5/30/22 - Nothing Wasted, Part 2: 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 face shine through. It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The, sheWorks4Him, podcast it at 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. And I know today that is gonna be a very special conversation that we're gonna have.

It's actually part two with our guest Angela Mitchell. So if you are tuning in and you're. Up to speed on everything we've been talking about. You can go back and listen to part one. And you can just hear how God has been working in Angela's life. But friends right now, I just wanna remind you and connect you to an opportunity that Christian working women have from all over the country to come together in Orlando, June 23rd, through 26th for an event called Boss Woman Getaway.

So you can look at the show notes to get the details and the links to check it out for yourself. But it's for every woman, Christian woman, whether they're an executive, a manager, a supervisor, entrepreneur, team leader, stay at home, mom, whatever your role might be, it's gonna be a collaborative platform where you can come together and exchange dialogue and topics and issues that are pertinent to empowering you, the Christian working woman.

So I hope that you will check out that link and see for yourself if that's something that God has in store for you for this summer. Little time in Orlando never hurt anybody . You can get some extra sunshine in those June months, which is a, is a warm and beautiful time of year to be here.

So thank you for joining us. Check out that in the show links. And remember, you can just follow us on any of the social media platforms that you love to hang out on. We are there with you and I just look forward to the conversation today, Nadya.

Nadya: I do too. And you just mentioned about how Boss Woman is there to empower women. That was my word for 2022 empower, and God has been revealing that more and more. I really believe that our conversation with Angela today will really help bring empowerment by infusing courage and hope, especially now, you know. The last two years have been really just unbelievable and have had so many consequences and implications with so many.

It, it really feels like we've been facing so much adversity. Mm-hmm and we wonder, how is this all going to fall into place? Are we ever going to see victory? Well, as Christian working women, the answer is yes. We are more than overcomers and we're victors, not victims. And so today we're going to hear the second part of Angela Mitchell's story, her life story about how nothing is wasted and maybe you are in the hallway after a door has closed for you, and you're waiting for God to open another door.

Regardless of your past, regardless of experiences or tragedies, you know, God is redemptive and he can take any mess and make it a message. Mm-hmm . Today we're gonna talk to Angela for the second part of our conversation. She owns and operates a number of Chick-fil-A franchises in the Charlotte area with their husband and together, they walked through family tragedy.

And this - it's it's really it's hard to hear it, but what I know about her and about her story is that she is galvanized by the holy spirit. And she is now a messenger of healing, of redemption, of hope. And Through her story. She's gonna share more of that today, but even their marketplace position here in the Charlotte area.

They're very excited about what God's doing in their lives right now as leaders in the kingdom as marketplace leaders. So we're gonna go to Concord, North Carolina to have a conversation with Angela Mitchell today. Angela, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Angela Mitchell: Thanks so much for having me.

Martha: You know, I wanna just have you quickly recap where we're at in our conversation with you, right. And we know that your story's not done. Right? You know, God, God weaves a tapestry of our life. That, that hopefully goes all the way to the end. And you very early on, you talked about, you know, a lot wanting God to write a, a legacy story in your life. So why don't you just catch us up in maybe 30 seconds? I know that's quick - as to where we're at in our conversation with you.

Angela Mitchell: Well, you know, I think it comes down to this. Martha, when tragedy comes, we have an opportunity for how we're going to respond. We can choose that it can define us, or we can choose that it can destroy us.

And that was the option. When our son Coleman went to heaven, we knew we were faced with an option. Our kids were watching the trajectory we would take. And so were many others that were around us. So we declared at that moment that we would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And we were gonna hang on. If that was all it felt like we were doing was just hanging on. We were gonna trust him as faithful.

Martha: Mm. You know. So when I think about the fact that at the time that Coleman went to heaven, you already owned your Chick-fil-A's, right?

Angela Mitchell: We did.

Martha: Mm-hmm I was thinking about that. And the fact that not only your customers, but your employees were watching, to see how you responded. Can you just talk about that ministry for a moment? Because one of the things that I know is that when we hear stories on the news, we often don't get to put ourselves in the shoes of the people after the fact. You know, how did they respond? How do they live out life every day?

And so just take a moment there and talk about how God used your workplace ministry, right, with your employees as you walked through that grief, right?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. It really was a challenge. And, and even for a season, we all stepped away from the business because being around people - while that is healthy - being around people who don't know how to respond and can often respond in ways that, they mean no ill regard, but they often just aren't received that way.

You know, for example, oftentimes people like to encourage you with, he'll make beauty for ashes. You know, joy will come in the morning. Well, you know what, they are all his truth. They are all his promise. But even as they would quote the scripture beauty for ashes over me, I really wanted to holler at the top of my lungs: do you realize though, that for this season, I'm unrecognizable? I have been reduced to ashes that the Lord now has to rebuild me. Do you realize what you're saying to me? So, you know, there was a season that we had to pull away so that the Lord could refresh us, not heal us in a short period of time.

Yeah, because that's a journey of many years, but, but that he could just begin to allow us to begin just like Jacob to walk with the limp. But knowing that we've met with the Lord and that he was guiding us through this, and sometimes let's face it, whether it's your journey or mine, Often knowing that people are watching our journey.

I'm just gonna be really honest for a little bit. That made me a little angry. I didn't care if people were watching, watching what I was doing, I was mad that everybody would kind of put that type of pressure on me and, or they would see me out in public and maybe I'm dressed and I have my makeup on and my hair done and they would respond with, oh, you seem to be doing so great.

They just had no idea. And You know, grief is at the end of the day, it's you in a pillow, you know, it is you, your tears and the Lord, that's all. And it's good and it's bad and it's ugly and it's painful, but it is just that it's a journey. And yes, people were watching and particularly our two living sons were watching, you know?

Martha: And Angela, one of the things that and I, before we go to break, I wanna talk about the - real quick - the fact that you were still in that season when God brought something else your way, and it may have been very confusing in the flesh to say, why Lord, why now are you opening another door for another opportunity? So when we come back, we're gonna talk about this approach of, you know, them wanting to use your home, to film the movie War Room.

And how God used that, you know, what seems maybe to some people to be surreal to help you in this process. So we'll be right back with more with Angela Mitchell after this short break. You're listening to us, 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 cons. Site a cubicle, a hospital or a classroom, 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 in 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 Bragenberg. We're talking today with Angela Mitchell and Angela, thank you so much for being real, for being honest, for allowing others to hear your story. Because it's, it is, it can be life changing for someone to hear what someone else has gone through. So Nadya, where, where should we go with this conversation?

Nadya: Yeah. Well, we just talked about how something extraordinary came, something unexpected came, and it was an invitation that probably didn't make sense at the time. And Angela, you alluded earlier in the show, maybe it was the last one that you were asked to open your home, which was a sacred space for you. And so tell us what happened.

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. So often people ask when they know that we have a connection with the War Room, did we know the Kendrick brothers? How did all of that happen? But the, the story is we actually shared a common friend, who felt a nudge from the Lord that he was to bring them to our home. And this was to be part of our story of redemption. So, you know, as Steven and Alex came, they stood around our kitchen table and we began to pray.

Their words were this: perhaps your wounds are too fresh for what an opportunity like this might look like - a hundred-ish people in your home, you need to be displaced for several weeks. And oh, by the way, your home, that's only about 15 months old, we're gonna reduce some of it. . And so, you know, maybe, maybe this is too big of an opportunity or maybe this is just what we need to serve the enemy notice he doesn't win.

Well, that was all they had to declare and there were tears around the whole table. As we prayed, we prayed over this opportunity. We asked for God to be present. I look at Roland. Roland looks at me. And we knew only God himself could have ordained this moment. And we immediately said, yes. You know, when God gave us this home, it was simply ours to steward and we prayed it would be used for ministry. That wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but it was the opportunity that we knew God was extending.

Nadya: Wow. And I do. I do remember you talking about praying through your house. That was real. You guys did that before the movie about prayer, the power of prayer. And even some of the connections I'm seeing about how you're serving the enemy notice he's not gonna win this war. And here is a movie about the War Room .

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it, we really stood in disbelief that the Lord would extend this opportunity to us, for our home to be used for the power to be brought, to have people praying for six weeks, walking our property line, praying over this film, praying over our family, praying into our story.

And that again, that God would give us, you know, this opportunity. And I think the most beautiful part of this was when Steven and Alex brought us into Roland's office. And they said, we'd like to ask you a question. We can't imagine what your journey has looked like. We can't imagine the pain that you are walking, but with your permission, Alex would like for his character name in the movie War Room to be Coleman.

And so to the heart of a grieving parent, the hardest thing is the silence of their name. And so that was one of the things that we were struggling with. But again, I serve a God who writes a better story. And while the enemy thought that it would be the silence of his name, the Lord said, oh, no, I will only catapult this. To over 80 nations his name will go out.

So the Lord, no matter what our grief... you know, my grief is specific to our son going to heaven. You know, grief looks like miscarriage. It looks like divorce. It looks like infertility. It looks like the loss of a business. It can be so multifaceted. It's something we all walk, but trusting in God that he will write a, a better narrative and a greater story to all this, it's the hope that we all have.

Nadya: Amen. Amen.

Martha: So not many of us are gonna have a home that becomes a movie set. But what, what can you... transfer? What can you, what you learned in that time that maybe, you know, that other Christian working women need to hear what was it about laying all that down and allowing God to use even those fresh hurts and pains that, that God really brought to some healing? And like you said, redemption, I hear this theme of redemption that God brought through the, the movie. How did that all fit together?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. You know, the Lord is so good in all that. And I think it even ties back to some of our earlier conversations, that it just begins for our willingness in our personal life and in our professional life, just our yes of surrender that indicates to the Lord: I release all of my control to, to you, Lord. I'm trusting that when we said yes to hosting, you know, that was just a fun thing, but that yes, led to a plan. It led to our work in Africa.

Our yes to Steven and Alex Kendrick led to our hearts being surrounded by a, by an entire summer, because I think the other piece of when you're going through grief or challenges of any sort, isolation becomes the enemy's playground. And the Lord made sure in that season and in our summer that we were completely surrounded by the likes of Dr. Tony Evans and Lois who were here on set. As he does devotions at the pool out back. And literally I would look out and have to have someone pinch me that this truly was happening, or to be able to spend the summer with Priscilla Shire and her family. And to have them here. No, the Lord was intentional in connecting, like he promises to do to all of us. No, it may not look like the War Room, but the Lord is equally intentional in all, all of our journeys.

Martha: Mm, it's so good. Such, such powerful words for us to be hearing today, no matter what our journey looks like. And, you know when sometimes I think it, it's a good reminder that sometimes when we look at people's lives and we know that they've had something hard, but they look fine or they look like they're... you know, there's so much that God has done in their individual lives. And Angela, you've let us get a little taste of that from your life that - no, it's not been easy. No, it has been stretching beyond your wildest imagination.

Angela Mitchell: Yes.

Martha: But the redemption that comes through it and the way that God is using that for his glory in your workplace today, in your neighborhood. I can't even imagine, you know. That's a whole other show as far as the impact that that has had on the people just watching and observing how many people watched the movie that it would've never gone, just because they're like, huh, this is, this is my neighbor's house or whatever? I don't even know those stories, but I'm just imagining.

So when we come back, I wanna talk about where you guys are at now, what God has you doing and what that looks like in your own family, with you and your husband and your work. So we'll be right back with more from Angela Mitchell after a short break. Thanks for listening to sheWorks4Him. Talk to you in a minute.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken Podcast Network. online at awakenpodcastnetwork.com with over 130 different podcast voices speaking truth into you, the workplace believer. Including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women. Go online to AwakenPodcastNetwork.com that's AwakenPodcastNetwork.com.

Nadya: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. And we are finishing our incredible conversation today with Angela Mitchell.

So Angela, you and Roland are at a brand new chapter of your life, a new journey. You've been in business for a number of years now, successfully, but you both are journeying into ministry school together. Tell me more about that.

Angela Mitchell: Well in January of this year, we felt like God extended an invitation for us to join and partner with The Altar School of Ministry with our pastor and prophet, Jeremiah Johnson. Jeremiah moved his ministry from Florida here to the Concord area last year.

But again, the surrender of yes, we said yes to again, an invitation we knew was from him. We didn't know what school required. We didn't know what the schedule looked like. We literally knew nothing about it, but we felt the prompting of the Lord that he was drawing our hearts into a deeper place, into sweeter intimacy with him.

And the school's whole focus is on preparing marketplace ministers, as we prepare for the wedding day of Christ's return. So that our influence is all about that. And so it's pulled us into this sweet spot. And one of the statements that Jeremiah talks about with our school is this: our call is temporary. Our storyline is eternal.

And so although we've lived out faith in our Chick-fil-A: treating people well, praying over people, all the things that were expected, I always looked at the eternal lens, knowing there's an eternity, knowing that the Lord's returning, but there's been a shift within all of that to now look at everything that we do through an eternal lens, for everything that he's, you know, equipping us to do. And that small shift has begun to change everything.

Martha: Mm. So tell me what some of those things are, because this is the practical, this is - christian working women, ears wide open listening and saying, okay, if I'm to shift from, you know, my calling is temporary meaning here and in the flesh on earth, but our, but our, our story is eternal. How is that playing out in your work?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah. I, I think for me, even going back to this, the Lord was calling us to a deeper intimacy and a deeper place of understanding. We can't focus on the things that are eternal in our personal life, or in our spiritual life, if that time of being marinated by his presence doesn't exist.

So how then do we transfer that to our work environment, to our family, to our neighbors, to all of those people in, in a practical way, showing that he is marking us for eternity? Well, it comes from spending our time in the sweet spot of him because what's prepared in prayer and not spent time there can't multiply into the, the blessings and the benefit he wants to show us in our marketplace to, to walk him out.

Well, if we're first not being marinated in the richness of that. So the process is our time with him begins to change everything.

Nadya: Hmm. That's so good, Angela. You know, what's interesting to me is that I've always seen you as a marketplace minister and you went to the school at Evangel. And so you've been through this journey and now it's like a deeper place where you're taking what you've heard in private. Yes. And now it's transferring to the public platform in your, in your workspace as a trainer, as an owner. As a mentor, you're still educating these young people that end up working at Chick-fil-A most of the time. It's these young people, and so you're transferring something eternal to them because of the time you spent in the chamber.

I love that. I love that. Thank you for sharing this incredible story with us. Yeah. Do you wanna share with us your life verse or a scripture that's been most meaningful to you?

Angela Mitchell: Yeah, and I, and I will try to, to do that quickly. You know, I think as we walk out our faith in our life and in the marketplace, I'm reminded of the powerful women in the Bible. You know, we need the boldness of Deborah to fight a battle. We need the faith of a Hannah to believe for those things. We need the courage of a Ruth to say, if it costs me everything, I'm still in. And finally we need the, the ability of a Miriam to plan in advance of what she was gonna see to prepare for the other side of the sea.

So we need the boldness of those things. And I could say, you know, my favorite verse and, and my driving verse is absolutely John 6:12, "for God says: gather the pieces, nothing - let nothing be wasted." That's the story of our lives. God uses every valley, every mountaintop, the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, every piece of it to form our journey.

Or I could tell you my favorite verse is Micah 7:8 that says, "don't vote over me my enemy. Though, I have fallen, I will rise." And enemy, you will realize you overplayed your hand. Or lastly, I could tell you that the life verse where our entire family has kept camped is in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

And it talks about not focusing on what is seen, but focusing on the things that are eternal, because those are the things that will last, you know. And the message Bible, if you have a chance to read, it is so powerful because it talks about "how could we give up? Even though on the outside, it's wasting away. He's unfolding new grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times. The lavish celebration, he has prepared. There's more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow, but the things we can't will last forever." And finally, the last sentence that carries over on into chapter five is this.

In the message Bible: "the spirit of God, wets our "appetite for giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little heaven in our hearts that we'll never settle for anything less." And friends, that's what God wants us to do - to execute everything that we do through the lens of eternity.

Nadya: Amen.

Martha: Angela Mitchell. It has been an amazing two part conversation, but I know that God's not done. There's so much more that he's writing in each one of our lives. Yes. If we make sure that we hold open handedly his plan. So thank you so much for being our guest today. You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Nadya Dickson. We're Christian working helping other Christian working women 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 yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. 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@sheworksforhim.com that's she works the number four, him.com. This podcast was created to empower you to live out your calling at works. So the world knows sheWorks4Him.