Iris Harvest School is taking place on the edge of a precious revival. Please be aware that you will face heavenly warfare and witchcraft as the nation is taken back to its eternal destiny. You will be trained and equipped to be a pioneer, bringing light into the darkest corners of the earth. This school is for strong committed Christians who dare to take this risk!
You must be at least 18 years of age.
Yes! Our heart is to release families into missions. We won’t have childcare, but your children are welcome to play alongside our children at the center. Some outreaches are more challenging than others. However, we will have outreach opportunities for families as well. Children 5 years and under are free. Ages 6–12 pay half price. The tuition covers a small percentage of the cost for each individual. It is an act of faith in God’s provision.
Although it may be possible to discuss serving in Pemba with the Base Director, it is not our normal procedure for anyone to begin before going home. At the moment, there are few positions available at the Pemba base. To apply at another Iris base, the process begins with the applicant contacting the Director of the location in which they are interested.
If they wish to visit, they would contact pembahospitality@irisglobal.org to arrange a time. They would not be able to stay with you in the Student Village living quarters.
You will need to book a flight to Pemba and then apply for a Mozambican visa.
If your student application, pastor and friend/co-worker recommendations are completed and submitted online, we will let you know ASAP.
Communal housing, a diet of basic African cuisine (mostly rice, beans, potatoes, fish & goat) and outreach transportation. The tuition does NOT include: toilet paper, candles and matches for when the power is off, taxi or trips downtown, extra snacks or sweets, personal spending money, the cost of your airfare, your visa, medical or travel insurance and drinking water.
You have the amazing privilege to be impacted by many outstanding anointed men and women whom God is using today in his kingdom!
Monday–Thursday, you will have class in the morning from around 8–1. In the afternoons, there will be some optional classes and workshops. In the evenings we will have a variety of activities including wonderful guest speakers, small groups, soaking, mission movie nights, worship, and having fun together on our porches. Friday is Practical Missions day. Students are able to participate in a wide range of activities working side by side with our long-term missionaries.
You will usually have Saturday off unless you are on outreach. On this day, you can go to the internet cafe, do laundry, go to market, go to the beach, or do other things you enjoy, such as visiting your new Mozambican friends, etc.
On Sundays, you will get to participate in our local and regional church meetings.
There will be overnight outreaches during the school. The outreaches will be in very simple outdoor camping settings. You have to bring your own tent, sleeping bag, pillow and inflatable mattress or sleeping mat. There will be no showers or electricity. The June school will be winter in Mozambique and when we are in the mountains for our outreaches, it can get as cold as 60°F/15°C at night and up to 90°F/32°C during the day.
There will usually be no running water or electricity.
Please see list below of what to bring for outreaches.
God gave us a wonderful, large piece of land where we have built an Iris Center known as the Village of Joy (Mission School, Bible School, hospital, clinic, baby house, dorms for children, schools for children, housing for missionaries, kitchen, prayer hut, offices, sewing school, and a large church building). The first Mission School was the very first project at the center.
Up to twelve students will share one house, two bathrooms and one kitchen with their house leaders (1 or 2). There will be one fridge and propane gas stove available.
The water supplied through the house taps is not drinkable, although it is suitable for showering and washing. It carries a certain amount of sediment and is not purified. As boiling the water on the propane stove is too expensive you should be prepared to buy bottled water or have some means to purify the water yourself for drinking. The school has a water store selling boxes of twelve 1.5 litre bottles for about $12–13 USD. This could equate to about $65–90 per month per person.
Sometimes the water supply is interrupted for hours or days at a time. Be prepared to use water you have previously stored up in your house for bucket showers and to use latrines at times.
Living expenses are very high in Pemba! Some things you are used to aren’t available. However, the retail choices have been improving. For example, 1 liter of milk = $3.00 USD; small plain cereal = $9 USD.
We recommend you bring US dollars. They are the only currency readily exchangeable in Pemba. Be sure that you bring only newer US bills, with the large portraits, as older-style bills are NOT generally accepted. Visa is fairly widely accepted, MasterCard less so. Travellers checks are almost never accepted.
The local currency is the metical (plural meticais; abbrev. mt). The exchange rate is approximately $10 USD = 700 meticais.
As a student of Iris Harvest School, we want you to eat with our staff and kids. We are blessed to have a good diet of basic African cuisine (mostly rice, beans, potatoes, fish, goat, and some chicken and eggs). Most of the local Makua people are not so blessed.
However, we recommend you bring some comfort food/snacks with you. Across the street are people who sell roasted peanuts, sweet wheat, honey treats and bananas. Coke products are usually available at the restaurants. The more specialized or processed foods are seldom stocked by local stores or street vendors. We estimate that considerably less than 5% of the local people are able to purchase anything from retail stores or restaurants.
Please be aware that you will wash your clothes by hand. There are no washing machines or dryers. Bring some clothes pins. Jeans, for the most part, are not practical since they are too hot and difficult to dry in the sun. Avoid light colored fabrics since the water causes discoloring.
You will find that, in a third-world country, sanitation will not be of the quality you are accustomed! When the water supply is disrupted, showers will be “bucket showers.” Some cleaning products are not readily available in Pemba. You may like to bring some wet wipes, hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes with you. The flexible package of wet wipes or small bottles of hand sanitizer that can be purchased at Wal-Mart should be your constant companion to avoid bacteria and infection from your hands to your mouth.
Make sure you are up to date on all childhood immunizations. Discuss this with your doctor/health provider. Mozambique does not require you to be vaccinated prior to entry but if you have traveled from a Yellow Fever infected country into Pemba, you will need Yellow Fever vaccination certificate to prove it. This may be the case for a small number of people.
Other vaccines for consideration:
1. Malarone, this is a combination of atovaquone and proguanil. It is a relatively new and quite expensive drug on the market but very effective against all forms of the disease.
2. Primaquine, formerly only used to destroy the sleeping forms (or hypnozoite stages) of the parasite in the liver of Plasmodium Vivax who and also the gametocytes in the blood. But it has now has been found to provide a very effective prevention against both Plasmodium Falciparum and Plasmodium Vivax. It is the recommended prophylaxis for the whole of sub Sahara Africa.
3. Doxycycline. NOTE: In sub-sahara Africa, Doxycycline is only 50% effective as a malaria preventive. It also has several side effects, notably photosensitization and/or gastric irritation. Our medical staff advises that you use either malarone or primaquine as they are much more effective despite what the travel doctors advise as this has been researched carefully for our area by our medical staff and consultants.
*Please Note: Because of the high risk of side effects, LARIAM (also known as Mefliam, Mefloquine and Mefaquin) is not permitted to be used by students as prophylaxis.
Anti-Malaria Medication for ChildrenLarium can NOT be used for children! It is advisable that people traveling with children to discuss anti malarial medication with a doctor.
Health SupplementsYou may like to consider bringing health supplements such as multi-vitamin and mineral capsules.
Iris has only one phone line for the Pemba base. It will not be available to students. Access to the base internet is only available for use by Iris staff. We ask all students to use the internet cafe down the road, where you can go online to contact your family and friends. However, we especially long to pursue the presence of God during these three months and expect Him to move in our lives and be transformed by Him. Spending too much time on the internet, even e-mailing, can be a distraction from this pursuit. For this reason we ask that students limit visits to the internet cafe to twice a week.
As stated above, we have just one telephone line, which is needed for office use only. Students CANNOT be reached through this line, except for emergencies! If you need a phone we request you to bring a dual- or tri-band non-locked or non-blocked cell phone. SIM cards can be bought here for just $5 US. With a Mozambican SIM card you can be reached easily by anyone from the other side of the world. This is the main way we communicate in Mozambique.
You can purchase a phone here for about $100 USD, used sometimes for less. For placing calls, you will need to purchase time cards that are available locally. This is inexpensive for Mozambican use but very expensive for international calls. When you have a SIM card in your Mozambican cellphone, incoming calls are not charged to you. The least expensive method for your friends at home is an AT&T phone card that can be purchased at retail stores such as SAMS, about 26 cents a minute from the US to Mozambique.
In Africa many things are not available or they are very expensive and of poor quality. We have listed for you all the required items you must bring. Since they are difficult to obtain here, we will kindly request that you donate and leave some of these materials behind for mission use at Iris.
Please keep in mind that this is a third world nation and some of your belongings are very attractive to the poor. We request that you do not bring expensive items with you. We keep life very simple here.
WE ASK OUT OF RESPECT TO OUR MOZAMBICAN CULTURE THAT YOU DON’T: Smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, wear body piercings (other than simple ear-piercings and nose piercing for women) or have intimate relationships outside of marriage. Do not enter bedrooms of the opposite gender. Participation in all activities is expected. Less than 80% is grounds for dismissal.
TO HONOR THE VISION & MANDATE OF THE SCHOOL, PLEASE ACCEPT THE ABOVE SUGGESTIONS. IRIS STAFF RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEND STUDENTS HOME AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE.
You probably won’t find your favourite brand toiletries here. What you do find will usually be more expensive than home. For that reason we request you to bring all of your needed items.
GirlsAny items you can buy as concentrate would save space and last longer. You will have to provide your own toilet paper while here. It can be purchased for about $1 US per roll.
Important info: the soil on our base is red dirty sand. You will get dirty quickly. Since you have to wash all your laundry by hand, you may not want to bring too many white clothes with you. Earth and dark-toned colors are easier to wear and maintain during the time of year you will be visiting. As a mission school, we long to reach the heart of people in a different culture than ours, we want to be sensitive and respectful. We don’t want to offend them or their culture. Following are some guidelines:
Ladies:You will be fine with most of your short-sleeved or sleeveless tops. You will need long sleeves for mosquito protection in the evening.
This is very important. Malaria is your greatest health risk. Although expensive, clothing is now available that has been treated with mosquito protection that can be purchased retail in the US at an Outdoor World or similar store.
Girls are kindly asked not to wear shorts. Capri pants covering your knees work well for Mozambique
For some classes, gatherings with the Mozambican Bible School students, outreaches and church, you must wear a dress or a skirt/capulana. This is a length of cloth, wrapped around your waist, which the Africans wear as skirts, baby carriers, etc. Capulanas can be purchased locally for a reasonable price of $5–$12 USD and are also available at the Sewing School at the base.
Bring skirts/capulanas or dresses and capris that go below the knee, leggings for wearing underneath skirts/capulanas, capri pants and/or trousers. Be aware that the heat, dust and insects can be serious irritants for many. Wearing shorts or leggings under your skirt or capulana could save you from skin discomfort. Baby powder or corn starch works well for most.
Men:It is OK for you to wear shorts … modest ones. Try to buy longer style shorts and at least one pair that go below knee length.
Although we are in a third world nation, the people dress in their nicest clothes on Sunday for church or conferences. To honor them, please dress in a respectful way. (Please don’t wear cut-offs to church).
We have the great pleasure of living at one of the most beautiful beaches in Pemba. Still, we need to be very aware that we live in a Muslim culture. We don’t want to offend any of these dear people. For this reason we have rules for you to follow:
LadiesStep 1: Read through all of the above material about Iris Harvest School.
Step 2: Start the application process online. Application procedures will be indicated clearly in the instructions for completing your student online application, pastor’s recommendation and friend/co-worker recommendation.
Step 3: If your application is completed, we will try to let you know whether you have been accepted within a few weeks.
Step 4: If you are accepted:
Step 5: Be sure your health arrangements are in place
Please note that we require you to book a round-trip ticket. You must book a flight into Mozambique and out again! Be sure your travel agent can book all the flights. Booking flights separately within Africa may result in connection problems. We suggest, if you will not be using your selected travel agent, that you consider one of the following through which we have had good experiences.
International Flights To AfricaWe have three excellent International travel agents who have worked with us to book good flights all the way to Pemba. The first is an excellent international travel agent for booking flights. Her name is Shelly Prosch and she is based in the United States. She has booked the tickets for Rolland & Heidi, our guest speakers, and students for many years. You may contact her via email by at shellyprosch@msn.com. She is able to book international flights to Africa via e-tickets (electronic tickets which do not require paper tickets) for our non-US international students. After emailing Shelly and purchasing an e-ticket, you simply go to the airport with proper photo identification. Students participating in an Extended Outreach requiring air travel internationally or within Mozambique, MUST book their entire journey with Shelly. Shelly can book your tickets from Home to Pemba to Extended Outreach and back Home again or wherever your next adventure takes you.
Shelly Prosch: shellyprosch@msn.com
Raptim Travel is a Travel agency located in Abbotsford, British Columbia and has been serving the travel needs of the Missionary/Humanitarian market since 1971. Raptim Travel has been able to maintain and grow unique arrangements/contracts with the airlines to allow for special fares around the world when travelling as a missionary or humanitarian. They work with travelers in the USA, Canada and throughout the world.
Robin Major: robin.major@raptim.org
Toll Free Canada/USA: 1 800 667 5559
Outside Canada/USA: 1 604 853 0751
PLEASE NOTE: If you are going on an Extended Outreach requiring air travel, your entire journey must be booked by Shelly Prosch. Please refer to Shelly’s contact information above.
Even though we are asking you to bring a long list of items, there can be very strict weight limit on some flights. For example, the LAM Johannesburg to Pemba leg has a 20 kilograms (44 lb) weight limit. Each airline and route is different so to avoid problems you must check this carefully with your travel agent or airline carrier. In some cases the advertised limits are 20 kilograms.
Please apply for a visa as soon as you receive your letter of invitation from us and have booked your air travel, since you will have to indicate your entry and exit dates and cities on the visa application!
The following are the questions on the application for you to review. Please have the following information ready to enter into the online application.