Since arriving home in Mozambique a month ago, a compelling paradox has almost daily played before our eyes. Being back in the place where God has called us, our hearts are full and yet broken. Our hands are filled one moment and vacant the next. Just as one need is met, a thousand wait hopeful that they might be next…How can a promise land be both a land of amazing abundance and at the same time be tragically barren?
Hunger presents an interesting paradox…

Only in hunger do we find ourselves both satisfied and unfulfilled. The more we hunger for God and the more desperate we become, and the more we realize how greatly famished we are. And yet because of the marvelous love of God, in our hunger, we are always filled! “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men, for He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Ps 107:8-9). Glory! These “good things” vary from His sweet presence, His amazing healing, His soft or thunderous voice- and these are just a few! What about the physical things like miraculous provisions that we have all seen time and time again.

Returning back to our paradox, many of you have heard there is a global food crisis. Overpopulation, fuel prices, global warming…experts have lots reasons, but we know the main one (1 Pet. 5:8). We see the devil busy at work in Mozambique. The price of rice has tripled in 2 years. Most families are struggling to eat. Many in the bush are starving. Our ministries widow’s list (1 Tim. 5) has also tripled. More and more children come from the villages each day to our Village Children’s feeding….many of them taking their precious portion of rice and beans home to share with the rest of their family.

Friends, we do not share this to arise pity or that familiar helpless feeling many get when we hear such news…no indeed…we do however want to awaken the church to pray. And more so, to provoke us all to hunger!!!! If people are physically hungry
around the world, they are also spiritually hungry! Therefore, what is our response? The Bible says, “Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied” (Luke 6:21). It is time to get hungry for more of God NOW! If we are globally hungry for
physical food- think of the hunger in the spirit!!! We are seeing this by way of the inter- net/ God TV as the Florida Outpouring is being broadcasted globally. Friends, NOW is the time! Make us hungrier Lord! We want all of you Jesus!!! We want your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven! More, more, more!!!

Many of you know about our beloved Mozambican holiday “Children’s Day.” It is a day looked forward to by our kids for months. Chicken, cokes, games, presents—its like Christmas in July…or in this case, June 1.

Jean and I were quickly recruited to head up Children’s Day (CD) for the village children- this means we would prayerfully plan for the feeding, games, and gifts for the 2000 or so kids which would attend our church on CD. I (Teisa) was the one who said “Yes” without really thinking about it…. But the more I did think about it, the more impossible it seemed. Memories from 2006 Christmas feeding filled my mind: tiny children being trampled by the mob of kids fighting to get in the door, chaos in the kitchen where we had to hold the plates high in the air to keep kids from grabbing the chicken, and the riots between the adults for who would eat first….I confess thinking many times, “Dear Jesus, what did we just get ourselves into?”

With the help of another missionary, we prayed (“Help, God!”) and planned. From the beginning, things miraculously came together. For example, we were able to buy 80% of the gift items (assorted candy and cookies) in one hour and a half- something that normally would have taken all day! We also had tons of help due to our incoming mission school students and visiting team from Global Awakening (same team Jean led 2 years ago!) We had meetings with our Makua youth who would lead in various areas -especially in the games. We have never attempted to play games with 2000 kids before. But more and more ideas flowed and soon we had almost 10 different game stations. Our awesome mission school students helped us for hours as we assembled our gift bags —2000 of them! Each bag having a full packet of cookies, 2 bubble gums, 1 small lollypop, 1 large lollypop with gum, 2 toffees, 2 sour candies….a true dream gift for any kid…at least in our neck of the woods!

WOW! God blew our minds with His goodness on CD! We enjoyed an amazing time of worship and Heidi preached her heart out with many people being healed and saved. After church, we kept all the kids in the church and started to dismiss them in groups of twenty to form a line outside of the kitchen….and guess whatthey formed a beautiful precious line!!!! Friends, this was a miracle!!! Everything from the feeding to the games
went reasonably smooth! But the best part was when the village kids were leaving, we had all our visitors and students form a prayer tunnel for them and when we came out the end, they received their gift! Many of the kids started jumping up and down in glee as they discovered the contents. After all the village kids had received their gifts, it was time for our Iris kids to receive theirs. Heidi went house by house giving the gifts. This year we started with the girls, so our warriors were anxiously waiting by the gate of the girls’ center. Soon enough, it was their turn. Each of our boys - we have 11 now- sang their special CD song before getting their gifts and gave us hugs with a hearty “Obrigado” after.

Once again, we were in awe of how God took the impossible and showed His possibilities! People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-15

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!!!

Enorme bencanos de Portugal! (Huge Blessings from Portugal!!)

We have not posted much on our blog or sent our updates since arriving in Portugal…we wish we had more to report, but days are whirl of classes and studying and not much more. With only 6 tenses under our belts (which is a lot!), we feel rather overwhelmed by this beautiful language with over 18 tenses to learn. Jean and I are now talking to each other in our Portuenglish…which means we speak as much as we can in Portuguese, but throw in the English words which we still do not know☺ With only 4 more weeks of school left, please pray for our rusty minds to take everything in and our mouths to speak what our hearts and Holy Spirit wants to say!!!

We do have a short report from our friends in Mozambique who just retuned from doing flood relief work…we can’t wait to get back to Pemba!!! Only 7 more weeks till touchdown!!!

"Flood relief in Zimbezia has been quite eventful these past three weeks as we have gotten to be a part of God doing some amazing things in the midst of much suffering. The first week we went to a camp with 693 families and we were able to build relationships with the families throughout the week returning with different supplies specific to their needs. We brought over 200 bags of rice and and 700 hoes and over 700 bags of corn seed for planting so each family received materials! More importantly than their physical needs, they were so spiritually hungry and God met them in their hunger. We preached the Gospel and prayed for the sick and just sat among the people encouraging them and hearing their stories. On the last day we handed out Bibles and there were near riots as people were so hungry for the Word and one old man even yelled, "I do not care about rice, just give me a Bible" in Portuguese.

Last week was equally eventful as we went to two new camps and were able to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven coming down to earth. Our cameo went back for a second load of rice and crashed but God used this trial for His glory as we were all stuck at the camp until after 10 pm and were able to sing, dance, preach, pray and encourage the camp ABUNDANTLY! At another camp, a woman and her family gave us their ancestral idols to burn and then received Jesus. This woman had not been able to walk or stand for 7 years and after praying for 20+ minutes with our faces in the dirt in the pouring rain, Jesus healed her and she stood up and walked! These are just a few of the stories..."