Sid: My guest is Heidi Baker and Heidi and her husband Rolland have got such an exciting ministry in Mozambique, Africa. Their ministry has seen 17 people raised from the dead. They have started over 5000 churches, in fact they have so many they can’t keep track of them; they feed 2000 orphans daily. And I had occasion to see a video of Heidi teaching on the Sermon on the Mount and I had never heard teaching like that before. It became so real to me because the teaching, she took real life orphans and showed what Jesus really meant by that. And on yesterday’s broadcast Heidi you were talking about a young girl that had been raped. And it just sounded like one of the most pathetic young people on the face of this earth. If you would pick up there.
Heidi: There’s a little girl named Constancia that taught me about this scripture in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes. One of my favorite places in the Bible 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” This little girl was just so desperate, she was raped and beaten and abandoned on Shahongo, Mozambique. And she was the saddest little girl that I’ve ever saw. This other little girl named Beatrice was also mourning all the time, I found her dying under a tree with a friend of mine with a friend of mine from England. And this little girl had a huge bloated belly and scabies and lice and sores. Also raped, alcoholic father and her mother was dead. And she met Jesus, she met Him and she was so changed. We took her to the hospital, my little girl gave her her best dress. She said “Mom, I want her to have my most beautiful dress.” And we hugged her, we got lice and scabies and we just held her and just loved her. And the doctors didn’t want to touch her, they said that she’d die but she lived. And that little girl who had so mourned Beatrice who had so mourned had so much of the love of God in her that she pursued Constancia. And Constancia, either Beatrice or myself, we would just chase her when she would run away and be crying. And all that happened with this little girl was just silent tears, she was just so broken, silent tears. And one day after just loving and loving and loving on her and just letting her squirm in our arms Beatrice or myself she just squirmed until she fell asleep in our arms. One day we were baptizing people, and we’re in this little dirty tank in Mozambique, Africa it’s the tank that you wash clothes in it’s just a dirty green water. And there were about a couple of hundred people waiting to be baptized. And I looked down and I’m just shocked because here is Constancia, well Constancia never spoke. She never said a word, she was too traumatized she could not talk. And I thought “Theologically speaking I should not baptize this little girl, this little girl doesn’t know what’s going on; she’s too traumatized.” And I just said “Lord, what should I do, what should I do.” And He said “Ask her.” And I said “Do you know what baptism means, it means that you’re going to die, you’re going to die in this water and come up a new creation, do you want this?” And she nodded, no words. I said “Do you really want to come and into this water and be changed?” And she nodded and I just picked up this little skinny frail broken little girl, put her in this tank of dirty green water in the Name of the Father, in the Name of the Son, and the Name of the Holy Spirit. I put her in that water and up she came and she smiled, this little girl smiled for the first time in her life; she just smiled and it was awesome and I lifted her out of the water with this big smile on her face and she said “Momma, I want to I want to lead the Children’s Choir!” It was awesome. Her mouth opened up and she began to speak for the first time since we met her and she was healed, she was healed in that baptismal tank. “Bless those who mourn for they shall will be comforted.” Jesus is faithful to His word and He did it. Another man, Josae. This man lived in a tin hut and just a terrible tin hut with lots of rats and lots of mosquitoes. And he finally got married in our church and he became a pastor with us. This humble man, this meek man, this man who had nothing in the eyes of the world. I mean if you looked at Josae you’d think “He’s just a skinny humble man how could he inherit the earth. how can he see the Kingdom. What is it about this man that makes God smile? What is it about meekness, what is it about humility? What is it about a man whose so low that they would see an inheritance of the earth, that they would see the kingdom values.” What is it? And Josae taught me about this verse in 5 of Matthew 5:5. And he one day he was just on the floor, I mean our churches are just dirt and cement. We don’t have any plush carpet to do carpet time that people call. He’s just sobbing there on the cement and he was just sobbing for hours. And finally I thought I’m just going to ask him what’s happening. And we’d been giving him offerings for about a year so that he would be able to build a little block house and get out of this tin hut with the rats. Well he’s just sobbing on the floor and I mean he’s just sobbing for hours and I went over and I said “What’s going on, what’s God doing? And hes just slobbering and He said “Just give away all that I have and he said “I’m so happy, I’m just so happy that I’m crying my heart. All I have to do is ask my wife, and I’m just so happy I’m going to give away everything I own, everything I have, all my building supplies to build a church in the south for the poor there that they have nothing.” And I’m thinking Josae you don’t have anything, but Josae doesn’t care that his nothing see it was all that he had and I’m giving it. And I didn’t even say “I thought man, we need to build him a house you know, we need to do something.” The Lord said “Don’t build, don’t take away his joy, let him have the joy of giving it all away. And so I called our contractor later and found out that Josae had given every bit of building material he had. And everything he owned he just gave it away and then was left with nothing but this tin hut with the rats and no hope of any home. And it was so beautiful because Jesus so loved what he did that this pastor heard about it and a friend of ours and ended up building him a little block house. And then we ended up being able to get him a well. And Josae was just blessed, the man walks in the most incredible anointing of love. Not only does he walk in this humility and brokenness, and not only does Jesus so allowed him to inherit the kingdom but He also gave him a little block house to live in with no rats. And I said “Lord, I’m seeing what it is to be meek through this man, I’m seeing what it is to bring joy to Your heart, brings pure joy to Your heart to see people to walk in pure love. “Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” Another scripture that says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.” You know we’ve been working in the garbage dump for a long time and I wonder people always say “Why do you see revival over there and why don’t we see it in America; what’s wrong with us?” There’s something about hunger, there’s something about thirst that causes God to respond. He’s desperate for people to love Him, He loves to be loved. He wants our heart you know. He’s not interested in so much that we think He’s interested in. He wants people to be desperately hungry for Him, Jesus says “He’s the bread, He’s the wine; He’s the point; He’s the thing that we need to be hungry for and why are they blessed, why are they filled.” Well in the dump they don’t have any food, they scavenge around in one of the poorest countries on earth scavenging around, 6 year old kids, 10 year old kids, old ladies finding garbage in the worst dump in the whole world. How are they going to find righteousness? How are they going to find filling? If Jesus were true or is it just you know for some people far off years ago somehow or is this not real today. And the poor taught me, the poor taught me that if you’re hungry and you’re thirsty you’ll be filled. I have never seen Jesus not fill the hungry.
Sid: Your know we can’t relate to what you’re saying here in the west; here we have everything. I mean we live like the best royalty of 100, 200 years ago the average person in America lives like that today. I think living in Africa you’re more blessed than the wealthiest people in America.
Heidi: (Laughing) We are, we are because we learn from the poor about the kingdom. We wanted our whole life to see revival, but how does it happen and when people are desperate and dying and hurting. Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the children.” It’s that we’re seeing hunger and thirst in Malawi, in South Africa that we never seen in the western world. And…
Sid: Heidi, I’m sorry we’re out of time right now.
