Day 27
The Mind of a Missionary Devotional
Compelled by Love
Rolland and Heidi Baker
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” — Matthew 6:10
On a chilled London afternoon, Rolland read about the war raging in Mozambique in TIME Magazine. Flipping through the issue, he was shocked to see images of children’s bodies scattered and lifeless in the African dirt. Their corpses laid silent; flies alighted on their soft eyelashes. He saw scores of women and children scavenging through mountains of garbage, searching for their next meal. White smoke billowed from bombed-out refugee camps and ramshackle huts. Military vehicles parked on distant plains while emaciated mothers skirted live landmines. He set the magazine on the table and said, “Heidi, do you want a real mission field?” She scanned the images and immediately responded, “Let’s go there!” A new season loomed on the horizon, filled with danger and glory.
Heidi met God on March 13, 1976 in a small church on a Choctaw Indian Reservation. As a Navajo preacher in full Indian dress talked about the Kingdom of God on earth, the Holy Spirit planted a passion for His mission in Heidi’s heart. Raising her arms to Heaven, the sixteen-year-old girl said, “Here I am, Lord. Send me to the ends of the earth!” God whispered into her heart, “You’re called to be a missionary to Africa, Asia, and England.” This experience set the course for the rest of her life.
Upon returning to California, she caught the eye of a young man named Rolland Baker, who was struck by her newfound zeal for Jesus. Their hearts collided. On May 24, 1980, Rolland and Heidi married; they embarked on an adventure to find Jesus’ footprints in some of the world’s most desperate places.
Two weeks after their wedding, with thirty dollars in their pockets, Rolland and Heidi bought a one-way ticket to Indonesia. The Bakers served in Asia for twelve years, living among the poor in Indonesia, leading Christian dance and drama crusades in the Philippines, and learning from Jackie Pullinger’s ministry to drug addicts in the Walled City of Hong Kong. Eager to prove the power of God’s ever-present Kingdom, the couple moved to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, in January 1995.
Remnants of the civil war dotted the landscape. Guerrilla insurgents forcibly recruited child soldiers to salt the countryside with land mines. Mozambique’s rural infrastructure lay in ruins; broken-down homes were bombed out on nearly every street corner. The severe fighting killed a million people, leaving five million displaced. By 1995, Mozambique was rated as the poorest country in the world. It was the perfect place for Rolland and Heidi to land.
Two days after their arrival, the Bakers accepted charge of a dilapidated orphanage with eighty children. Food was scarce, living quarters stark, and medical care all but absent. Physical and sexual abuse were common; a significant proportion of the children were infected with STDs. The situation seemed impossible if not for divine intervention. Thankfully, the Bakers understood the power of God’s Kingdom. “The love of God manifested through you is what people really need,” Heidi said. “You must become so close to His very heartbeat that you can feel what others feel. This is how we will reach the world.” The ministry took in more street kids, and the orphanage grew to three-hundred-twenty after one year.
Small beginnings led to explosive growth in the late 1990s and 2000s. One by one, hundreds of smiling children found a home at the Bakers’ ministry, Iris Global. Pastoral training in the Mozambican countryside caused thousands of new churches to emerge. Today, Iris Global oversees ten thousand churches and feeds over twenty thousand children daily in thirteen nations.
People began to call Heidi Baker “a modern-day Mother Teresa.” “I don’t know what love is if it doesn’t look like something,” she said. She echoed Mother Teresa’s sentiments: “Love has no meaning if it isn’t shared. Love has to be put into action.” Heidi urged Christians to shine the light of the Gospel in brothels, drug dens, villages, and universities. “It’s not complicated,” she said. “God places people in your path so you can stop for the one and spread His love abroad.”
The “ones” she stopped for became thousands over a lifetime, and the divine whisper that drew Heidi away from the comforts of the Western world still compels her to the world’s most poverty-stricken and challenging mission fields for the sake of her Savior.
– Personal Response –
Passage: Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
Point: When God’s love deeply moves us, we bring Heaven to earth by stopping for the one and stepping into the impossible.
Ponder: Are you so close to God’s heart that you can feel what others feel? Are you willing to act on that love even when it costs you comfort?
Prayer: Lord, open my eyes to the spiritual needs around me, and break my heart with what breaks Yours. Teach me to love with Your love, serve with Your hands, and go where You send me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Proclamation: I will stop for the one, go where He leads, and love in a way that reveals Jesus to others.
Practice: Find one hurting, marginalized, or vulnerable person this week, and intentionally show them the love of Christ through a simple, selfless act.
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