China

How beautiful upon the mountains 

Are the feet of him who brings good news, 

Who proclaims peace, 

Who brings glad tidings of good things,

 Who proclaims salvation, 

Who says to Zion,

“Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7

Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. 

Hebrews 13:3

A few years ago the Lord put China on my heart. I watched footage of the underground church worshiping in caves, it broke me. Those unknown, invisible people are my heroes. They risk their lives every day for the Gospel. They worship for hours on end, in small crowded spaces with no breaks for food or water. They are desperate for King Jesus, and He always shows up. The underground church has inspired me for years. A frequent prayer of mine is, "Lord, give me their hunger, give me their fire for You!" 

After two years of praying for China, the Lord called me to go there. So, go there I shall!!! I will be going to China from December of this year to January of next year. It is truly an honor to be able to go! Thank You LORD!!! When we delight ourselves in Him, He gives us the desires of our heart. Which is really His heart beating through us :) 

The details of the trip are sensitive, so if you would like more information please e-mail me reidapipenha@gmail.com

I need your prayers!! Prayers of protection over our team and everyone we will encounter, unity in the team, finances to come in for everyone on the team (there are a few financial deadlines coming up), open hearts to hear the Good News... Please e-mail me for a more detailed prayer list.

Thank you for praying! If the Lord leads you to give, e-mail me for more information. It's an investment in the Kingdom :)

Lost in His heart,

Reida

       

Encounter

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7

July 17, 2010 my life was turned upside down. My world was rocked. I could see clearly for the first time in my life. That was the day I encountered the love of God in a tangible way and experienced His love, power and presence... and LOVE. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire.

A few weeks before, I was in a bar celebrating my 21st birthday. The day after I was in Wal-Mart laying hands on the sick. God brought to life His Word that tells us that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). He closed the chapter of religion in my life and welcomed me into a relationship.

I was technically a Christian before this encounter; but after I experienced the gospel and He opened my eyes to His kingdom I realized that what I thought was Christianity was really just an institutional set of rules and guidelines to get into heaven. It was not a happy thing. Nor was it joyful or loving or peaceful as the Bible says it is supposed to be.

The encounter took place in Pt. Charlotte, FL at Mama Jo's house. I had never met her or spoken to her but she was like a spiritual mother to my best friend Yvana. Yvana had told me all these amazing things that were happening at a church there and I had to see it. I was crying out to God the whole way to Tampa to pick up Yvana. I was so tired of being dry. I tried to worship but I realized I didn't know who I was worshipping; I tried to pray but didn't know what to say. I was thinking about the Bible and how it did not align to my life at all. Is it even real? I don't know what peace is, I don't feel loved, and I am sick of people telling me not to depend on my feelings and just know that there is a God. I read about the Good News, the gospel, that the disciples were risking their lives for; what were they willing to die for? So that I can go to church and be good? It didn't line up to me.

By the time I picked up Yvana I was desperate. We had an hour and a half drive to Pt. Charlotte and at this point it was do or die. "God please show me why the disciples were willing to die for the gospel... If I have all that you have to offer, then this whole thing is fake. There must be more." We ended up praying for an hour straight; asking God to show up, begging Him for more.

When we first arrived at Mama Jo's house in Pt. Charlotte, we were just sitting there and talking. I took a spiritual gifts test and the top 3 were Faith, Missions, and Singleness [there will have to be a whole different blog for my journey with this third one]. We talked about how I always wanted to be a missionary. We also talked about favorite colors; Yvana and Mama Jo's favorite color is blue and they were discussing the spiritual meaning of that. My favorite color is purple but I didn't tell them; I quietly pondered what purple could mean.

As we were talking, Mama Jo's son, Rolland, came home from youth camp shaking. I had never seen him before but I heard he was fun and goofy so I figured he was playing around. As he was shaking he was saying profound things that sounded like something that would be in the Bible. His friend said that he was shaking and prophesying for hours since they left the youth camp (after he had an encounter at the youth camp). I started praying in my mind, not out loud, "God, if this is You... I need You to talk to me. If this is real, talk to me. I have never heard Your voice." Immediately after my silent prayer, Rolland put his hand on my head and said "I will give you the nations..." and spoke into every area of my life. As he was talking I would pray silent prayers like, "But God what about this, and why that?" and He would immediately answer through Rolland. He even said "I am placing a purple robe over you, purple for royalty." Wow, God!! You even care about my unspoken favorite color? As God was talking to me, He spoke healing into every emotional pain that I had, "Years of pain gone in minutes"; and He confirmed my desire to be a missionary. He gave me His plans and purpose, he even gave me specific countries to go to! The same thing happened with every person in the room. That whole thing lasted about an hour and a half.

We stayed in Pt. Charlotte for five days (even though we originally were only staying for the weekend.) The morning after that first encounter, God told Yvana to lay hands on me to heal me physically. I was sick with either the flu, bronchitis, or back problems for all of 2009. I had always been anemic and would have periodic black outs (also due to a concussion I had in 2003); I also had some serious female problems. I was sick as usual with cramps and other pains while we were in Pt. Charlotte. As soon as Yvana laid her hands on me to heal me- all the pain left. And it never came back! Hallelujah! Right after I was healed, God started speaking through Yvana. He said "What do you want? Ask me." I silently prayed, "God, you're sending me to the nations. I have to have the languages. Please." After my silent prayer, Yvana placed her hand on my mouth and said, "I give you the tongues of the nations." I started speaking in tongues! (By the way, before this encounter I didn't believe in speaking in tongues; it was against my religion.)

We spent 12 hours in church. Over five different people prophesied over me. Someone came over for dinner and their left knee was healed. God kept on speaking through different people for hours at a time. Just teaching and loving. I got baptized.

This is the short version by the way. Like, really really shortened.

My life has never been the same. I believe the Bible. I live the Bible. God's Word is living and active. His love heals. He speaks. He listens. He cares. He provides. He protects. He loves. It's all real. Hallelujah!!

God is so cool, if you want it- He'll give it to you! If you ask, He answers! I have watched similar encounters happen to other people who want it. :)

In His presence,
Reida

Love.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13


The most prominent concept I have learned on this journey is love. Love is absolutely amazing! God is love (1 John 4:8) and God is perfect!

When God called me to quit my job He also told me to leave most of the ministry work I was involved in. The hardest one to leave was the Mix at Church in the Son (the youth group for middle- high school students). I started attending the Mix right after my huge encounter with God and since then I have grown up and been cultivated within that ministry and was a youth leader from January '11 to December '11. I have such a deep love for the kids and also the amazing leadership team and pastors. It was heartbreaking to leave but God is ALWAYS good! Always! His goodness does not depend on my feelings, Hallelujah!

I would always tell my girls in the Mix: Any of your doing should flow from your intimacy with Jesus; your ministry should be an overflow of your alone time with God in His presence and come from His love. I imagined January as this blissful month of just worship and alone time with God. Instead I came to the realization that I was running on fumes. It was hard to just be with God. It was awkward. My friends Tristan and Jackie helped me see that I had this false mindset of thinking that I had to work for God in order for Him to want to spend time with me. That is such a lie! Jesus died on the cross for relationship; He tore the veil for intimacy, reconciliation with you. True ministry will always flow from the place of intimacy. It won't get you to the place of intimacy. His love on the cross was enough. You don't have to add to the finished work on the cross. Thank you God for showing me this! Hallelujah!

Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity. He died for you and He died for me. He overcame death and was given all authority in Heaven and on earth; and He gave that authority to us. There is not one person who Jesus did not die for. No matter what you have done or what has been done to you: Jesus died for you, because of His immense Love for you!

God is revealing His heart... He loves. He loves the prostitute, He wants her to know that she is worth so much more. He loves the rapper on BET, He wants him to know that God is His true father and He has eternal riches for him that will never fade away. He loves the man on Wallstreet. He loves the children in the slums. He loves the millions of children who are in sex-slavery. He loves President Obama, He has an amazing plan for him and I pray that he walks in it and knows the true love of Christ! What would happen if instead of criticizing them and telling them what they are doing wrong.... What if we loved them? What if we spoke life over them? Jesus died for them! I never came to Christ because of people telling me what to do; the only thing that brought me to repentance was experiencing the true love of my Heavenly Father. The kindness of God leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4).

The deeper I get in the heart of God, the more I want to show His love to the broken, abused, forgotten. I want to look into the eyes of the child left on the street and say "You are loved." I want to spread the good news! The love of God, displayed on the cross.

In His Love,

Reida

Faith Walk

For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7 

I would like to start off with the only appropriate beginning: God is amazingly, beyond anything ever seen or heard, awesomely, beautifully, faithfully, gently, mightily GOOD!! Like, for real! The point of this blog is to keep everyone up to date on what God is doing in my life. I was supposed to start a blog a year and a half ago but, if you know me then you understand why it never happened (I have recently been set free of procrastination) ha! Which means I need to give some background information.

I went on my first missions trip when I was 10 years old and went back to the same place at age 11. I went to the Dominican Republic and Haiti to minister to children in poverty and do street evangelism. That's when I was called to be a full time missionary.

As a teenager I went on two more missions trips to the Bahamas and Spain.

I went to the University of South Florida from 2007 to 2011 majoring in Psychology. By this time I had long forgotten my missionary calling and was more focused on pursuing the American Dream: Make lots of money and be happy! Holla! My plan was to go on to get my PhD and be an Industrial Organizational Psychologist (the kind that makes the most money) and do missions and counsel troubled & pregnant teens on the side. Half way through partying (with a little school on the side) God reminded me that I am a full time missionary. WHOA! Talk about God never changing! I thought I missed out on that calling 12 margaritas ago. I remembered the children, and decided to try to walk in my calling. After failed attempts of putting rules on myself and getting involved in any ministry at church that would let me in (while still partying)- a year and a half later I was just frustrated. I really didn't get "the whole God thing." I was good at being "Christiany" though, complete with Bible verse Facebook statuses and motivational talks with friends telling them what not to do. [My following posts won't be this long, please bear with me- I am almost to the good stuff.]

After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, my passion for missions was reignited. I cried nonstop as I watched the footage of those beautiful people who lost everything. I tried to go on a trip there during spring break but it didn't happen. Finally one day I prayed, "OK God, I can't try anymore. It hurts too bad. Take it. I give you Haiti and Dominican Republic." The next day my friend's mom invited us on a medical missions trip to the Dominican Republic and Haiti! Yeah, God!

July 2010 I had a huge encounter with God that changed my life. The moment I experienced the true love of God- the world no longer appealed to me. I was physically healed of anemia and other female problems. I was emotionally healed of rejection. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and Fire! Hallelujah! God redeems! He gave me His purpose: pour His love on the nations.

By March 2011 I was back in Orlando, FL working as a receptionist and volunteering as a youth leader at Church in the Son. God told me to leave school and move- so I did! 

I went on three missions trips from August 2010 to August 2011: Dominican Republic/Haiti, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic again. On all three trips I witnessed God's love poured out through physical healing, emotional breakthrough, physical provision, and most importantly- salvation. One amazing example of His love expressed through supernatural healing was at a disabled children's hospital in Santiago, Dominican Republic. My friend Mark and I were praying over a beautiful girl who had been crippled since birth, she was about 12 years old and had never stood up in her life. After praying over her and loving her for about an hour- she jumped up with her hands in the air! The orphanage workers were amazed at the miracle. Hallelujah!

God continuously rocks my life and blows my mind. God told me to quit my job in December and go into full-time ministry in January. That is where I am now :) Full time with my Jesus! I am leaving soon to the nations. Stay tuned :) Please comment this or e-mail me ReidaPipenha@gmail.com to get more updated details and prayer requests. Thank you! I love you all!

In Him,

Reida