How did a Singaporean couple come to design and build the first Christian university – and the first and only oceanfront university – in northern Mozambique ? 

It was in 2017 when Rudy Taslim and Lam Bao Yan were sitting at the Singapore Botanic Gardens with Dr Heidi Baker – fondly known as Mama Heidi to all in her ministry – the co-founder of Iris Global, a ministry in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, that the divine connection was made.

Rudy was 29 when he attended Harvest School, Dr Heidi’s mission school in Mozambique. It was here that he caught the heart of Jesus for the poor and needy, witnessing how God continually –many times supernaturally – provided for every need. 

Rudy and Bao Yan were in different cohorts at Harvest School, but were similar in many other ways: They both shared a heart for missions. Both of them were marketplace leaders: Bao Yan had an educational consultancy business before she went to Mozambique, and Rudy runs Genesis Architects, which has projects such as Le Meridien Maldives under its belt.

Rudy and Baoyan at the inauguration of Iris University.

The couple married in 2019, and Bao Yan and Rudy began their missionary work, which has taken them to war-torn places like Ukraine, Congo, Rwanda and the Amazon jungle in Brazil.

A university among the poor 

Thirty years ago, another married couple with a passion for missions landed in Mozambique, an African country that was the poorest nation in the world in 1995. 

Rolland Baker, the grandson of HA Baker who was a missionary to Tibet, married Heidi in 1980 and together the couple founded Iris Global that same year. They began their missionary work in Asia.

“When we came to Mozambique 25 years ago, it was our intention not only to serve the poorest of the poor, but to contribute in every way toward the blessing of the nation,” Dr Heidi told Salt&Light.

God’s command for a university to be built came in 2004 while Dr Heidi was out at sea.

Northern Mozambique has other universities, mostly branch campuses of existing institutions. It also has a Catholic university. But this university that Dr Heidi was tasked to be would be the first to be actually established – founded in and built from scratch – in northern Mozambique.

Africa’s first oceanfront university: The God-given masterplan of Iris University in northern Mozambique, designed with the soul of the capulana.

Rudy and Baoyan with Dr Heidi standing on campus ground taking a grateful moment to witness a miracle unfold and their drawings and vision come to life.

She related: “I will never forget how the Lord called me to build Iris University back then. I didn’t know the name of it. I was snorkelling out in northern Mozambique. I was snorkelling and looking down at the beautiful coral, and I suddenly heard the internal voice of the Lord say ‘Build a university.’ I sucked water into my snorkel – I actually choked on the water!”

Dr Heidi got out of the sea, washed herself off and drove hurriedly back to the Iris Global property.

“We had no buildings at the time, (but I) drew a circle around a big baobab tree and yelled out: ‘Every child that wants to start first grade, come! We’re starting school right now!’ Because I knew that without first grade, we could never start a university.”

Over the decades, Iris Global had built five Bibles schools, three primary and secondary schools.

The vision came to pass on February 25 this year when Iris University was officially inaugurated.

Dr Heidi delivering her inauguration speech at Iris University on 25 February 2025 – a vision that came to pass after 25 years.

A moment of hugs and tears at the inauguration.

But the road to seeing the university launched was far from smooth. On the day Dr Heidi heard the call, she wondered how it could happen.

“First of all, how would we help students who were not yet students – they were little children, walking around without flip flops, in shredded rags, hungry. How would we start a university in a place like that?” she related to Salt&Light.

“The other thing that came to my heart was like, where would we get a team for this? Where would we find most speaking professors? Where would we find international professors? Where and how could this all become possible?”

She added: “The challenges were so incredible. They were beyond anything you could have imagined, and yet we just focused our eyes on Jesus.” Those challenges included an insurgent war and several cyclones, and the fact Iris Global had to continue feeding the 30,000 children they did daily, schooling 3,500 of them and tending to the sick.

So how did such an impossible calling come to pass 21 years after? “What happened was, it was a yes every single day. It was a yes, brick by brick, it was a yes, challenge by challenge,” she told Salt&Light.

“It was a pressing in for the presence of God in the most difficult of circumstances. What would it look like when all hell is breaking loose around us to believe God and to continue not just on my own, but me and my intimate life with Jesus and an entire team, which would be hundreds – and later, thousands – of people involved. What would it look like for us as a people, to continually be saying yes to God?”

Iris University is located by the sea in Pemba, Mozambique.

Iris University today stands as the results of those thousands of “yeses” Dr Heidi and her team said to God over two decades.

It took 25 years for Iris Global to procure the land — a 73-acre piece of property overlooking the ocean in northern Mozambique — but she still needed a professional architect to build the university.

Tithing their skills into Kingdom works

Dr Heidi met Bao Yan and Rudy again in Singapore one year, and the three, who love nature, sat talking. 

She recalled: “I got to know them a bit more. I remember we were in Singapore and hearing about Rudy’s architectural company, and hearing about how he had such a vision to sow part of their time into emerging nations – they have a work in Rwanda. 

“I got very excited about seeing how maybe they would fit in the Mozambique piece. I said, ‘Well, maybe you could design the university because we’d been given some architectural plans that were horrific… I remember there being a brick wall where the ocean was, and I was like, ‘This will not do.’ 

“So, I said (to Rudy and Bao Yan): “Maybe you could come back over (to Mozambique), pray about it, walk the land.

Dr Heidi, Rudy and Bao Yan on a land dedication and prayer walk at the university site by the ocean.

“(You may say) how can an architect or architecture firms from Singapore have an understanding or a vision to produce or design something that will work in northern Mozambique, right on the ocean? But they got it. They nailed it.”

Rudy and Bao Yan not only said yes, but decided to do it pro bono. Rudy saw this as giving unto the Lord.

“Growing up as a Christian, I’ve always looked at ways where I can tithe unto God, not just financially, but in terms of every gift and every talent that God has given me,” he told Salt&Light.

“When we started our architectural practice, we were very clear that we wanted to tithe our skill set, our professionalism for Kingdom works and the Bible talks about how it’s more blessed to give than to receive. 

“And so, when the opportunity came, when I was invited to be a part of Iris University, it didn’t take long for me to say yes. It was almost instantaneous. You know, to me, the God of the universe could have asked any architect in any country, to be a part of what He’s doing in Mozambique, and yet He looked my way. 

“There are definitely better architects out there, but just the fact that I was able to play a small part in realising this – I’m honoured to be a part of it.”

Rudy with Mr Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of Singapore who was then the sitting Minister of National Development, at a URA exhibition which showcased Iris University.

In his design of Iris University, Rudy was intentional about creating architecture that reflected the culture of Mozambique. He turned to the capulana – a colourful printed traditional Mozambican fabric worn as a dress, skirt or ceremonial attire – for inspiration.

Looking down at Iris University from the heavens, one can see the architectural interpretation of an interwoven pattern often found on capulana.

“In designing the buildings in this way, we wanted to capture the essence of how every building comes together as a beautiful whole, that one building belongs to another as a fabric is,” Rudy explained.

Rudy shopping for the perfect capulana, the fabric that inspired Iris University’s design, rich with colour, culture and purpose.

The idea was birthed as the three of them sat at the Botanic Gardens: “We started dreaming, communicating, about what some of the things could be,” said Rudy.

“I was very clear that the design must come from the ground. It’s not about building something out of their context, but I wanted very much to be able to embrace and to celebrate their culture and the beauty of their people group, their heritage, nature – something that would bring dignity back to the people.

“We wanted to celebrate this as a cultural significance to the people of Mozambique, that the people who come through the space would really be able to appreciate the beauty of their culture, and the beautiful future that they have in Iris University.”

It has been a fulfilling effort for Rudy. “For me, it was one of the best challenges to really be able to translate something from a concept from the drawing board into built reality.”

A fully accredited university of northern Mozambique

That she has been called to start a university is significant to Dr Heidi, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and struggled to read. 

“I was told I would not go to university at 16 years old. I had the worst test scores, probably in California, outside of somebody who didn’t speak English, I was told not to even try to go to vocational school,” she told Salt&Light. 

But when she went to a healing meeting and was born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, “the Lord supernaturally rewired my brain.” Today, she holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Vanguard University and a PhD from King’s College in London.

Said Dr Heidi: “If the Lord asked me to build a university, then he would make it possible for any child with a dream, any child with a God-given gift, a desire to learn, a desire to grow, then the God of the universe would make it possible for them to. 

“It’s His dream, and it’s His plan, and it’s His purpose. And it’s just a privilege to be a tiny little mama that said ‘Yes.’”

Iris University has two colleges: The faculty of business, administration and law and the faculty of engineering and exact sciences. Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are offered – seven undergraduate majors and four graduate majors, along with short courses.

It will serve the people of Mozambique, and also the other African nations and international students.

Iris University is northern Mozambique’s first oceanfront university, the first homegrown university to be established in the area.

Bao Yan, who serves as Iris Global’s Singapore lead told Salt&Light: “This university is not just impacting Mozambicans, but all of Africa and more. We can only imagine and dream all the things that God is going to do through this university,  in thousands and thousands of lives all over the world. With our little lives, we get to do this. It’s such a privilege.”

She encourages those living in Singapore to sow into Iris University – and there are a few ways to do it.

“Come if you can teach, come alongside with us to serve. If you have on your heart to give scholarships for students to come and be a part of the university, to receive education and to have their lives transformed, do so,” she urged.

“In every meeting, we dove into all the details from materials to room sizes, even the landscape, dreaming God’s dream together, no matter the challenges,” Bao Yan told Salt&Light.

“Come and pray with us. Come and think about it. Pray. See what God will lead you to do and to come and make an impact, not just with Iris university, but in different parts of the world. 

“Surely, God can use you to be a blessing in many, many different nations.”

To find out more about how to participate in or support Iris University, email Lam Bao Yan, Iris Global’s Singapore lead at [email protected].

You can also click to give to Iris University.

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