Hello Friends!
It was our goal to get an update out within 2 weeks of arriving…it has been 6 weeks now, but we finished it:) Our newsletter should be sent out this week and our email update should go out next week….should:)
Things are insanely crazy, yet wonderful at our base as we prepare for a regional Conference and Heidi & Rolland daughter’s wedding. More and more people are arriving each day..most will be sleeping in the church or outside under the trees…the air is full of expectation and hunger…by Friday, we will have over 2000 extra people at our base and on Saturday, we will host another 3000 or so from the local villages. I keep reading the Gospels where Jesus feed the 5000 and so after 4000…amen, amen! Do it again King Jesus!
Here is an update for our directors for those who might not receive the Iris updates:
From Dr. Don Kantel, our Pemba director:
A recent miracle in the neighborhood of the Iris Pemba Base has made
Jesus the increasing focus of people’s attention.
A widow in the area had been ill for several weeks. When her condition
suddenly became more serious, her five children and a number of Iris
believers gathered at her house and were praying through the night.
About 4 am, she died. While the children began to prepare for her
burial, the believers — led by one of Iris’s construction leaders,
Mossa Calisto — continued to pray. A couple of hours later, the woman
opened her eyes and sat up. She told them she had been with Jesus and he
had given her an hour to return to earth to settle her affairs and make
provision for her children. She busied herself with these things…then
she asked the people to leave the room, closed the door and died again!
This account has been widely circulated and many are asking to know more
about Jesus!
Under the supernatural anointing and favor of God, Iris Ministries has
expanded dramatically over recent years. Today, we are in at least 26
countries; we have over 7,000 churches; over 3,000 indigenous
evangelists and pastors have been trained and equipped through our five
Bible schools; 1,000 students have completed our Iris Harvest Missions
School; and we are feeding and caring for over 8,000 orphans and
vulnerable children in several countries of Africa and beyond. But with
all this growth, the core values and Mission of Iris remain the same as
they were when Heidi and Rolland first began ministering in Mozambique
in 1995.
The mission of Iris Ministries is to help bring the Kingdom of God to
all the earth…strategically and aggressively (Mt. 11:12), as God’s
Spirit leads and enables us. And the three main ministry focuses through
which we daily walk out our Mission are:
1) Evangelism, church-planting, and training and equipping of indigenous
evangelists, pastors and leaders; 2) ministry to the poor (Is. 61:1) —
and especially to widows, orphans and vulnerable children; and 3)
spreading the revival.
We’d like to share one recent strategic initiative growing out of this
statement of mission and priorities. It’s a prototype for village
transformation referred to as the “Mieze Model” which has been developed
in the village of Mieze near the Pemba Base in northern Mozambique. This
model has evolved as the Holy Spirit has led and enabled us…with the
clear purpose of replicating it in many other village settings over the
next few years. Heidi and her team have prayerfully sought the Lord’s
direction for the location of the next center for development based on
the Mieze Model and we expect to take the first steps within the next
couple of weeks. The Mieze Model has already proved a compelling and
tangible expression of the Father’s love for “the least of the least”
and is a brilliant, God-given strategy for establishing his manifest
presence in the life of a traditional African village.
For a comprehensive overview and pictures of Iris’s Mieze Model for
village transformation, please see http://web.mac.com/kantels
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