Blog

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
—

Thank you everyone for your birthday emails and prayers! I had an amazing day- here is quick recap! Jean made me a special breakfast with his Pemba renowned “home fries.” At noon, we helped with the daily village children’s feeding. This allows any child (or adult if really in need) to get a good meal for lunch. I even got to share a brief testimony and pray with the kids before they ate. After the village feeding, we rounded up our 11 boys and took them to the beach for a little festa/party. We played, swam, played, and ended our party with Cokes and cookies. To end the day, my missionary and Mozambican friends threw me a dessert party which was fun….So I felt very kissed by Jesus on my special day!!!

Friends, we are finally home!!!! We had a great trip and all our bags made it (always a huge bonus!) The Warriors (5 of our now 12 boys) greeted us at the airport with warm hugs and singing! We are getting settled into our new home, which is fabulous (more on that later)….So we are keeping this post short and sweet and hope to get an update out with the next 2 weeks! Thank you so much for your prayers and love!!!

Shalom! Shalom!

WOW! Time flies. Teisa and I are leaving for Pemba Mozambique tomorrow morning. Please keep us in prayer for traveling mercies. Our first flight leaves at 5:45 am tommorrow and we will be arriving in Pemba 1:40 Saturday aft. I still haven’t even begun packing as I was in Florida last night while my wife was hard at work on our website and setting up in Jesus email blasts… please feel free to suscribe to keep up to date with what is happening…don’t worry the way email access is in Pemba you won’t be getting updates too often… thanks for all your prayers and loving support… see ya in da river of His love!

With 2 days till we leave for Moz, I took Jean to the airport this morning for his 1 day trip to Florida. He booked his ticket last night as we watched the Florida outpouring online:) We are believing for his back to be healed and his heart/soul to be filled-enough for me too!!!

Hey friends! Looks like we are flying out on the 8th instead of the 10th:) So Jean and I are trying to tie up all our lose ends during the day and watch/engage in the Florida outpouring on GodTV at night! Last night, we got so touched/blasted, we had to almost carry Jean to the car (we watched the revival at a friend’s house). More Lord!!!!!

Paris was awesome! Our outreach on Saturday was incredible- over 30 youth, mostly migrant Muslims, came and hung out for over 5 hours! Jean and I joined with a French interpreter and we prayed over the youth individually, shared the Gospel, and prophesied as the Spirit led. The first young lady gave her life to the Lord and her sister, who was next, was so overcome by the Holy Spirit, she kept crying and laughing for the next 3 hours! Many other youth received prophetic words that ministered powerfully to them. We wrote all the words down, so the youth leaders could do more counseling/prayer to follow up. We also got to minister to the leadership team and heard testimonies of how God was confirming visions, encouraging, and pouring our fresh oil and love!!!

Jesus is amazing! What an adventure to love and serve Him in this hour of visitation….the hungry always get fed!!! “Blessed are those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled!!” Lord, increase our hunger!!! Increase our thirst for the living water and holy wine of the Spirit!

Classes are over!!! We are on route to Paris for three days of ministry with a missionary friend who we met in Pemba 2 years ago! Our friend Randy has an awesome church with ministries reaching out to everyone from prostitutes to muslim youth! We know it will be an awesome Kingdom weekend! Please keep us in your prayers!!!

After this, we are back home in Omaha for a quick week of repacking! We leave on May 10 to return home to Mozambique, Gloria a Deus!!!