To kick off the New Year, we thought it would be a great time to discuss hope. Since the beginning of a New Year often is a time filled with hope, joining Jenn today is a friend who is infectious in her hope and her fervor for the Lord.
With the grace of God and inspired by the love of Christ, Terry Riggins has been on evangelistic trips all around the world, most notably to the underground church in China. She worked with the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia as coordinator of Deliverance Ministry, bringing Unbound Ministry to the diocese, as well as served as liaison for the Charismatic Renewal for 10 years until her recent retirement.
Some of the highlights of this episode:
"If God wants me to do it, He's going to equip me. So that was the trajectory that Unbound just completely changed. Because then, here I became the person who received every phone call from everybody in the diocese that wanted deliverance. And I had to evangelize them, catechize them, love them, talk to them, just be there for them, as well as present their case to the team and figure out what approach we were going to take with those individuals.
And 90 percent of the time it was Unbound prayer. And we prayed with folks and we trained teams. Heart of the Father came down to help me train teams and I would train teams on my own. We prayed with thousands of people and we never got a complaint to the Bishop about unbound prayer ever. That's awesome. Isn't that amazing?
Yes. It's amazing when we open ourselves up to God and allow Him to come in and remove those obstacles. That's what He can set us up to do! "
Listen to more wonderful stories as Terry shares about her mission trips to the underground church in China, walking through cancer, and more.
Guaranteed, you will not be the same after this episode!
Join us at one of our Freedom in Christ conferences in 2024
Check out Unbound and find other resources
Release: January 2024
Music by Christian Harper
Artwork by Rosemary Strohm
To kick off the New Year, we thought it would be a great time to discuss hope. Since the beginning of a New Year often is a time filled with hope, joining Jenn today is a friend who is infectious in her hope and her fervor for the Lord.
With the grace of God and inspired by the love of Christ, Terry Riggins has been on evangelistic trips all around the world, most notably to the underground church in China. She worked with the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia as coordinator of Deliverance Ministry, bringing Unbound Ministry to the diocese, as well as served as liaison for the Charismatic Renewal for 10 years until her recent retirement.
Some of the highlights of this episode:
"If God wants me to do it, He's going to equip me. So that was the trajectory that Unbound just completely changed. Because then, here I became the person who received every phone call from everybody in the diocese that wanted deliverance. And I had to evangelize them, catechize them, love them, talk to them, just be there for them, as well as present their case to the team and figure out what approach we were going to take with those individuals.
And 90 percent of the time it was Unbound prayer. And we prayed with folks and we trained teams. Heart of the Father came down to help me train teams and I would train teams on my own. We prayed with thousands of people and we never got a complaint to the Bishop about unbound prayer ever. That's awesome. Isn't that amazing?
Yes. It's amazing when we open ourselves up to God and allow Him to come in and remove those obstacles. That's what He can set us up to do! "
Listen to more wonderful stories as Terry shares about her mission trips to the underground church in China, walking through cancer, and more.
Guaranteed, you will not be the same after this episode!
Join us at one of our Freedom in Christ conferences in 2024
Check out Unbound and find other resources
Release: January 2024
Music by Christian Harper
Artwork by Rosemary Strohm
[00:00:00]
Jenn: Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's podcast. I am your host, Jenn Lozano.
To kick off the New Year, we thought it would be a great time to discuss hope. Since the beginning of a new year, often is a time filled with hope, joining me today is a friend who is infectious in her hope and her fervor for the Lord. With the grace of God and inspired by the love of Christ, Terry Riggins has been on evangelistic trips all around the world, most notably To the underground church in China, she worked with the diocese of Arlington, Virginia as coordinator of deliverance ministry, bringing unbound ministry to the diocese, as well as served as liaison for the charismatic renewal for 10 years until her recent retirement.
She's been married to her husband, Ron, for 44 years. They have three adult children and three amazing grandchildren. Terry, [00:01:00] welcome to the podcast. I can't believe this is our first time. Welcome. I don't know. It's so wonderful to be here. I was so excited when you asked me and I've been looking forward to this day.
Terry and I have been friends for a number of years. I don't know, maybe it's been 10 years,
Terry: I'm not sure, but, You had a baby, your youngest baby was in the, car seat.
Jenn: The nursery? Okay. Yeah. So she's 12 now. Yeah. She's not my youngest anymore. I've had a baby since then, but she's 12, I think. So that, yep, that makes sense.
So about 12 years now. And one of my favorite memories, Terry is just so energetic and enthusiastic, but one of my favorite memories Shortly thereafter we met, you came to our leadership conference and you gave a testimony and you were on fire. It was just amazing. Oh, that was such a great time.
Anyway, well, welcome to the podcast. I really can't think of anyone better to talk about hope. just your love for the Lord and your enthusiasm is just, I'm excited for the listeners to hear some of your story today. [00:02:00] So welcome.
Terry: Thank you.
Jenn: Well, there's just to get started. I, how about you just share a little bit about it yourself.
Tell us a little bit about Terry Riggins.
Terry: Well, I was, you know, I am the most ordinary of all ordinary people. And so all the glory goes to God. He is tremendous. And I didn't realize that for quite a few years. until I started having children, I was married, I had my heart's desire, my husband, my, I was having kids, I didn't have to work, I had my house in the suburbs, and my dog.
but I was really missing something, and I wasn't the person I wanted to be. And I had a beautiful evangelical neighbor who talked to me about being born again. And I didn't know if Catholics needed to be, had been, should be, or whatever. All I knew is she talked about Jesus like she really knew him.
And it was a personal thing. And, uh, personal relationship. And I didn't know him that way. So I just, prayed real [00:03:00] hard to just open and surrender my heart to him. And I joined a Bible study and I was reading John 3 16 and his love just poured out on me like I never knew possible. Just turning my whole heart inside out and upside down with his love and his glory.
And , I rushed, I remember rushing to confession, not because I felt, the Holy Spirit doesn't kick you in the gut, but just convicts you of your sin. I just wanted to remove. Anything that separated me from the love of God that he had just shown me, in such a, a real tangible way. And, , the, the amazing thing about that too is when you realize how much God loves you, then you realize how much he loves everybody.
And that just spreads your heart. As his heart, his love is spread abroad in your heart, then your love is spread abroad to all the world. And, that's why I [00:04:00] love going on mission trips. I'm always been concerned about what's in front of me. I had never thought about the people in China or Hungary or Mexico as being something that I could share my heart with.
, but to be called to go on those mission trips and share the love of God, um, that was just a life-transforming moment for me. And as you know, that kind of experience of God's love and mercy isn't a one-time-only thing or a stand-alone thing. You know, you, you get it often and the next major, major one was discovering Unbound Ministry and being freed from all, the things that were holding me back once I realized His love, what was holding me back from entering fully.
And that's why I gave such a On fire witness, because that freedom that I experienced just again, totally transformed my life with [00:05:00] joy and trust.
Jenn: I am like, the listeners can't see me, but I feel like my jaw is hanging open, Terry, to hear, , I'm sure you've told me your story before, but first of all, you started out by saying, I'm just the most ordinary of ordinaries.
I was like, I just, I almost cried, like, hearing you say that, like, just, it, that humility is so beautiful, because obviously that's not how God sees you, and, but then, you start to share about how he just came and met you in the scripture. and flooded you. Like, wow. I just can't get over the goodness of God.
That's so, what, what an incredible story. So you mentioned Unbound and just removing some of the obstacles. So tell us a little bit more about that. Like when did you, when did you first encounter Unbound? How did you hear about it? you know, what did that look like?
Terry: I had some friends in the charismatic renewal that had gone to a conference and they invited me to attend with them.
[00:06:00] And as the coordinator for the charismatic funeral, I thought, well, this might be a good conference. to go to. So I, I came up to Philly, and um, that's when I met you for the first time, and I, I basically went up to bean count. You know, how, how do you do things? How do you feed them? How do you do registration?
How do you set up the chairs? I mean, that's, cause that's me. I'm a very practical, down to earth person. And while I was sitting there, you know, none of us had perfect childhoods, and nor were we meant to, you know, because it's all a way of opening our heart to showing We need the Lord and we want to desire the Lord.
So, but while I was sitting there, I just became very overwhelmed by the sadness of my childhood so much. So there's a lot of fear, a whole lot of fear, a lot of loneliness. And, I was talking to the person who, who, you know, brought me to the conference and, and she said, well, you need to go out for prayer.
And I said, I really don't think I can. I thought I would start crying and just make a big scene.[00:07:00] And, I thought I was, I'd start crying and couldn't stop, you know, cause that's the sadness that the Lord revealed that was deep in my heart. And so I went up for prayer and I just said a couple things and again, I, it was the Holy Spirit just kind of brought up a couple incidences of my past, where I had inadvertently as a young child caused my mom, um, to be bitten by a dog and she yelled at me, you know, so I had this fear that I was going to hurt the people I love.
I also had really bad asthma as a child, and they didn't have the steroids and the drugs they have now. So I would think I was dying every night because I couldn't breathe, and I had to rush to the emergency room. So death, I mean, it was just a lot of fear in my life. My dad was in Vietnam, my dad was in Korea, my mom was home with five kids, you know, that kind of thing.
Just made it All that weighed on me and there were a bunch of lies in my head, the [00:08:00] lies that I had to make people happy, um, the fear that I was going to mess up and ruin something or someone I loved, you know, hurt someone I love all these fears that I didn't know I had. And I went to unbound in the, um, upfront prayer and then in a session with you the next day and they just lifted off me like bricks.
I felt like I could. I, it revealed to me the goodness of God, who I was as his child. And that wasn't going to change. That was, has always been the case. So it redeemed my past. I don't see my past with the same hurt or sadness at all. I mean, it's just gone. Any, you know, trauma I had over the past is just gone because the trust that I have in God after I'm bound.
It is goodness and who he created me to be and it's his work. [00:09:00] It's not mine. It's his work and it's God who is infinitely huge, infinitely awesome. If it's his work, it will be accomplished. And that's where the hope comes from. Yeah.
Jenn: Well, real quick before we dive into hope, because I can't wait to hear you talk about hope, but, so, You had this experience at the Unbound Conference.
Your life got kind of changed and so then What did God do with Miss Little Ordinary? Where did he lead you and take you from there?
Terry: Well, I, after the Unbound Conference, I got a call from the Vicar General and I'd been a stay at home mom for 25 years and you know, volunteering in Catholic schools and loving every minute of that, but the Vicar General calls for a meeting with me and I thought, I said to my husband, Oh, I must have done something wrong at the conference, you know.
And we, uh, I went in and they offered me a job. And I [00:10:00] said, I haven't worked in 25 years. I have no degrees other than my BS in biology. And they wanted me to head up the team, the deliverance team in the Diocese of Arlington. Now, prior to Unbound, there's no way I could have done that. You know, the fears, because it involved working with the exorcist, as well as, using the unbound model and, you know, other, other models, but mostly the unbound model, and that's not, I never wanted to be in charge of anything because of my fear that I would mess up, but when I realized through unbound, if, if I can't do it if God doesn't want me to do it, I don't want to do it.
If God wants me to do it, he's going to equip me. And so that's what, that was the trajectory that Unbound just completely changed. Because then, here I became the person who received every phone call from everybody in the diocese who wanted deliverance. And I had to [00:11:00] evangelize them, catechize them, love them, talk to them, just be there for them, as well as, you know, present their case to the team and figure out what, what's the approach we were going to make with those individuals.
And 90 percent of the time it was unbound prayer.
Jenn: Wow.
Terry: And, and we prayed with, I mean, we, I trained teams. You all came down to help me train teams. I would train teams on my own. We prayed with thousands of people and we never got a complaint to the bishop about unbound prayer ever.
Jenn: That’s awesome. Isn’t that amazing?
Yes. It's amazing when we open ourselves up to God and allow him to come in and remove those obstacles. That's what he can set us up to do, you know? And then the other big one is the, as I mentioned, the trip to, , the mission trip to China. Yeah. , that is something that would have terrified me. Flying on a plane for 12 hours to [00:12:00] an airport in a communist country, doing something that is illegal.
The only thing we knew when we went with the name of the three, the American names or the English names, I'm sorry, of the, of the three Chinese people who were picking us up. That was it. So we land in Beijing looking for a Chinese man named Francis. That is it. And Francis found us. And, you know, there are no, there are no, um, American people in China.
So we were easy to find at the airport because there were seven of us. We stood out. I did not have a heart for it. When I found out we were going, I was like, there are plenty of people here that I can talk to and evangelize. In fact, in fact, somebody had called me the strip mall evangelist because I would just always talking to people at the grocery store, at the doctor's office, at the dentist's office.
I was of the homeless people. I [00:13:00] just always wanted to share Christ. But then to, um, be able to do that in China and realize that their hurts and wounds are the same as ours. So I taught largely on Unbound the whole time we were there and it was so beautiful. We had, there's a huge father wound in China because of the, the father's wanting a son and there's a one child policy.
There was a, just real briefly, there was a young woman there when we walked in she goes, What do you old foreigners have to offer us? And after our presentation, she came up, when, when it was time for witness, she came up and she kissed me and she said, I have never even kissed my own mother. So it was amazing.
They needed Unbound the same way. You know, even though it's a completely different culture and a completely different government and completely different circumstances, the heart is the same.
Jenn: Yeah, that's Neal shares that [00:14:00] at the conference like the human heart is the same wherever you go. Yeah, and are you all need?
Terry: Well, no in your ministry to all the different countries. Yes. Yeah, the need is is the same That longing for for the Lord in our lives
Jenn: Wow, so he equipped you to lead a ministry team in the diocese and much much more train people Equipped you to go overseas. It's just incredible. Wow. It's just awesome. So I want to release you to talk about hope because I know it's in you to share about hope, but I'm sure there's just hearing some of your story, there's been times in your life where you had to lean on hope.
Can you think of a time in particular that hope has been really important for you?
Terry: Yeah, every single day and every single minute. I can do not one good thing without him, but everything that I do in [00:15:00] the hope that what I do, fully surrendered with him, will produce a weight of eternal glory beyond all imagining, you know.
I have so many things that have happened that if I hadn't been unbound, I would be a mess. But, I, I've had agrown son just totally reject us because of our faith, that is, you know, and that's just, you know, that just rips your heart out to have your own child say that they want nothing to do with you.
Um, and then that's where I really hang on to the hope. That going through it's it's hope isn't wishful thinking. Hope isn't. Oh, I I he I'm hoping he's gonna walk to the through the door and say, Oh, mom, I'm so sorry. I said all those horrible things and I'll never do it again. You know, that's not what hope is.
Hope is whatever we have to go through[00:16:00] to become closer to God. He's allowing it so that his glorious will will triumph in our life and That we have to trust that no matter what happens to us. He is bigger That's why he made the universe so huge, you know Well, we look at how massive the universe is.
How can we not trust him for a relationship? And it was right after our son You know, said these things to us and broke off relationship that I found out I had breast cancer. The old me would have thought, Oh, I've got cancer. I hope it makes him suffer, you know? I mean, that's what people, sometimes people think that way.
And, it really, I just leaned on the Lord. Um, in fact, I was a little bit excited when I first found out. I thought, Well, [00:17:00] maybe I'll see Jesus before I thought, I mean, that was like the first that crossed my mind. But then, I just, I said to my husband and cause he'd been through unbound, he knows unbound has ministered to me.
I said, okay, you let me know if I need unbound going through this. I said, I don't want to lose my joy. I don't want to lose my hope. I don't want to lose my trust. I don't want to. Be a burden and nag people. I just want to go through this with God. So you let me know I gave him permission to let me know and I prayed and of course, I have lots of Charismatic friends who prayed over me and and but I asked Lord What do you want me to do and the Lord said do what the doctors tell you to do?
Mm hmm. I said, okay great. And the other thing I knew that he wanted me to do is to not go online And look at all the, you know, that's where the, um, vain imaginations can come in. You know, look at all the things that could [00:18:00] happen. And I was just filled with such peace. And when I went to the radiation oncologist, because I had needed a mastectomy in radiation, I was sitting in, the, um, And there were all these posters about yoga and, you know, for, to encourage things to, that they felt would encourage these cancer patients and just the righteousness of God just rose up in me.
I'm looking at all these poor people seeing these yoga posters to help them. And I just prayed, Lord, please give me someone, give me someone. And he just highlighted, there was this couple there. And I. , I argue with the Lord when it's the Holy Spirit. That's how I know it's the Holy Spirit because it was a couple.
Everybody else was alone. And I said, well, well, this wife has her husband. But we went back to the waiting room together, exchanged a couple of words, and I just knew I had to do something. So I came out, her husband was sitting there. I wrote my number on a piece of paper, gave it to him. [00:19:00] And I said, if your wife needs any help, give me a call.
And he goes, well, I'm going to be with her the week after her surgery. I said, I said, just give me a call, you know, and he looked at me very odd. Three days later, she called me and she goes, who are you? Why? But because of the hope, which I have received. You have to share, are encouraged by God and therefore you can encourage others.
And that's exactly, I just couldn't not, I couldn't hold that encouragement in. So I just brought her dinners, took her to doctor's appointments. She was brand new to the area. her mother was in England and I was able to pick her mother up from the hospital and bring her back home so she could watch the kids.
Just run errands for them, that kind of thing. She asked me the reason for my hope and I told her. And, um, she came into the church. She received baptism, [00:20:00] confirmation, had her marriage blessed. Her husband, who hadn't been to church in 25 years, went to confession so he could be her confirmation sponsor. I was her godmother.
Jenn: What? Wow.
Terry: I know. What if I hadn't gone up to her? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that's why I said, I'm just an ordinary person, but God in you just pushes just, I like to say it's not overwork. It's overflow. Yeah. It's overflow. That's so beautiful. you said hope is not wishful thinking. And you know, when you look up a biblical definition, it says.
It's confident expectation of what God has promised. And so you receive that and as you say, then it overflows, because you have that confidence in him and what he's given to you. So I love, um, second Corinthians four, 16 through 18. Therefore we do [00:21:00] not lose heart though. Outwardly we're wasting away and surely I am yet inwardly.
We are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And that's what hope does. It time travels our fate.
Yeah. So that we taste that eternity. So that we can overflow in encouragement, as well as be encouraged.
Jenn: I love that. Time travels our faith. I was thinking about how hope is tied to our faith. And so, if we're struggling with our faith, we might struggle with hope. For what, you know, we don't have that confident expectation.
So I [00:22:00] think that's, it's a good thing to point out. It's like, if, if you are struggling to grab hold of your faith in that moment. you might need assistance and so I love that you shared your story about the woman you met at the doctor's office because sometimes we need our brothers and sisters or our friends to come alongside us and infuse our faith or infuse hope in us for our faith.
Um, so that's so good. Love that.
Terry: And absolutely, I, I, but I also believe that our plan A should always be God. And then let him direct us to the right people or bring the right people, you know, rather than, immediately call a friend, pray, because he is real. I, I think our, our world is, is getting so far from the reality that there is a reality that is eternal and it's not this world.
And that's where the [00:23:00] openness to, through Unbound, to trust God's Word. And not all that garbage that was in my head. But trust God's Word has, has just transformed my life. Yeah. It makes me think back, too, to what you shared about the Lord. You know, sort of giving you the directive of don't go online, you know, like, and so if we are struggling with, with hopelessness or even if our faith is kind of down in the dumps, like what are we, what are we filling ourselves with in that moment?
And so I like your, your plan A is go to God, you know, what, go to him first. That's so good. And start with Thanksgiving. We all have something to be thankful for. The biggest that we were created, that we're alive. I mean, if we're afraid of what's happening to us or afraid we're going to die, let's at least be thankful that we're alive right now, you know?
So I think gratitude just, your hope increases in proportion to your gratitude. So that, that's what I do to [00:24:00] maintain hope. I just start thanking him for all the things that he has said and done. And you know, often in the old Testament, you know, you see the word, remember, remember, remember. So I don't let myself forget and I surround myself with people who won't let me forget either.
Jenn: Right, right. Oh, that's so good.
Terry: All the good things that he has done and be grateful for that and then just proclaim who he is. And that's where you need to be in scripture, you know, to know who he is, that he is who he says he is.
Jenn: Great. Love it. Love it. This is, I'm like, this is everything I dreamed this podcast would be.
I knew it.
I told you, listeners, she had something to share. So good. Oh, it's awesome. Well, we're kind of getting close to the end. Is there any last little nugget about hope or that you wanted to share that we didn't cover today?
Terry: I think the biggest fear, that that we have in our hearts, well, not the biggest [00:25:00] fear, but one of the fears is, is fear of pain.
Hmm. And knowing that Christ is experiencing everything with us. In, in, you know, he's outside of time, so on the cross he can, and currently, you know, everything that causes us pain that we go through, he is with us sharing that, carrying it, and sanctifying us through it.
you know, when you have physical pain or when you have torn out your heart pain, he is there with you and that sanctifies, , those moments of pain and that, that it gives it a purpose and a reason that without which life would just be utter disaster.
Jenn:Yeah. I'm so glad you mentioned that because I, I know, especially in this Time in, in our culture, [00:26:00] we are constantly numbing ourselves to avoid the pain.
Yeah. You know, and um, whether it's our phones or TV or whatever, but people are numb or alcohol, drugs, you name it. We're numbing ourselves to avoid things. And so that's such a beautiful reminder. And you pointed out to me one of your go-tos is Romans eight. Yeah. And I think this is, I think this is right, the verse 18, it says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Because we've identified with Jesus the Son, right?
Terry:Amen. Amen. So, wow. That's beautiful. I think that's a great, place to stop. The eternal glory. So Terry, would you just take a minute and pray for our listeners to close us?
Terry: Yes. Father God, we thank [00:27:00] you for all the people that will hear this. We're talking to you folks.
God loves you. God's plans and purposes for you are beyond anything that you can ask or imagine. Trust in his goodness. Taste and see that the Lord is good. He will never, ever, ever forsake or abandon you. He is Emmanuel, God with you.
He loves you, you are His child, and He has done everything for you. All He wants for you to do is to turn your eyes to him and seek him with all your heart. Just surrender everything to him now. Just empty it out. Give him all your pain, all your [00:28:00] hurt, all your fears, all the false lies that you are believing.
Just surrender them all to him and ask him, Lord, rule and reign over everything. Area of my life. I don't want to hold anything back I want to live for the praise of your glory and you will be satisfied He does not fail. His mercies are new every day. God bless you all. Amen
Jenn: Thanks for joining us today Terry that was incredible.
Terry: Thank you for asking.
It's incredible to be here, and thank you so much for all that you and your family have done to help bring so much people into the light of His grace.
Jenn: Thanks, Terri. Well, listeners, I can't imagine that you have not been infused with a little bit of hope, at least today, if not a lot, because I certainly have been.
[00:29:00] So, we continue to pray that you have been blessed, and, we look forward to it. Being with you again next week. Take care and God bless.