By Daniela Argueta –
In a twist on the worldly term “Girls Gone Wild,” glam girls Angie and Ari launched a YouTube podcast called “Girls Gone Bible.” It encourages young women to be bold for Jesus.
“We’re a couple of girls who used to be wild,” says Angie, who refers to her friend as a “spiritual Navy SEAL.”
“This girl is a Navy SEAL for Jesus!” she says about Ari. “I look at this sweet, feminine angel, who wears floral dresses from Reformation (store) and makes floral arrangements in her free time. But, guys, if you see this girl, she will go to battle for the Lord.”
“Girls Gone Bible” was born of their desire to encourage each other and everyone who struggles with imperfections but wants to serve a perfect God. Today the channel has a respectable 235,000 subscribers.
Angela Halili’s relationship with God boomed when Jesus delivered her from alcoholism.
“I get into my 20’s and I have a panic attack one time, chronic panic attacks and after that it goes on for years,” says the Albania-born actress. “I did the only thing I knew how to do, and I started to self-medicate with alcohol.”
Her nominal Catholic faith did little to help because she had never read the Bible. She suffered anxiety, depression, derealization and depersonalization. She worked at a night club while her acting career floundered.
Then Angie met a pastor who began to instruct her in the Word of God and pray for her. By 2019, the Word was taking effect; she has been sober ever since.
“On Thanksgiving, I stopped drinking,” she says. “It was not by my own might, it was not by my own strength. Jesus took (away) the desire to drink. He went into my brain and rewired it.
“There is nothing more that makes you a slave than thinking about yourself all day long,” she added.
Her counterpart, Arielle Reitsma grew up Catholic in the United States in an unstable home that bred anxieties in her about her career, money, and relationships. Therapy didn’t help.
In fact, she worried so much that she cried four times from nervousness on the day she met Angie. “I was just sitting there sobbing and all of a sudden I look over and there was Angie, and she sat with me and she just held my hand,” Ari remembers. “I remember the first time you prayed for me, and that’s the first time I remember, and it was the most beautiful, moving thing I had ever experienced.”
Ari had made an idol out of many things in her life. When nothing seemed to be going right for her, she felt like her world was collapsing.
“Whatever you idolize will be taken from you. I was stripped from everything that I had,” recalls Ari. “I was someone who was an overthinker, who dwelled. I didn’t have much faith because I was in constant worry about what was going to happen next. It was such a horrible way to live.”
Slowly the anxiety-ridden aspiring actress learned to trust God with her future. She surrendered everything.
“I haven’t felt worried about my career. I don’t care if I get the job, I really don’t. If I never work in acting again, all right,” says Ari. “If I do, thank You, Jesus. Whatever. He has a beautiful plan for my life no matter what.”
Only then did the bookings start rolling in.
“God was developing me into the person I was supposed to be,” Ari says. “He brought the community (Christian brethren) into my life and people into my life that taught me how bold I was and smart and funny and good, and now I walk with confidence.”
The comments below their videos are a testimony of their impact.
“I don’t know where I would be without you guys. I have been feeling really dark lately. Suicide thoughts and all,” one writer commented. “I know they’re from the enemy and allowing dark things into my spirit lately due to depression from losing my job. Today God led me to this channel and thank God he did!!! Thank God!!!”
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
About the writer of this article: Daniela Argueta studies at Lighthouse Christian Academy near Westwood in Los Angeles.
