Is Church The New Counterculture? - Girls Gone Bible - #955

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Talk to me about what you think is driving this religious revival among young people at the moment.

**Angela Halili** (0:06)
Well, I think what's driving it is the Spirit of God Himself. I think that we are in such an interesting time in history right now, where it is basically what seems like the generation of the Internet and AI and social media. And at the same time, you literally have God, you have Jesus infiltrating the entire earth with His Spirit and reviving people's hearts towards spirituality. And that's why I feel like you see a rise in all of spirituality at the moment. And it is like the Holy Spirit coming and stirring everybody's hearts. And right now, specifically in Southern California and in so many different parts in the UK, so many different parts of the world, we all just know that the Lord is really getting ready to pour out His Spirit in a way that we haven't seen it in a long time.

**Chris Williamson** (0:59)
What do you think is missing from pop culture?

**Arielle Reitsma** (1:02)
Well, I just wanted to add on to that, that I think why revival is coming is because everyone's realizing that all these things aren't working anymore. Everyone is depressed, everyone is anxious, everyone is trying to fill a void. And the only thing that can fill that void is Jesus. And that's just the truth. And so I think everybody is trying to do all these things and they're like, wait a minute, I still feel so empty. And so then they come into relationship with Jesus and they're like, wait a minute, okay. And so I know that's our story. We were always so lost and empty and we tried everything. And then that's when we found Jesus and he filled that void that was always missing.

**Chris Williamson** (1:44)
What's the story of how you two met? What's the arc of how you ended up getting here?

**Arielle Reitsma** (1:49)
Oh, this is my favorite story.
My life was just in shambles. I was severely depressed. I was just, I was like on my way out. That's how depressed I was. My mind completely broke. I spent my whole life trying to fill the void and other things. And I always came up feeling very empty and alone and lost. I come from darkness. I come from the world. And I hit a wall and I was just on my way out. I met Jesus in a little Catholic church by my house. And I don't come from a household of faith. And so I remember calling my family and being like, I think I just found God. And they're like, what? All right, Arielle, you've gone crazy. And so I would sit in the pews in this little church and I would sit there for hours and just cry out to Jesus and be like, help me. I was, I didn't feel adequate in the church. Not that it's the church's fault, but I come from it. I don't come from a religious household. So I had been praying fervently, would you bring me a friend that is cut from the same cloth that can help me, that can do this walk with me, that can, you know, hold my hand through this. Five months later, I meet Angela at a job. I was crying in my hands. I was like struggling so much and she took my hand. I didn't even know she was there. I looked over at her and I was like, is that an angel? And yeah, Angela has just been my human angel. She had already been, what was it, three years into your faith, three years into her faith. And she showed me the Bible and she spoon fed it to me every day and it started healing my mind. And I come from a background that you needed to be on medication, you needed to do manifesting methods, you needed to go to psychics, you needed to do all these things.

**Angela Halili** (3:39)
And Alainia Chakras.

**Arielle Reitsma** (3:42)
And so she starts reading me the Bible and it completely started healing my mind and so we went on this beautiful journey together of chasing Jesus. Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:53)
It seems like you've discovered something other than the sort of Girls Gone Wild lifestyle that pop culture often pushes on young women. What do you think was missing there? What was it that was unfulfilling in everything that you've done? Because you guys had career success, an open trajectory, the opportunity to do stuff, Hollywood, LA lifestyle. I'm sure that you could have become it girls in a different way. What was missing from that previous life?