Heidi Baker | |
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![]() Baker in one of the Iris Global children's centers | |
Born | Laguna Beach, California | August 29, 1959
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Vanguard University King's College London |
Occupation(s) | President and CEO of Iris Global Missionary Author Speaker |
Spouse | Rolland Baker |
Children | 2 |
Website | irisglobal |
Heidi Gayle Baker [1] (born August 29, 1959) is a Christian missionary, itinerant speaker, and the CEO of Iris Global, a Christian humanitarian organization. She is the author of several books on Christian spirituality.
Heidi Gayle Farrell was born to James Moies Farrell and Glenetta Betty Farrell, née Schacht (1930-2015), an English teacher. [1] She grew up in Southern California, becoming a Christian after hearing a Navajo preacher's message while volunteering on a Choctaw reservation.[ citation needed ] She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Vanguard University, [2] and a PhD in systematic theology from King's College London (1995). [2]
She met Rolland Baker, the grandson of missionary H. A. Baker, [3] in 1979. They married six months later in 1980; they left for the mission field two weeks after that. [4] They were ordained as ministers in 1985. [2]
In 1980 the Bakers founded Iris Global, [5] a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to charitable service and evangelism, particularly in developing nations. [6]
In 1995 the Bakers moved to Mozambique in order to begin a new ministry focused on the care of orphaned and abandoned children. [3]
Iris Global negotiated with the Mozambican government to assume financial and administrative responsibility for a former government orphanage in Chihango, near the capital city of Maputo. There were roughly 80 children present. [3]
Candy Gunther Brown, professor of religious studies at Indiana University, has called the Bakers "among the most influential leaders in world Pentecostalism." [6]