Heidi
Baker
Iris Ministries, Inc.
Pemba, Mozambique
5 April 2007
Years ago I had a vision of Jesus surrounded by a multitude of
children.
Jesus looked at me with His intense, burning eyes of love, and I
was completely undone. He told me to feed the children, and I began
to cry out loud, "No! There are too many!" He asked me
to look into His eyes, and He said, "I died that there would
always be enough." Then He reached down and broke a piece of
flesh out of His right side. His eyes were so magnificently beautiful,
yet His body so bruised and broken. He handed me a piece of His
flesh, and as I took it and stretched my hand out to the first child,
it became fresh bread! I gave the bread to the children and they
all ate. Then He put a simple poor man's cup next to His side and
filled it with blood and water. He told me it was a cup of suffering
and joy, and asked me if I would drink it. I drank it and then started
to give it to the children. It became drink for them. Again He said,
"I died that there would always be enough." Since that
day I have taken in every orphan child He put in front of me, and
have asked my co-workers to do the same.
For the next ten years I learned a lot about provision for the
poor.
With delight I have watched God place bread in our hands for the
children to eat. By His grace, every day there is somehow always
enough food. Since the vision Iris has gone from caring for 320
children to over 6,000. My heart is so full of praise and gratitude
to God for how He has blessed us with all these beautiful children.
I have stood in awe as God has grown us from a few churches to over
six thousand in ten years' time. Jesus has given us fresh bread
from heaven. We live to be in His glorious presence. He has poured
out His love to us without
measure. He has called us to bring the lost children home. I love
him more than life! Every breath is for Him.
In the last few days I have learned more then I ever imagined about
the cup of suffering and joy. Our nation Mozambique has been hammered
with floods, cyclones and monster waves. Pemba, Cabo Delgado, was
hit with cholera. Finally a few kilometers from our Zimpeto children's
center in Maputo, a large ammunitions dump blew up, spraying mines,
missiles and shrapnel for thirty kilometers around. Hundreds of
people were killed. Houses were leveled leaving the victims crushed
beneath the rubble. I have never seen such suffering as I have seen
in the last thirty days.
As I stood in the ruins of a house leveled by a missile and held
a weeping women in my arms, I drank of His cup of suffering. As
I embraced Marcelina, 14, Edwardo, 15, and Carvalho, 12, orphaned
by the blasts, I drank His cup of suffering. After driving all day
through the mud and potholes of Zambezia to minister and deliver
food to a distant village devastated by floods, I rocked a tiny,
starving baby in my arms and tried to find milk to no avail, and
I drank the cup of His suffering.
After arriving in Caia, a town with a refugee camp on the flooded
Zambezi River, I spoke to the director of a large non-governmental
organization as he was evacuating his workers and helicopters because
he could not get past all the corruption and red tape. I drank of
the cup of suffering knowing those very helicopters could have fed
many precious people stranded in the flood zones starving for weeks.
I opened my eyes wider still to see and drink the cup of suffering.
I also drank the cup of joy. God opened the door for us to provide
food for fourteen refuge camps in Zambezia Province. I drank the
cup of joy watching my Mozambican son, Norberto, lead the relief
effort for the province. I drank the cup of joy seeing the faces
of hopeless, desperate people run to meet King Jesus and thank Him
for saving their lives.
Worship of our beautiful Savior reached heaven in Zimpeto when the
children, co-workers and missionaries gave glory to God for sparing
their lives as missiles and bombs flew in every direction above
them and from the streets thanking Jesus for holding them in His
arms as the terror of the blasts continued all around them. Pastor
José spoke of the amazing opportunity God had given all of
them to worship in the middle of the frightening chaos. Missionaries
shared how they would gladly give up their lives to protect the
children, and I drank the cup of joy. We offered a home in our center
to Marcelina, Edwardo and Carvalho, and
watched their tears turn into laughter. God made a way to bring
the children into families. Truly we are filled with inexpressible
joy knowing we dwell in the shelter of the most High God. We rest
in the shadow of the Almighty. He is our refuge and our fortress.
We put out trust in Him. He covers us in His wings of love and we
find safety in Him. We have opened our hearts to Him and He is our
dwelling place. He loves us, He rescues us and commands His angels
to surround us. We have called on Jesus. We have acknowledged Him.
Trouble has come to our
nation, and we have opened our eyes and seen the pain. We have opened
our ears to hear the cry of the desperate, and so we drink His cup
of suffering. We drink His cup of joy knowing we can be His hands
extended in the midst of it all, and knowing He died that there
would always be enough.
Love in Jesus, Heidi
Rolland and Heidi Baker
Iris Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 275
Pemba, Mozambique
Internet:
Rolland@irismin.org
info@irismin.org
www. irismin.org (newsletters, photos, Rolland and Heidi's blog, etc.)
irismin.com (admin, more news, travel schedule, support info, missions
school, applications, products, etc.)
U.S. office for mail, support and information:
Iris Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 493995
Redding, CA 96049-3995, USA
Tel: 530 255 2077
Iris Ministries Canada
3092 Shannon Crescent
Oakville, ON L6L 6B4
CANADA
www.irismin.ca
info@irismin.ca
Iris Ministries (UK) Ltd
PO Box 351
Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1WQ
UNITED KINGDOM
<info@irisministries.co.uk>
<www.irisministries.co.uk>
Iris Ministries South Africa
730 Dikhoorn St
Moreleta Park, Pretoria 0044
SOUTH AFRICA
012 998 8220
irismin@absamail.co.za
www.irismin.co.za
Contact: Peter Wheeler