About us
Iris Chienge exists to raise up believers to walk in their identity as sons and daughters of God.
Our purpose is to love God and to worship him. We proclaim the gospel and seek practical and tangible ways to meet physical needs. We share Gods love in all we do.
Our Mission
We are committed to expressing a living and tangible response to those commandments that Jesus called greatest: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It is our conviction that the Spirit of God has asked us to make this love concrete in the world, incarnate in our thoughts, our bodies, our lives and our every action. Iris Global exists to participate in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth in all its aspects, but most especially through our particular calling to serve the very poor: the destitute, the lost, the broken and the forgotten.
“For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.”
About Iris Global
Iris Global was founded as a dedicated Christian missions organization in 1980 by Rolland and Heidi Baker. At first based in the United States, it encompassed short-term evangelism trips to the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, until in 1985 Rolland and Heidi moved to Indonesia. Eventually denied permanent missionary visas in Bali, Rolland and Heidi then moved to Hong Kong. There Iris’s activities were focused on the care and evangelism of residents of the poorest and most crowded slums.
After four years Rolland and Heidi left the church they had planted to enroll in graduate theological studies at the University of London. While in England they planted another church, Believer’s Centre, and continued to work especially with homeless street-sleepers, along with university students, lawyers and businesspeople. It was a small but beautiful cross-section of the Body of Christ, and all worshiped together as close brothers and sisters in the Lord.
In 1995 Rolland and Heidi came to Mozambique, Africa, where they have concentrated their ministry ever since.
As churches swelled, community outreaches multiplied, and more Internationals went through Iris’ missions schools, Iris began to expand into other nations, opening bases in similar ways. As of this writing, Iris is active in 32 nations, and keeps growing.
How Iris Chienge started
Iris Chienge was founded in 2019 when Daryl & Tabea Gittens followed their call to Zambia.
Daryl from Trinidad and Tobago and Tabea from Switzerland met in Harvest-School-23 in 2015 in Mozambique. Daryl received a vision from God during Harvest School to go to Zambia. He went home after Harvest School and looked up the worst district in the worst province of Zambia and felt like that was the place he was to go. In 2016 he went to visit the village of Puta (named after the senior chief). He and Tabea were married in 2017 and in 2018 they attended the Iris Pioneer School in South Africa, then moved to Zambia from there.
Now they live in Puta in Chienge, in the north of Zambia, an 8-12 hour drive from the closest airport (due to terrible road conditions) with their three children.
Many Congolese refugees are in their area as they are only 40 miles from the border of Congo. The entire district lies along Lake Mweru. Not all the villages have power or running water and their area was considered one of the worst areas for malnutrition.
They work with the Apostolic Church of Zambia in Puta and also invest in many additional pastors from other churches. Their ministry involves evangelism in the surrounding villages, ministry to children, youth, women, hospital visits, mobile bible schools, door to door evangelism, worship and crusades.
At the time they are extending the missions base to provide more housing for missionaries, discipleship and Bible school weekends for locals and are also dreaming of building a primary school and a pre-school on a plot nearby. Many of the children in the village can’t go to school as the schools are overcrowded with up to 80 students per class and they have to alternate to go to school 2-3 hours a day. The churches have a mixture of Christianity, witchcraft, and traditional religion. Iris Chienge longs to see the area flourish spiritually and physically as it is called “The Land of Abundance”, yet it is filled with hopelessness, alcohol and bondage. It is their hope to see that abundant blessing come to life in this beautiful land!
Iris’ Core Values
1. We understand that we can find God, and can experience intimacy, communication and companionship with Him in His Presence, if we share His love for righteousness.
2. We are totally dependent on Him for everything, and we need and expect miracles of all kinds to sustain us and confirm the Gospel in our ministry.
3. We look for revival among the broken, humble and lowly, and start at the bottom with ministry to the poor. God chooses the weak and despised things of the world to shame the proud, demonstrating His own strength and wisdom. Our direction is lower still…
4. We understand the value of suffering in the Christian life. Learning to love requires willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness. Discipline and testing make saints out of us, and produce in us the holiness without which we will not see His face and share His glory. With Paul we rejoice in our weaknesses, for when we are weak we are strong. Under great pressure we learn to rely on God, who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9).
5. The joy of the Lord is not optional, and it far outweighs our suffering! In Jesus it becomes our motivation, reward and spiritual weapon. In His Presence is fullness of joy, and with Paul we testify that in all our troubles our joy knows no bounds (2 Cor. 7:4). It is our strength and energy, without which we die.