Heidi Gayle Baker (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.

Early life

Heidi Gayle Farrell was born to James Moies Farrell and Glenetta Betty Farrell, née Schacht (1930-2015), an English teacher. She grew up in Southern California, becoming a Christian after hearing a Navajo preacher's message while volunteering on a Choctaw reservation. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Vanguard University, and a PhD in systematic theology from King's College London (1995).

Career

She met Rolland Baker, the grandson of missionary H. A. Baker, in 1979. They married six months later in 1980; they left for the mission field two weeks after that. They were ordained as ministers in 1985. In 1980 the Bakers founded Iris Global, a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to charitable service and evangelism, particularly in developing nations. In 1995 the Bakers moved to Mozambique in order to begin a new ministry focused on the care of orphaned and abandoned children. 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. Candy Gunther Brown, professor of religious studies at Indiana University, has called the Bakers "among the most influential leaders in world Pentecostalism."