Testimony Anisa Baker

7/17/05

Giving up my western comforts to experience the Kingdom of God in action. How very rewarding! I was hungry and thirsty to shed my excess in exchange for Kingdom! Some things were difficult—no question. But oh, how lovely to be faced with difficulty for the sake of the Kingdom!

Team…community within our own team and with the Iris staff, African pastors, and Holy Given students. Mr. And Mrs. Worley and Audra were constantly watching out for me. They were so kind to offer their advice and supplies to me and others when we needed them. The same with Theresa, others on the team, and dorm mates from other groups. When we were on our bush outreaches, all of us from different teams pulled together as one.

The way God would wreck us every day at the Holy Given school and meet us with his precious presence. The same thing happened at the missionary services and soaking sessions. What an awesome thing to encounter God with passionate, like-hearted worshipers!

I was impressed by the power of Ben and Brenda’s ministry to the Holy Given students and to the Iris staff. Their prophetic words encouraged many and brought new life to their ministries. Their teachings were powerful. In one session, Ben spoke about how the western church needs to catch up with the third world church. He ended with a time where the westerners were all to kneel at the feet of the African pastors, asking them for forgiveness for how the western world and church has lorded it over them in many ways. We prayed for them, that their feet would go into the nations, bringing the revival that God had brought them in their brokenness. And they prayed for us, too, that revival and miracles would come to the western church. It was a powerful time of weeping and repentance and crying out to the Lord.

The precious, precious children who would cling to us and look to us with a combination of joy, peace, and sometimes desperation. Though poor in some ways, these kids are rich with a community of people who love them and teach them about the Lord! No mistake—more help is needed. But they’ve got the basics!

Esperanza (her name means hope), a precious girl of about eight to ten years old who lives at the compound. She was very hardened and ruined by the world when I first met her. She dared anyone to love her. So I did. I loved her and accepted her where she was at. Gradually, over a period of a few days, she really warmed up to me and to the other children. She would want to sit on my lap for hours, and she started playing with the other children. She was transformed in a new way!

The sound of roosters crowing in the early dawn hours… the sound of the African pastors waking up and clanging their gong at 6 a.m. for worship (They are early to bed and early to rise! A lesson for the rest of us!). I loved listening to their harmonies of native worship each morning. Most of the pastors are so poor in material things but rich in humility and love. They were so friendly and welcoming to us. I saw Jesus in their eyes, and we shared the understanding of Jesus’ fellowship and love even though we couldn’t understand each other’s language.

The overwhelming joy and awe at going out into the bush to bring the love and message to Jesus to people who’d perhaps never even heard his name! How awesome is that?! I’d waited my whole life for such a privilege….

As we were journeying out to the bush, I couldn’t believe how far out we were going! As our Land Rover left town, the landscape turned into a vast, rolling land of dry, brown grass and bush that reached over the top of our vehicle! African men and women were walking along the deserted road, carrying heavy loads on their heads. Huts and villages were scattered along the roadside. As dusk approached, fires were seen burning outside of the huts… we’d stepped back in time! We drove 200 kilometers on a paved road and then turned off onto a dirt road. It was bumpier than you can imagine! But I was lucky—I was inside the Land Rover! Most of the team (20+?) were piled in the back of a pickup truck, along with everyone’s camping equipment and backpacks….Potholes, old bridges, washed out portions of the road….. we drove for over an hour on this section. Our team in the back of the truck were having the ride of their lives! Out, out, out, out into the deep bush! Darkness everywhere… occasionally catching in the headlights glimpses of villages, fires, people, and huts nestled along the road ….

The look on the people’s faces when we arrived out in the bush. So many were happy; some were a bit frightened and perplexed. Many had a very haunted look in their eyes. I can’t quite explain it. At later prayer meetings, several did ask for prayer for deliverance from demons that haunted them.

The honor of praying for people who were blind, deaf, or infirmed in other ways…. Their lack of pretension in admitting their need and desperation…. It was such an honor to stand with them and let God’s love and compassion come upon me and flow into them. Oh, how he loves them!

The bush children…. They loved us! They were so excited by our presence! They would follow us wherever we went. They surrounded our living quarters and would peek in at us through the fence. A few times, the fence almost came down because of all the people leaning against it! The very first morning, all of us were awakened at dawn by a VERY LOUD, ringing chorus of happy cries from the children! My team mate, Audra, was on a different bush outreach and described how she awakened in the morning to a sea of children’s faces staring at her through her tent. The night before, they’d received some Veggie Tales band-aids (the team had run out of stickers) and were happily singing the Veggie Tales chorus the next morning J

Fellito, Iris Ministries’ fearless outreach leader! He’s a young man of 22 years but with the wisdom of much age! He tirelessly spends himself on 2-night, 3-day outreaches into the bush every week, with one-night outreaches sprinkled in between. He faithfully and powerfully preaches the gospel each time. The love and power of Jesus are reflected beautifully in his eyes.

The African family that allowed us to stay within their bamboo-fenced-in village. An extended family, all living together…. Old, young, middle-aged, babies… all together in one hut. I hung out with a few of the younger girls, and we communicated as best we could. Fellito asked if he could buy their outside bamboo roof in order to build a church in the village. They said yes! What an honor to clear ground and help build the village’s first church—all in one day! The next day, the village had its first church service. We danced and sang, one of our team gave a testimony, Fellito preached, and we prayed for the sick. It was a powerful time. Iris just finished training a pastor from the village, so he will continue the work.

The African stars…….. unbelievable. No lights for miles and miles…… a different hemisphere…… the Milky Way was incredible. And LOTS of shooting stars! Pretty cool to look at in the middle of the African bush J

Seeing a myriad of African faces standing to watch the Jesus film for the first time. This was the first motion picture most of them had ever seen. Seeing their faces… listening to their expressions as they watched… wondering what they were thinking as they heard the story of Jesus for the first time…

After the film... seeing so many hands raised to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. AMAZING AND AWESOME! THE GREATEST MIRACLE OF ALL! Hearing them repeat the prayer and knowing that more precious kids had been added to the Father’s house……

Identifying with the African women and children who came up for prayer. We exchanged looks between us that communicated mutual understanding of the difficulties and pains of life… the love and compassion of the Father just flowed through me for them… I would pray for them and just stand and hug them for a long minute, and they would receive it. In that minute, we communicated more than spoken language ever could…. I saw some tears in their eyes… release had come…

I especially remember praying for a young man whose eyesight was greatly diminshed. As I was praying, I sensed that he needed to accept Jesus first. Another teammate came along and confirmed this sense, and with the help of interpreters, we heard the man say that he did believe in God. He said as he worked in the fields every day, he thought about how there was a God who had created him. He said that his family were Muslims, and they would be angry with him for accepting Jesus Christ, but he was ready to do so. He spoke the prayer of salvation with our interpreter. Another powerful moment!

On our way home from the bush, two people had asked us to stop and pray for others. One was a woman who had many ailments and couldn’t walk on her own. She was from another village but had heard about our presence. She was brought to the village so we could pray for her. We went to the hut where she was staying, and we found out that she’d been going to the witch doctor for two years but hadn’t gotten any better. One of the African pastors on our team asked her if she was willing to stop going to the witch doctor and not go back. She said yes… she believed God could heal her, and she wouldn’t go back. The pastor told her she needed to burn her witch doctor items. So they brought them out of the hut. There were some stones and other things wrapped up in a skin. They tossed them into the fire, and we started to pray for her. After about five minutes, the woman got up and walked on her own and even did a little celebration shuffle!]

We stopped to pray for another man a few villages down. He was very old and was blind. He looked so frail and tattered and torn coming out of his hut. He sat down on the porch, and we gathered around him to pray. He started to see light where there was only darkness, so we prayed some more. He didn’t get his full sight back right then, but we’ll continue to remember him. It’s encouraging to know that sometimes, healing takes place later. We received a letter from someone in a village where an outreach took place simultaneous to the outreach our team was on. Someone from the village wrote to say that the team had prayed for a blind person, and nothing happened. But the next morning, that person woke up, opened their eyes, and saw the roof of their hut! We’ve heard other stories of healings taking place later, too.

It impressed me how hard the Africans lives were… they have to walk long distances for basics like food and water. It’s amazing how they balance such heavy loads on their heads! They grow their own food, cook with fires, have no electricity or running water or usual western wares… it’s like stepping back in time!

Our team faced constant struggles regarding the poverty we saw. How do you handle children begging for food, water, and goods? How do you handle seeing them in such need? Which ones were telling the truth? What about the African pastors? We could go and eat at the nearby restaurant whenever we were particularly hungry. But they could not. And yet, we are brothers and sisters in the Lord…. Was it right that we have options and they do not?