the nation’s borders had left it an enormous population of orphans, with countless others living in extreme poverty. Government aid was nearly nonexistent. At Chihango - which Iris was later told represented the government’s best national effort to date to care for homeless children - food was scarce, living quarters stark, and medical care all but non-existent. The most “incorrigible” children from street gangs were often brought there as a last resort. Physical and sexual abuse were common. A very large proportion of the children were infected with STDs. Thievery was to be expected, especially from the officials in charge. Efforts at education were insignificant.

On one of Heidi’s first visits to the orphanage, she gave away an open bag of potato chips from her truck window as she prepared to leave. This began a miniature riot. Children instantly attacked one another, tearing at the bag. They bit and clawed in the dust for the last of the chips. In the mostly empty buildings, roofs had collapsed onto bare concrete floors. Chihango displayed all the most terrible realities of the developing world, but Iris had also found what it had sought, a place where it could make the greatest possible difference in the day-to-day lives of those who had lived as the unwanted.

Upon Iris’s takeover of the center, there were about eighty children resident. Conditions began to improve quickly. A local church was planted. The spiritual response from the children and many in the community was enormously enthusiastic. Dilapidated buildings began to be renovated. God provided more than enough food, every day - which at times required various miracles of finance, unsolicited aid from strangers, and occasionally of supernatural multiplication. The Iris staff began to take in more children from the streets, and before the end of the second year there were three hundred and twenty at Chihango. Despite story after story of extreme neglect, most of the children began to show a remarkable joy in short order. They worshiped enthusiastically, and they prayed sincerely. Many met the Holy Spirit, and began to manifest healings, visions, and many other spiritual gifts.

While all these things occurred, witch doctors often chanted curses around bonfires at the property’s edges at night, and the echoing sounds of AK47 fire, both far and near, were a frequent occurrence. Electricity was sporadic, and maintaining access to clean drinking water was difficult. Many thousands of dollars worth of goods were stolen over the passing months. Bureaucrats obstructed paperwork in an attempt to acquire bribes. Corrupt police and displaced ex-soldiers stopped vehicles constantly for much the same reason, extorting bribes for trivial or invented violations. Burglars broke into the property repeatedly. The staff at Iris underwent many muggings, and some were supernaturally rescued from lethal threats on more than one occasion. These were relatively small difficulties compared to what was coming.

As Iris was to discover, the former administrators of the Chihango center had been removed unwillingly from their post. Prior to the U.N.-mediated ceasefire and elections in the early nineties, Mozambique’s government had been Marxist, and elements of the old paradigm - explicitly anti-religious, and insisting on centralized control - still survived amongst a few officials. The former administrators had met with some of these middling officials and convinced them to try to oust Iris, despite previous agreements.

One day, men came to the center with legal documents mandating that Iris cease all of its religious activities, as well as any “unauthorized” distributions of food, clothing, and medicine. Two days were given for all Iris staff to vacate the center, should these conditions not be accepted. Any property remaining after that time would be confiscated. Heidi Baker was informed that she personally could not re-enter the property. It was also said around the community that a contract had been put out to kill her (for twenty U.S. dollars.)

The former administrators, knowing that Iris would have to refuse these demands, were already positioned to resume control of the center - along with the many improvements that had been made in their absence. No one could say what would happen to the now greatly increased population of children, who would be left without foreign resources and subject to greedy, corrupt guardians. With no other options, the Bakers and the rest of Iris’ staff were forced to pack and move out immediately. They left exhausted and in great anguish. The children were immediately forbidden to pray or to sing any of the worship songs they had learned. Many more of the activities they had enjoyed came to a sudden stop. They missed their friends at Iris, the long-term staff and the short-term visitors. They greatly missed Papa Rolland and Mama Aida. So when they next entered the big dining room, which had also been used as for church meetings on Sundays, they simply began to sing praise and worship songs at the top of their lungs. They were beaten and chastised for this, but in the end they absolutely refused to accept the changes. They would take their chances on the streets rather than live under such rules.

One by one at first, and later in groups, almost all of them left Chihango and began to hitchhike and even walk the many hot miles back to the city. Since arriving in Mozambique, the Bakers had been renting a small, single-story house in Maputo, where relatively stable power and access to the post office and other government buildings made for a workable administrative center. Staying there now, uncertain of their future in Mozambique, the Bakers suddenly found themselves surrounded by a swelling crowd of children who wanted to stay with them and worship God, no matter what. There was no space for so many, but it was unthinkable to turn them away. Dozens began to camp at the house, cheek-to-jowl out into the little concrete yard under tarps, and their numbers were growing fast. Iris’ people began scrambling to find some sort of emergency location for the children to stay. Two small Christian missions heard about what had happened, and volunteered to keep groups of children in some of their unused buildings for up to three months. Their offer came just in time. Everyone who had fled from Chihango found shelter, by a slim margin.

At one point during the week after this exodus, with more than fifty children still packed in at the Baker’s house, food had run begun to run low. Nelda, a friend from the U.S. embassy, came to visit the Bakers, bringing a pot of chili for the immediate family. “I have a big family,” Heidi replied. Nelda protested that it she had only brought enough for the Bakers, but Heidi prayed thanks over the food and immediately began serving it to the encamped kids. The pot, brought to feed four, was not empty until everyone had eaten.

The situation continued to appear desperate for some time, but as the three months were coming to an end Iris managed to find some new, completely undeveloped land in a place called Machava. Some old army tents (and one big circus tent) were provided, and practically overnight, a new village of children sprung up where a week before there had been only grass and trees. It was even more basic than Chihango had been, but it would do for the time being - and the children were overjoyed. Iris’s little community had prayed long and hard for water, both in spirit and in the natural. Very soon, a new well was dug at Machava, yielding fresh, clean water. Iris now had an abundance of both kinds of water.

Always Enough

By the end of the third year in Mozambique, Iris had acquired and lost one major center, begun a new base from the dirt up in Machava, and now purchased a new compound at Zimpeto. Zimpeto lay at the outskirts of the capital, close to what Heidi calls her favorite church: the bocaria, Maputo’s largest dump, where crowds of the poorest scavenge mountains of trash for a scant living. Many of the greatest miracles Iris has witnessed occurred there. Many circumstances at this time remained difficult, but all the most bitter setbacks - of which there were many more than can be told - were balanced by extraordinary wonders and the manifest presence of God. If they had not been, it is doubtful anyone at Iris would have had the strength to stay.

One such event, which has permanently shaped the values of Iris, occurred when Heidi, exhausted in the midst of the Shihango struggles, flew out to a Christian renewal conference in North America. She was in especially desperate need of renewal, exhausted by the work and the responsibility of over three hundred children to whom she was their "Mama Aida." Finances were tight. Two doctors had just told her she absolutely could not make the trip because she had a serious case of pneumonia. But being incredibly stubborn, she boarded the plane anyway and flew more than thirty hours to the conference.

At the very start of the event God opened up her lungs and allowed her to breath freely. Each day after, amidst the constant worship, teaching, and prayer, her strength increased. She was to spend many hours receiving prayer from loving people on the ministry team. Heidi often tells of finding it difficult to be still and receive after years of speaking and teaching, but this soon became a deeply healing time for her, and soon she could scarcely move. One night, she began to feel like she was having birth pains, and lay groaning in intercession for the children of Mozambique. She began to see them. There were thousands coming towards her. She cried, "No, Lord, there are too many!" Then she saw Jesus, and felt him say, "Look into my eyes. You give them something to eat." He took a piece of his broken body out of his side and it became bread, and she began to give it to the children. Again Jesus said, "Look into my eyes. You give them something to drink." He gave her a cup of the blood and the water that flowed from his side, and she gave this to the children to drink. The Lord spoke to her heart and said, "There will always be enough bread and drink, because I paid the price with my life. Don't be afraid. Only believe." She returned to Mozambique much strengthened.

Ever since, one of the absolute core principles of Iris is to offer a home to any child found in Mozambique without a family, regardless of finance or other circumstances. The numbers grow. Today Rolland and Heidi cry out for a continuation of the visitation of God experienced by the children of H.A. Baker's orphanage in China long ago. More testimonies are now accumulating than can be written - but the great story of this rising generation of children is just beginning.

Growth and Current Events

Iris experienced explosive growth throughout the late 90s and 2000s. As more and more children found Iris, and more outreaches were successful in the bush, people in Mozambique began asking Iris for pastoral training. Pastors long isolated in the countryside requested conferences, and when they occurred people walked incredible distances, sometimes for weeks, to gather at them. Hundreds, then thousands of new churches sprang up, and many old ones became affiliated with Iris. In the west, many more churches also began to hear about events in Mozambique, inviting Rolland and Heidi to speak in nations around the globe. Foreign volunteers came in increasing numbers.

When Mozambique was rocked by catastrophic flooding in 2001, Iris’ far-scattered network of rural churches was one of the most reliable remaining ways to communicate and gather information in the central part of the country. It was a terrible time, and despite a sudden influx of international aid, many thousands died both in the flood and in the ensuing food shortages. Iris, however, was positioned to work extensively in the temporary refugee camps, and was able to feed many more thousands beyond its usual numbers. There was also enormous spiritual hunger amongst battered survivors, and a great outpouring of the Spirit met them. Most of the international attention moved away quickly, but Iris remained with many more to care for, and much new growth to steward.

Children’s schools (including several of the top-ranked schools in the country), bible schools, and clinics began to open under Iris. An international school for missionaries opened in the mid-2000s. When the Zimpeto children’s center had been moderately well established, Rolland and Heidi left it in the capable charge of Steve and Ross Lazar, and moved permanently to Pemba in 2004. A coast city in the far north of Mozambique, Pemba was surrounded by unreached tribal groups, with a strong Muslim element. Today, the “unreached” part is fast dwindling. Virtually no outreach to a new village leaves without being asked to come back and build a church. Muslims are converting in significant numbers. Lately, a number have been led to Iris churches by dreams of the Lord Himself.

As churches swelled and community outreaches grew apace, Iris began to expand into other nations, opening bases along similar models. As of this writing, Iris is active in fifteen nations, and is still growing. As expansion has proceeded far faster than all initial expectations, Iris is hard at work to develop effective, spirit-led new organizational capacities to serve the movement God is now leading. Our coherence thus far has been entirely miraculous: all told, Iris Ministries currently feeds well over 10,000 children a day, as well as various members of many other communities, currently including 4000 families in Malawi. Its network of churches also numbers more than 10,000, including 1,500 churches among the largely unevangelized Makua people of northern Mozambique. Iris operates five bible schools, in addition to its three primary schools and the school of missions. Current major projects include continuing outreaches to very remote coastal regions via Iris’ recently acquired boat, expansion of Iris’ air transport abilities, investment in a range of cottage industries, and a special well-drilling initiative - Iris, having recently acquired a drilling rig by special, generous funding from several U.S. churches, intends wherever possible to create a well for every village in Mozambique which still lacks one. One by one.

Many more projects are under consideration. National leaders are rising with wisdom and power, and many new nations beckon beyond. We believe that all the best is yet to come. May the Word of God spread in power to the remote corners of the world, and may the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, people who have never before tasted the goodness of God, be drawn the King's great banquet!