Tahnida Nunes’ evolution

THEY say everything in life is a process, and 34-year-old Tahnida Nunes has undergone a complete transformation to find her true life’s purpose.

Loyal, passionate and honest, Nunes, the only girl of five children, grew up in Vineyard Town, St Andrew, and was raised in a 12 Tribes Rastafarian family. But despite the strong Rastafarian culture she was taught, she knew there was always something different about her.

“My mother would always say you have to be born a Rasta, but I would say, ‘No I’m not a Rasta’,” Nunes said as she recounted her resilient spirit.

A past student of Wolmer’s Girls’, Nunes continued to display her resilient spirit as she admitted making a choice from a very young age to elevate herself. This she did by following the footsteps of two girls in her community.

“Two girls were living there, Sheryl and Julie, and I emulated them. They went to Wolmer’s, I went to Wolmers, and I did whatever I needed to do to get out. They went to CAST (now UTech), I went to UTech and did my degree in hospitality and tourism management,” she said.

But after having a successful career as a young person, at 27, Nunes, the senior sponsorship manager at Digicel, transitioned, making the bold step from being a Rastafarian to serving Christ wholeheartedly.

“Everything started to go wrong emotionally, physically and in my personal life. I needed a change. I found myself going down a bad path; things were spiralling out of control. I made a lot of bad choices and I lost a lot during that era (2006-2007),” Nunes said.

“Growing up a Rasta, being told I am a Rasta and I knew I wasn’t a Rasta, I’d started to rebel, party a lot, and live a destructive life. I suffered from depression and I remember calling my mom and telling her I needed her help because I wasn’t coping well with everything that was happening in my life and she said, ‘Go back to your Rastafarian roots and get a little bit more grounded’,” she said.

It was at this point that research on His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie led her to Christianity as she found that he worshipped Christ.

“One night in my bedroom I cried out to God and I said, ‘If you are this Jesus they speak about, reveal yourself to me and help me out of this situation I’m in right now’, and since that everything in my life took off,” she said.

And so in 2008 Nunes got baptised and started worshipping at the Portmore New Testament Church. Apart from her transition to Christianity, she has also received the gift of prophecy from God.

“After getting baptised I met Christine Haber and she said to me, ‘You are going to do great things for the kingdom of God, you need to be activated, you just don’t know what’s inside you’. She invited me to her ministry — an evangelistic outreach dance ministry, called Priesthood Ministry. I started to travel with them, do different things and within four years it became worldwide,” she said.

In 2010 Nunes recalls getting word from God that she was going to Israel — back to the starting point — to start her worldwide ministry as a speaker. She got one instruction: pray and thank God for the trip, and she did just that.

As a result, on September 11, 2014, Nunes and Haber, along with Elvis Hunter, travelled to Israel, bound for Jerusalem, for two months, not only to visit but live among the people and walk in what she describes as Jesus’ footsteps.

“We didn’t want to just be tourists, we wanted to see what He went through. We saw the Bible come to life. We went to the River Jordan and got baptised there. We went to the Sea of Galilee, the Red Sea, Nazareth. We saw where He grew up, His home, where He ascended,” Nunes said.

“The Bible says ‘blessed are those who believe but have not seen’, but we actually went and saw it and everything came to life and it has changed our ministry. The trip to Israel was a huge sacrifice but preaching and evangelising is different than before. We did it for this nation and whosoever blesses Israel is blessed,” she said.

But with her prophetic gift she admits that people often misunderstand her and think she is absolutely crazy.

“People say I take things to an extreme level. I know what God has done for me, people are dying, young people are dying, there’s a calling on my life and I don’t go halfway. I’m a marketer and when I got saved God said, ‘I want you to market the gospel. I want young people to look at you and want to serve the God you’re serving’,” she said.

However, Nunes explained that many times people are fearful because the gift has been used in the wrong way for far too long.

“The gift of prophecy is misunderstood. It has been used in a way that God is not pleased with. Now He’s raising up people He can trust with His prophetic gift. It might scare people but like Elijah, you’re radical, and like Jeremiah you intercede on behalf of those who would have been destroyed. But first you pray and ask God for wisdom to use the gift wisely,” she said.

Nunes is also passionate about impacting the lives of young people.

“I know the life they’re living. I’ve lived it before and there’s a better way. Young people are always delaying and saying let me live out my life, have fun then give my life to the Lord, but that’s a misconception. Giving your life to Christ is like programming yourself to a GPS, instead of a series of trial and error, you’ll get to your destination, God has a pre-determined destination for you. It is different from going to church, when you have a relationship with Christ you do things differently,” she said.

She also encouraged people to have the right mentors because ” a mentor has the keys to your destiny”.

When not in ministry, Nunes spends time with her nephew Khai or her close friend Ayesha. Though she says her mother hasn’t necessarily been supportive, she has accommodated her as she experienced pain having been rejected by Nunes’ grandfather for becoming a Rastafarian, and only reconciled their relationship when he was dying.

However, she has no regrets and believes that all things work out together for those that love God and are called according to His purpose.

“You have to know yourself and know when your season changes. It’s been an evolution. I couldn’t have a testimony without a test and what I love about my past is that it makes me believable. It’s a process and the longest, darkest and most irrelevant parts are what gave me my strength to continue. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”