Angie’s story
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalms 139:13 NLT
My journey started long before I was aware. On a UV index of 10, I was exposed at like a 2 when I was growing up. I have very little memory from my time at a Catholic school for my kindergarten year. When we moved to Missouri, my brother, Mikey, and I did go to Awana at a Baptist church there in town, but that seemed short lived. I didn’t acknowledge faith much until high school, when I started going to YoungLife. It impacted me in a positive way but it wasn’t until the following years that my journey truly began.
God was chasing me down. He didn’t stop. It was 2018, I had graduated from high school and moved in with my brother while attending college in Springfield, MO. This is where my plans had fallen apart. I quit college and was in search of a new job. CNA work tore me up, emotionally and physically. I finally landed a job. Alter’d State, an Christian boutique. I met one of my best friends, Kallie, there. We were surrounded by cute clothing, wall decor with scriptures, and Christian music always playing. All these small seeds being deposited. Kallie and I were “new” to all of it. We both had a desire to find out more. She is the biggest blessing to me, we didn’t have to search for a church alone. We decided to go together. We attended Life.Church and we heard Craig Groschel give a message on perfectionism. It was something I very much struggled with.
There’s freedom in knowing that Jesus was and is the only perfect person. We don’t have to try to be perfect, we can’t, we are all sinners in need of help. This is where my entire life was flipped upside down. I could give it all away.. I didn’t have to hold it all in my own two hands. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” God is so much bigger and he cares so much for us that we can give Him our everything. Our hurt, our sorrow, our mistakes, our wins, our dreams. There’s nothing too big or too small for our God.
My life at that time, felt dark and hollow. I was alone and lost. But in a moment, standing in that congregation, surrounded by strangers and Kallie, my heart and eyes were opened. The light had cracked and then flooded through, as if the walls of the dam I had built up around my heart broke. And to be honest, I lost it, I began to bawl. I had felt the weight of my past lift from me. And from there on, I was all in. I quickly gave my life to Jesus, and decided to be baptized shortly after. I was ready to jump into young adult small groups but God’s plan for my life took a turn. Which is when I made my way to Indiana.
I tried “church shopping” but nothing felt right. I had a coworker at the time, Ethan, who invited me to a pickleball small group at the church he went to, Your Venture Church. Which also turned out to be the church my step-dad’s mother went to. Mason and I made a lot of our “friends” upset when we first started dating. And had a big falling out with them. We were so worried about what they might say. But that night at pickleball, I found confirmation in that devotional. “Sometimes God will remove people from your life to make room for those who need to be apart of it.”
From that point on, I’ve been trying my best to listen to what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me, and follow His lead.
