Heidi Baker (1)Recensioni

The Story of Rolland and Heidi Baker's Miraculous Ministry Among the Poor in Mozambique

Taking a fresh look at the Beatitudes

This is the story of Rolland and Heidi Baker, focusing on their experiences in Mozambique as missionaries. In Africa they experienced not only disaster and poverty on a national level, but national repentance and revival as Africa responded to God. Through the Bakers' delegation of responsibility and leadership, at least five thousand churches were started in Africa in less than a decade.

I first became aware of the ministry of Heidi and Rolland Baker through a class I took in seminary. My professor (Bob Ekblad) is an activist who works with people on the margins and is passionate about the work of the Spirit. He held up the Bakers as exemplars because of their tireless work in mission and their passion for supernatural ministry. I had seen video clips of interviews of Heidi Baker but knew little about her (and Rolland’s) mission organization or their work in Mozambique. So I was excited to read Learning to Love: Passion, Compassion and the Essence of the Gospel.

Heidi and Rolland take turns narrating their work in Africa and around the world. Learning to Love tells of their experience entering into the suffering of Christ, loving people, responding to God’s leading and seeing Him work in often incredible ways. The passion and zeal the Bakers have for sharing the gospel is infectious. While many charismatic authors in the United States preach prosperity, the Bakers have given their lives sacrificially to see the people of Mozambique and around the globe come to saving faith in Christ. They speak of miracles and God’s provision but they also have really entered into the suffering of the nations they’ve served. This book is their story of ‘loving God and the person in front of you.” There mission has involved them in caring for children and orphans, planting churches, leading bush revivals, prayers of healing, digging wells, launching schools, providing needed physical care and more. Through it all they have sought to be faithful to God’s call on their life.

Yet Learning to Love was a difficult read for me. To me, the book reads like a series of support letters for Iris Ministries (their organization). They are passionate and expound on where God is working in their midst, but there seems to be little cohesive organization to their chapters. I also found that I still know very little about their mission philosophy (other than an expectancy to see God at work). I like that they are listening to the Spirit and expect miracles and are driven by a concern for the people of Mozambique, but because this book tells you the breadth of all that they do, you don’t get a sense of what their long term commitment to one place, or one group of people is like. There is more to their story which I would like to hear.

I do respect that these charismatic missioners have seen God bring healing and new life in their mission and have come to expect God’s supernatural ministry. This is the experience of the global church and too often us educated Americans seek naturalistic explanations instead of the God of Grace.

I am not sure that I can say I loved this book, but I did like Heidi and Rolland and what I heard from their story. I give this book 3 stars and am interested in hearing more about their work.

Thank you to Chosen Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is such a beautiful book written by a woman who really knows and loves Jesus. In the first few pages I already felt the tears coming, and it was so refreshing to read Heidi Baker's simple, sincere account of who God is and how He moves, even today. Definitely a book to revisit once in a while!

This book came into my life at a perfect time when I was looking to go deeper. I didn't start to feel excited and challenged until the fourth chapter. I read one chapter a day alongside my devotions. I noticed my mindset over the next weeks began to suddenly become more sensitive to spiritual things around me and was quicker to be bold in my outreach to others, to pray over the sick, to speak life, to push into my circumstances.

I would recommend this book to mature Christian believers. While young or new christians can read it and be inspired by it, I believe it best read after basic principals of following Jesus have been learned and walked out for a short season

This book totally gave my boldness a boost and I give it 5 stars for being effective in that regard.

I read Learning to Love, in exchange for review from Bethany House. The book was written by Heidi and Rolland Baker and published by Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

The book discusses ministry in Africa. The authors founded Iris Ministries (since 1980) and are located in Mozambique. The book's introduction discusses how Iris Ministries was started in the United States and later expanded to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. They finally did mission work in Mozambique in the 1995. The authors mentioned a little girl, amputee, whose grandma wanted her stoned to death because the girl lacked use to the family. The girl had to sell her body for food and water. The authors realized helping her was an act of love.It was the gospel. I loved the story. It was compassionate, moving, inspirational. It was God's hand moving mountains. Showing love to someone don't require much. People need help, despite outward appearances. God can use anyone to do his work, his will. God can use anyone for the glory of the Kingdom.

I chose the book because it was different. I been reviewing more books lately, which has an higher purpose. I do not always need to read fiction. I can read Christian, Business, Childrens, etc. I can read books, which build me up and expand my knowledge base. The first 20 pages grabbed my attention big time. The book had four sections: passion and compassion; joy and suffering; going even lower; and not by might. The book was also less than 200 pages with Adobe Digital Editions. The book also has beautiful pictures of children throughout the book. The pictures are in black and white.

The book discussed God's love, joy, faith, hope, goodness, grace, mercy, compassion. It also discussed serving others. The book also discusses developing a relationship with God. This was a great read. The book also discussed Heidi and Rolland's mission work in Africa. A wedding was the start of part 1. The authors helped plant churches, worked with the deaf, fed the hungry, and brought recorded and print bibles to the pastors and the communities. The book also discussed the downfalls of doing God's work. The authors discussed how three pastors was beaten and how the government confiscated homes. Trucks were destroyed and had an angry mob wanting to stone a pastor. Doing the work of the Lord is not an easy one, but the rewards are great.

Finally, I liked the time to reflect at the end of each section. The time to reflect presents a bible verse for mediation.

Amazing testimony of living life in dependence on God. The sermon on the mount in real life colour showing the miracles of God.

Mother Teresa wrote,

"The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved. They're hungry to feel that presence of Christ."

This is one of those books that is hard to put down. It's hard to put down because one senses that its words embody "that presence of Christ." Not only does Heidi's life illustrate Jesus' beatitudes incredibly well but it reminds us that love gives birth to miracles.

Small things done with great love will change the world.

See what God is doing today. Inspitational.

Even the most desperate poverty, the most devastating illness, the most heart-wrenching grief is not beyond God's help. His love and power have no limits-and that's a message readers from all walks of life need to hear. The modern miracles that Rolland and Heidi Baker experience every day in their work with Mozambique's throwaway children, movingly chronicled in Always Enough, will inspire anyone looking for hope in the midst of suffering. The Bakers, formerly missionaries in Indonesia and Hong Kong, share how their work for the past eight years in Mozambique, one of the poorest nations on earth, has borne spiritual fruit beyond their wildest dreams. Every day presents multiple impossible needs. But in the face of everything Satan can do, as Rolland and Heidi lay down their lives and "minister to the one," there is always enough. Readers will discover that the simple practice of choosing to step out and trust God every day unleashes his provision for every need.