Diamonds in the trash

Rubbish Dump in Maputo

Rika and I started our journey in Mozambique serving with Iris Ministries a ministry founded by Rolland and Heidi Baker. Friday morning consisted of an out reach to a local rubbish dump in Maputo. It is a huge dump, with hundreds of people living on the dump. Spontaneous fires often start on the dump, burning down the houses built on the dump. Hundreds of people run behing the trucks that come and dump the trash, trying to find the best of the trash. One day a truck dump rotten sausages, the young men grabbed this rotten sausages and started to eat it. The first day Heidi visited the dump, one of the men put a broken bottle against het neck, threatening to kill her. Later he gave His life to Jesus and became a leader in the church. We would come to the dump and then walked and invited the people for a time of worship and teaching. It was some of the most amazing worship times for me, kneeling in trash and human escriment, millions of flies and an smell you can not explain to anyone. Jesus chose to be present, in this place, people forgotten living of the trash of others. Here Jesus revealed Him self, here He chose to live and to be present. Many people gave their lives to Jesus on the dump, choosing to serve Jesus. On Sundays they came to our church services at Zimpeto, a centre for over 500 children. Jesus is present were He is needed and wanted. I ask this question many times, Do I need Jesus today? We live our daily lives without Jesus and then on Sundays we worship Him for a few hours. We have to live our lives in desperate need of Jesus, wanting His presence in every moment of our lives.

Break their hearts

During as short term outreach to Mozambique in 1995 Heidi Baker prayed over Rika and I after a time of fellowship with our team. This prayer changed our lives forever, the prayer was a simple yet profound. She prayed that Jesus will break our hearts and fill it with His love for the orphan and the widow.

Few years later Rika and I joined the Bakers as long term staff. It was a time that Jesus taught us so many new things and how much He loves the orphan and the widow. It was amazing how they believed Jesus as the obeyed His call to love the abandoned and to invite the poor to the wedding feast of the coming Lamb. Daily we saw how they trusted Jesus to provide for their every need and for the needs of the ones Jesus brought to them.

One morning Rika, Rolland and I were sitting in their living room, Heidi came came back from the bank and went straight to their bed room. We could here her crying out to Jesus that the children needs food and that there is no money in the bank. She kept on praying and crying before Jesus, asking for His provision. As she was busy praying a leader of a visiting team came into the house handing Rolland $3000-00. We saw Jesus providing in miraculous ways on a daily basis and it stirred our faith.

Daily we saw God at work through them and we saw the sacrifices they made. We saw the love, the commitment and the faith they walked with. We learned by watching them, spending time with them and many times of fellowship with them. They followed Jesus with passion and through this they showed compassion to the poor. As Rika and I walk our journey we live by the lessons we learned from them. Paul say, that we should follow him as we follow Jesus. It is important that we have people in our lives that we can learn from and that we can model our life on. Many days Jesus reminds us of our time with the Baker's and as He provided for them, he will provide for us.

Heidi Baker

When the Spirit comes....

Rika and I served with Iris Ministries in Mozambique for a few years. Every week the long term workers would meet in Rolland and Heidi Bakers living room for a time of fellowship. One night Heidi was praying for me, she put her hand on my arm and as she was praying for me I could feel something like electric currents run up my arm. As Rika and I walked back to our house I told her about my experience. During my quiet time that night as I prayed words of a different languages started flooding out my mouth. All of my theology, everything I believed about the Bible and the Holy Spirit was in ruins. I was taught that other tongues were just for the establishing of the early church and that it stopped after the Apostels. I knew that my theology put the Holy Spirit in a box limiting Him to work in my life.

Acts 2:3-4: "They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

Jesus promises us that we will be able to do greater things than what He did during His time on earth. I know that my western mind and way of thinking came in the way of the Holy Spirit working in me and through me. Jesus tells us to believe like little children and to be like little children, pure faith without the corruption of our theological intellect. Those who knows me personally, knows it is very hard for me as I love to think and philosophy about everything.

Nicia and Aninha