i have been leading worship for a very long time. in the past 5 or so years, i've really realized the call that God's placed on my life to be a worship leader and to further His kingdom in that way. since december of last year (after a crazy break-up and tons of awesome life changes and lessons that the Lord brought me through) i've been leading worship and actively attending substance church. this church is unlike any church you've ever been to. i promise. we believe that church begins once the services end (i know you're thinking, "what?!")...as in, we really believe that church should be a community and that you should be doing life with people from your community. whether it's playing sports with them, doing a Bible study with them, reading a particular book with them, eating at various restaurants with them...you get the idea. our subgroups (small groups) have a 116% attendance rate- meaning that people who don't even come to our church participate in them. it's crazy. it's one of the fastest growing churches in the united states and we just launched our fourth campus. i love, love, love my church and the stuff that God's doing there. never in my life have i been a part of something so life-giving and full of such substance.
shortly after i started attending substance, i met chad, who is currently in his second year of interning there. he has a degree in youth ministry and is actively waiting until God leads him to the next level in ministry. we startred dating in march of this year, and things have been incredible (as you've clearly seen in previous posts). as i got more involved at substance, more people of influence (pastors, ministry leaders, etc) had begun to ask me if i was thinking about interning this year. the thought of doing it really excited me, but i brushed it off because i teach full-time and the bill was too big for me to foot on my own. after more and more people approached me about it, i decided to pray about it and see if it was where God was leading me. my prayer was simply this: "Lord, this seems appealing to me, but i'm not sure if you want me to do it. if this is in Your will, please lead me toward it and make it happen!" doors continued to open and everything was great. as far as most were concerned, i was going to be the newest worship intern at substance. then the money came up. i needed to raise $3,500...and fast. the total amount was due on august 1st and i didn't have a penny to my name to give over for most of july! i prayed about it. i gave it over completely. i sent out support letters and kept in close contact with the guy in charge of the money for the interns. by the end of july, i had raised a little over a thousand dollars (including an incredible gift from both my parents & chad's parents- so blessed by them!), which wasn't even a third of the total cost. i had pretty much decided and accepted that this wasn't going to happen for me.
we had an intern retreat over the last weekend of july, ending with our first official intern sunday on august 1st. andrew (the money guy) told me to go on the retreat and that we would discuss it with pastor mark (who is in charge of the internship) when we got back. so, i went on the retreat. i was a bit fearful that the retreat would make me want to intern even more and then i would come back and find out that i couldn't do it. well...the first part is true. after that retreat, i knew, i just knew that God wanted me to intern at substance. i didn't know how it was going to happen, but i knew i was supposed to be there. we had our first sunday and everything was wonderful. i had begun to mesh well with the other interns and i loved spending so much time working so closely with chad. once we were dismissed and allowed to go home for the day, i approached andrew about the money sitch. he brought pastor mark over and began to discuss it (they had previously talked about it). pastor mark looked at me and said "angie, we want you here. just give us what you've got." i instantly started crying my eyes out and thanking God for His faithfulness. He is so good. i know he wants me at substance and i know i'm following His call on my life. He simply wanted me to give it over to Him and to completely trust Him...and to be okay with His will if it didn't include interning at substance. if there's one thing He's showing me right now, it's that He is just SO faithful. He promises all these blessings on my life, and i'm seeing them happen! God is so good. just so good! this internship has put a lot more on my plate lately, but i love serving in my church and doing the Lord's work. He is good.
"let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,
for He who promised is faithful."
Hebrews 10:23
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