5/23/22 - Nothing Wasted, Part 1: Angela Mitchell

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him. Podcast is the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work. By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. We are your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson.

And, you know, I was thinking about this whole idea about connecting Christian working women to your resources. And I'm very excited about an event that's coming. That, um, we have agreed to share the news with other people. So I want to share with you that there is an event that you are invited to in Orlando, Florida, June 23rd, through 26.

And it's by Dr. Perdita Meeks and it's called Boss Woman Getaway. And I just want to share this one little thing. They say the conference getaway will showcase, showcase women leaders, whether you're an executive manager, supervisor, entrepreneur, team leader, or stay at home. Mom, we've created a collaborative platform that will promote the exchange of dialogue on topics and issues pertinent to empowering.

And it goes on to share more about that. We'll have the, that the link for this event in our show notes today. But I want to make sure that I share it because this is what we're all about is lifting up what God's doing across the world. And maybe even in your. Backyard in Orlando, Florida, but you could fly in whatever.

We'll have the links there. You can check it out for Christian working women in all stages of life to just really dig in and, um, get some encouragement and some equipping. So I wanted to highlight that you can find. More about, sheWorks4Him by going to, sheWorks4Him.com and remember find our YouTube channel and subscribe because there's a fun aspect of being able to watch each other as we're having a conversation and feel a little bit more like we're sitting across the table. Nadya.

Nadya: Thank you, Martha. That sounds exciting. And who doesn't want to go to Orlando? Um, I'm excited if you talked about the backyard of Orlando, I'm here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I get to visit with someone today from my backyard, but, um, let me give you a little bit of an introduction first and, um, just encourage you.

So maybe you're facing adversity. Um, you're wondering, how is everything going to fall into place in your personal and work life? Maybe you feel like you're in the hallway. Maybe a door has just closed and you're waiting for God to open another door. Well, today we're going to hear how God can take a myriad of experiences, resumes, workplace, victories, and even tragedy and turn it around for his glory.

Our guest today owns and operates a number of Chick-fil-A franchise locations in the Charlotte area with her husband and together they've journeyed, um, not just in the workplace, but through tragedy and in 2013, um, they overcame a family event.

She's going to share it with that, uh, share about that today, but her heart's desire has been to heal. And to guide others in their healing. So we know that you're going to be encouraged today, and I love her resolve. She is serving the enemy notice that his plan to destroy her and others through this type of pain, it's only given her purpose to make him pay.

Well, uh, Angela and her husband, Roland, a daily practice, the integration of their faith with their work. And now they're even more excited about their marketplace position for the kingdom than they've ever been. So today we're actually going to Concord. That's the backyard of Charlotte, North Carolina, Angela. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Angela Mitchell: Thanks so much for the invitation. Thank you so much. I am truly honored that you all would select to, to hear our story and just let us pour into and encourage others.

Nadya: I'm excited. I'm excited about. Before we get there. And, and what it even looks like to connect your faith with your work. Tell us first how you became a follower of Jesus.

Angela Mitchell: You know, I am very fortunate and very blessed to have come from a family of faith. My parents, my grandparents, my extended family, but I was seven when I asked the Lord into my heart, but I, I actually love how my mom tells the story because she says I came out of my playroom.

I told her that I felt like the Lord had touched. And that I wanted to ask him into my heart. It was sweet. She was ironing outside my little toy room and she just knelt down and led me to salvation. You know, I, I wish that my life had taken that perfect course, but kind of like the Israelites, there were moments where I chose my own way, but I'm so grateful for the Lord's continued call back to his heart.

Martha: You know, it, it is amazing when we hear authentic stories like that, where you just, I mean, as a child, you know, you didn't ha we don't think three-dimensionally yet. And yet we know without a shadow of a doubt that you were prompted in that. Yeah to make a decision. I hope that that's an encouragement, even just in that conversation.

As moms, as aunts, as friends and grandmas, that we continue to pray for the children around us, because we never know, um, what, when their heart is in it, get that soft point where the Lord really touches their lives. So thanks for sharing that. So one of the things Angela, that I, um, have heard about you is that you were an educator before you were in business as a business owner. So where along that journey, did you understand that your work actually mattered to God?

Angela Mitchell: Yes, you're right. I began in the field of education, which was my major, um, fulfilment for about 10 years. And then the Lord opened the opportunity for my husband and I to open our first Chick-fil-A. And I knew my education always mattered to him.

He deposited that desire when I was a young girl to be a teacher. And so I always felt like I tried to carry his heart into the classroom because I always believed that he handpicked those students that were to be in my room, that, that wasn't by a chance or by a lottery, or it was because the Lord selected them, that what they had, I needed.

And prayerfully what I had they needed in return. So whether it was education or our Chick-fil-A opportunity, where I knew beyond shadow of a doubt, there are so many miracles to our, even having the opportunity to have been selected that our Chick-fil-A was the Lord's when we started. And it remains his today.

Martha: So let's camp on that just for a second, because, um, God gave you a desire to be a, I'm assuming a teacher, like what level did you teach? What was

Angela Mitchell: your level?

Well, I, when I had gone to college, I had majored in early childhood elementary and special ed in, at different points was involved in all of that. The beautiful thing, even going from education to Chick-fil-A. ,I knew that those roads intersected. Um, when, when we came into Chick-fil-A I still realize I had opportunities with high schools where I spoke to marketing classes. I still had fundraising opportunities and we still had teams at Chick-fil-A that needed trained and coached. So I do feel like all of those roads shared a lot of commonality.

Martha: Yeah, it is amazing how, you know, our experience. God doesn't waste that he may shift it and it may look different and you may not have a as a classroom, you know, four walls that you are in. But yet I imagine every day that you are using those teaching skills in one way or another. When we come back, we're going to hear more of your story.

Angela Mitchell. Thank you for being with us here. We'll be right back with more on, sheWorks4Him.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a.

Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer and invest. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him with your cohost Nadya Dickson and Martha Brangenberg. We are here with Angela Mitchell today, and we're just getting started in your story, Angela. But one of the things I already see as help God has just woven, um, uh, a script in your life that you, you would have probably never written for yourself, but if God has, is using every aspect of your life for his glory, and I can't wait to get into that a little bit more.

So what I want to know right now is you, um, we kind of jumped forward, but you and your husband, you, you left education technically and have how many Chick-fil-As do you guys have?

Angela Mitchell: Well, we have two freestanding Chick-fil-A restaurants and a location that's inside of a bank.

Martha: Okay. Wow. Inside of a bank. So you can eat Jesus chicken and make a deposit.

Angela Mitchell: Absolutely.

Martha: How about that? I have not heard of that one. That's awesome.

So while you guys have been growing your business in your ministry, really your family was introduced to a, what you would consider a life changing ministry. Why don't you tell us about that?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. In January of 2013, the Watoto children's choir from Uganda, Africa was going to be performing at our church. And so kind of one of those things on a whim, a simple, yes, we signed up to host five little boys and two uncles for what we thought was just going to be a really fun experience. We just had no idea how the Lord was about to transform a simple yes into what we couldn't then imagine.

Martha: So what, what was that thing that you couldn't imagine? Maybe tell us a little bit more about Watoto so that we understand that. Yeah, I have a feeling I've seen them, but, um, tell us, tell us about it and then how that, what did actually the impact it was on you guys?

Angela Mitchell: Sure. Watoto ministries is about 40 years old, a little over, it was founded by Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Um, they moved their family. They transferred to Uganda where they did life. Initially, starting out rescuing orphans, um, abandoned children, they were brought to them and that's how it began. Currently, the ministry does not just receive orphans, but they also bring in the widows. And, um, the beautiful part of that ministry is maybe they, they bring them in. They teach them a skill. They begin to teach them about the Lord. And for two years they're discipled into healing and then they are released having learned a trade. Maybe they become a tailor. Maybe they do hair. Maybe they make soap. But then we equip them with the tools necessary, the knowledge necessary to then be able to care for their children.

And so it started out multifaceted, but the choir that came that's a lot of how Watoto does some of their fundraising opportunities is the choir travels around around the world, not just to the state. And they probably have performed that many of your local churches and you may have seen them before. So that's a little back history of that.

Martha: So you inserted the pronoun we, um, into there. So obviously you've become involved in that, um, that ministry. So what does that look like for you and your family?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, so, um, after hosting the Watoto children's choir, when they were about to leave, we were blessed because oftentimes families only get them for an evening. We were blessed because we got to host from a Sunday and didn't have to take the kids back to the church until the Tuesday. And so the Lord used that time to deposit deep seed in a very short period of time. And so when they left were all in tears, the kids didn't want to go to school. Our three sons were on the computer trying to figure out how we're going to get to Uganda.

Our son Coleman began to realize they have a school of ministry, a gap year that he began to talk to his youth pastor about. I think I'm going to look into Watoto 360 and maybe you could help me get to Uganda. So he thought mom and dad said, no, maybe youth pastor could help. So it became this joy of our family in, in ways that we couldn't understand, but it really showed us the significance of what seemed like a simple, yes, turned into something very different. So as we, um, you know, began to move into that, that was in January of 2013. It wasn't until April of 23rd, 2013 that our family was faced with our tragedy.

And that was the sudden Homegoing of our son Coleman. And he was dealing with some side effects from a medication that he was being given. He was weaned off incorrectly and in doing so, took his life. A decision that he would have never made otherwise, except for the adverse effects of a medication on his young brain.

So we, um, you know, knowing his heart for Uganda and everything we knew at that moment, we really had a choice. We had a choice that we could pursue legacy in those things that would have eternal consequences, or we could pursue malpractice, which we felt justified in having done. But we knew in choosing malpractice, the wounds of our heart would lay raw for a very long period of time because a court case would be seven to 10 years, um, and much involved with that. And so I can't tell you that decision was easy. It was fought. It was full of anger and tears and counsel, as we saught for people to pour into us. But in the end to wrap that part up, we allowed the Lord to be our vindicator.

We laid down our right to justice. That the Lord would fight for us. And we began to pursue what would be legacy and what would bring honor to our son's name and more importantly to the Lord and how we were about to walk this out.

Nadya: Wow. Wow. And so tell me a little bit more about the power of the yes. You know, you said yes. Um, I know Coleman was really excited about pursuing more and getting involved with Watoto. Where did all that lead?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, I think the significance of our yes is rarely immediately realized. It may be immediately realized. It may be months later that re we realize why we said yes to certain things, but I know in our healing journey and the end of this month will be nine years.

It grieves me that I even say nine years, but how the Lord has been so tender in revealing to our hearts as if kind of peeling back the layers of an onion ministering to our brokenness when he knew our hearts were then indeed ready. And so the benefit of our yes, you know, as we can now reflect the beautiful thing and showing God's goodness, we see that the Lord allowed Coleman from January until April, when he took new residents in heaven, that he left Coleman here for four months to begin to walk us into what would become our healing.

And those things wouldn't have easily been received. And, you know, for example, again, that yes, in year five, as I was having a conversation with a girlfriend about our trips to Africa and our journey there and what this looked like, the Lord very clearly spoke to my heart and said, I didn't give Watoto to Coleman, I gave it to you. You know, see the Lord in his goodness knew the number of Coleman's days and what would and will not be fulfilled. But he knew that we would pick up that Baton and run with legacy and the Lord entrusted us to that.

Martha: You know, what, what a, what a powerful conversation around choosing yes. To lean into legacy rather than, you know, vindication. And I am just enamored by this conversation because I think a lot of our listeners may be in different places where we have choices to make.

We have to say, Lord, what it, how do you want me to respond to hurt or loss or grief that they're in right now? And, um, I think that this is something that we don't talk about a lot, you know, laying aside our, our fleshly desires. Um, of, of revenge or whatever that might look like for somebody and saying, Lord, I want to do what you want me to do.

And, um, so Angela, we're going to talk more about that. When we come back after break and listeners, there's so much to this conversation, I just want to let you know it is going to end up being a two part conversation. So we are, we are just really going to take the time to, uh, to learn some things from the story that God's been writing in Angela and her family's life.

We'll be right back with more from, sheWorks4Him right after this break.

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Martha: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him where today Nadya and I are having the opportunity to talk with Angela Mitchell and Angela, you have experienced some hard experiences in life that I would not wish on anyone, but God's written a story through it that is so much bigger and you acknowledge that.

And the fact that you just shared with us, how you as a family, decided to allow God to write a legacy story rather than a revengeful story. And, um, I, I want to take a minute here to kind of bring this home a little bit to the listener as we continue to hear your story and how God is, is writing more and more chapters and using it in different ways.

So let's pick it up here. You know, you were introduced to Watoto. Coleman, really opened your eyes and kind of opened the door to that through his little journey with being so interested in them. Tell me more, tell us more about, um, how God used that in your lives and what, what continued to happen as it unfolded.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, You'd never understand the value of your yes. You never know those places where even in the midst of your greatest tragedy, you are going to find peace because you're trusting in him to guide the ship. You know, I, I know that peace in the midst of such tragedy, doesn't make sense, but isn't that God's economy: peace in the midst of our storm, all of those things that he does promise. You know, I've often heard it said the greatest revenge we pay on hell is our endurance. And you know, that, that became my, uh, the passion for me really through all of this. And it was that: enemy, you think you're going to take me out. Well you may knock me down, but I'm coming back because I was so angered that he thought he would get this on me. He didn't win. He wasn't gonna win.

And we were trusting in what we knew that the Lord was already doing. And because we settled before we got into these places, that God was good. No, I didn't understand his ways and there's much to that, but I settled before we got into this place that he's a good God. So I could pull on that character. Although at that time, his word and my reality seemed to be on two different roads at that moment, but I knew I could still trust him as good. And because his character had already been settled.

Martha: You know, I just was listening this morning to the worship station 24 7, which is what I listened to on my phone when I'm in the shower in the morning.

And the song this morning was the, the song Scars. And I'm thankful for the scars. And you know, when the wound is healing, it's really sore. It hurts. We're not grateful for it, but that scar reminds us of what God has done and how, and I mean, there's just so many pictures that go with that, that song.

But, um, I just thought of that as you were sharing, You know, we don't want the wound. We don't, you know, we don't invite that, but we're thankful for what God does in the process and where he's brought you to today. So give us just a little peek into what God did next, and then we'll unpack that more in our next episode with you.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. So in 2014 we knew we experienced another absolutely God appointment moment that could have never happened. Except for the connection of a great friend to an opportunity for our home to be used in a movie and which was never on the radar, but when we were still so fresh in grief, the fact that the Lord would even sidetrack us just for a little bit, to give us an opportunity to explore this, whether it happened or not, that was all up to him.

But to have had just a little bright spot in our grief journey. Again, we were willing to say yes for whatever the Lord might have in store.

Martha: So tell the listeners what movie that is, so that there'll be intrigued and, and wanna hear more about it.

Angela Mitchell: Well, in 2014, we had the divine appointment moment of coming to meet Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who at that time were producers of Flywheel, um, facing the giants, fireproof and courageous, and a common friend knew they were looking for a location to host their new movie. And so he felt the nudge of the holy spirit that he was to bring them to our home. And this was supposed to be about redemption. And that movie that they did choose to film in our home was the war room.

Martha: We'll share more of that story in our next episode. Nadya, why don't you just take a moment here to just to thank Angela and, and our listeners.

Nadya: Yeah. Well, Angela, thank you so much for sharing such a, um, real and vulnerable story. And, you know, I can't help, but get emotional because I watched Angela, you know, process that, um, authentically. I saw you, um, just be strong for people around you even. And I just remember some of the, um, some of the moments that we shared as we, you know, would connect at church. And so to hear you, um, on this side of it, Angela, and, and what God has woven together and how you're telling this story, it's a miracle.

And so I just thank you for being here. I'm excited about the next episode. I know that God is going to be glorified even more, and our listeners are going to be so encouraged for such a time as this. So thank you again for being with us today.

Martha: Thank you, Angela. And we'll be back with part two, but you've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your cohosts, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working to live out their calling at work, as sheWorks4Him!

Outro: As Christian women, we have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator. Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you how written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce.

sheWorks4Him, discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman. Pick up a copy by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. You've been listening to the, sheWorks4Him podcast with your host, Catherine Gates, Nadya Dickson, and Martha Brangenberg. Please like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube under sheWorks4Him and to access any of the resources we mentioned on today's.

See the show notes at sheWorks4Him. Dot com that's she works the number four kim.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling. It works. The world knows sheWorks4Him.