Remarkable revival, Mozambique

We are just about to send around 1,000 books in Portuguese to Iris Global (formerly Iris Ministries) in Mozambique. This shipment encompasses a mixture of Christian titles, including books from the Explaining series. We are so pleased to be able to help this inspiring ministry; indeed, the story of Iris Global is a remarkable one...

Heidi and Rolland Baker began Iris Global (previously Iris Ministries) in 1980, and have been missionaries for over thirty years. The Bakers are at the forefront of a massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Mozambique and south eastern Africa that has seen thousands come to Jesus.  

For many years, Heidi and Rolland had longed to go to Africa in fulfilment of their calling to prove the Gospel in the most challenging situation they could find. Rolland was a third-generation missionary, born and raised in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He was greatly influenced by his grandfather, H A Baker, who wrote Visions Beyond the Veil. Meanwhile, Heidi had been powerfully called at age sixteen when she was living on an Indian reservation in Mississippi as an American Field Service student.

They both wanted to see a continuation of the miracles of the Holy Spirit seen amongst the orphans depicted in Visions Beyond the Veil, and believed that the most likely place to see such revival again was probably also the most unlikely place. So, they were drawn to Mozambique, officially listed at the time as the poorest country in the world.

A few days into an initial visit to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, Rolland was offered a terribly neglected orphanage that no one could or would support. The Bakers offered to take over the centre and provide for the 80 children there in return for the opportunity to bring the Gospel to them. Within months, the children were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. But abruptly, after their orphanage reached 320 children, the government evicted the team and denied the children permission to pray and worship. 

All seemed lost, but God was at hand and provision came in as a result of appeals from all over the world. That was just the start of the revival, which was fuelled by the desperation caused by catastrophic flooding in 2000. As Rolland explains, “A cry for God rose up like we had never experienced or imagined, and our churches across the country multiplied into thousands. God provided a bush airplane, which we used constantly to spread the Gospel through remote bush conferences at dirt airstrips in every province.”

Today, Iris Global has networks of churches and church-based orphan care in all ten provinces in Mozambique in addition to bases in main cities. The organisation also has centres across the world including in South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Brazil and Madagascar.

If you would like to find out more, please visit: www.irisglobal.org.uk

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