Rinnah Edwards - Interview

 

In this edition, I had the chance to speak with another young person involved in ministry, this time my guest was Rinnah Edwards. She's a former Praise YTH intern, a volunteer with Praise's worship team, and now a student at Liberty University in Virginia, pursuing a journalism degree. We talked about her experience in behind-the-scenes ministry, her thoughts on the Church as it exists today, how her creative influences have shaped her, and much more. This one was a bit different because Rinnah and I didn't know each other very well before this. I hope you enjoy it.

During your time with the Praise Youth internship and other background parts of ministry, is there anything you learned from the 'behind the scenes' part of church leadership?

It's a whole different ball game. I was actually thinking about this just today. I'm no longer an intern, so now I'm back in the position I was before I got to see all the behind the scenes stuff. But, back when I was an intern, the reasoning behind everything became so much clearer. I felt so involved. I really started to understand what the church was about. I learned a lot. It shined a light on what Praise Church is and why they do what they do. It really gave me a lot of appreciation for all the work that goes into everything.

The same sort of thing happened to me. Before I was on staff, I was a Creative Intern with the Broadcast Team. I used to take that team for granted until I became the person that facilitated basically all of Praise's live-streams. It really gave me an appreciation, like you said, for all the front-end work.

You guys make it look so easy too, but just from seeing you at work in passing, I know how hard all you guys in Creative work. It's really impressive. 

We're blessed to have a really strong team. That's what Jake (Moore) and I were talking about in his interview. He and I are both Broadcast Leaders, we've both been in this game for 5 years now. We work really hard, but I don't want to downplay how much work the rest of our team and our volunteers do. We all have a part to play to make this big thing called "Production" happen. 

Well, I just want to acknowledge that the work is deeply appreciated. Especially when I'll probably be checking into the live-stream all the time while I'm at college.

Thank you, I'll pass it along to Jake and the team. Or they'll just read this when it comes out. Now, onto this next question:

You're graduated now - when you look back on your time in high school, did your idea of what you wanted to be in 9th-grade change, or has it remained consistent to today?

Oh my gosh, yes. So much change, I don't even recognize my freshman self. In my freshman year, I got a herniated disk in my L5, which is like your lower spine. I did a lot of physical therapy to help it and in that process, I started to really get into physical therapy and I wanted to get into that field. But, the next year I got involved in something else and that became what I wanted to do. Whenever I started to be involved in anything over the next couple of years of high school, I just wanted to do that thing. I think that's why I had such a hard time choosing a major. I ended up going with journalism because I really like writing. I don't know if I'll stick with that, but we'll see.

That leads me to this question: when you ended your internship, you posted on your Instagram, "I've learned and grown so much, not just as a leader, but just as a person. When you think about when you wrote that, is there any specific highlights of growth that came to mind?

Yeah, definitely! I love that you caught that, I'm always wondering how many people pay attention to those posts. Senior year apart from the church sucked. A lot of ups and downs. Hurricane Imelda hit, my house got flooded, which led to my parents splitting and ultimately filing for divorce. All the things that could have possibly gone wrong. However, in the summer before the internship, I felt such a deep urge to be a part of it. I think God put me in the internship because he knew how hard my life would be it just a few months later. Without the internship being with me throughout that whole process, I would not have survived to be the person I am today. I really owe my life to Carli, Aaron, Jimmy, and anyone else who was there for me at that time. As far as growth goes, I felt like I was growing so much in my circumstances because I had strong Christians around me to help me through a very tough time. 

I know you were able to lead the 3rd-grade girls' small group at summer camp this past year as well as having many opportunities to lead young people throughout your experience; were there ever any unexpected hurdles beyond simple distractions?

Yeah, the first day the 3rd-grade girls arrived at camp. We were trained to help the kids if they asked us to pray with them or help them learn about salvation. I got flustered, I didn't train very well. This was about 1 month before the internship was going to begin. Anyway, this 3rd grader comes up to me and asks me all these questions. I didn't turn her away, but it felt like we never got to a point where we prayed or anything, so I feel I may have handled that wrong. It kinda shook me when I started the internship. I thought to myself, "If I fumbled with a 3rd-grader, how am I supposed to help 6th-12th grade kids? But, Carli helped dissuade some of those fears and gave me a lot of good coaching.

I also remember a moment where you gave me some good coaching, but your probably won't remember it. It was Serve Camp and we were setting up the stage, and you just came up to me and started a conversation. In that conversation, you suggested that I read the book of Hebrews. You gave me a reason that was very profound, but it's escaping me right now. I will remember that night for a long time.

I remember that! I remember because we were on break, and I saw your name in Planning Center and I thought to myself, "I don't know her. I should change that if I'm going to be working on the same team as her this weekend." I don't remember why I suggested the book of Hebrews, but it is a good one. 

So, as you think back on all your experiences in the Praise Youth Internship, are there any interesting or funny stories that stand out in your memory?

SO many! One that comes to mind was right after Imelda hit. We had Tim Barnett in town and we were going to live-stream a conversation between him and Jimmy. Well, because we weren't having people on campus, there was far less preparation to do, so we had a lot of free time. It had rained so much that the canal had filled up almost to the bridge. Silas turned to me and said, "what are the odds we jump in there?" and I said, "Let's do it!" So we sprinted to the bridge and jumped off into the canal. We found out later that we were not supposed to do that. It was so much fun and so memorable. However, I did smell like sewage afterward, which was not very fun.

So, I wanna take a second and talk about writing. When you write, do you find yourself inspired by any particular author/artist?

Yeah, I love Rick Riordan. I read Elisabetta Dami's "Geronimo Stilton" stories in my younger years. I love adventurous writing and I love writing about adventures. That's always been my favorite. When I was younger, I actually wrote a story about a zombie apocalypse and these children that had to deal with it. So, yeah, I've always really appreciated adventure stories like Percy Jackson.

You mentioned Rick Riordan, and he does a lot of mythological tales, and I've done a lot of study in Greek and Roman mythology so I know how deep that lore can go. What about his writing style do you think you've latched onto the most?

I liked how he would write from different character's perspectives. It was rarely everything from a single character's point of view. He would allow the reader to step into this space of empathy with another character, and I've always really enjoyed that stylistic choice.

So, while we're talking about prolific writers, there is the ultimate writer: God. I hear a lot of Christians talking about so-called 'life-verses'. Do you think you have something like that or at least a verse that has always stuck with you?

Yes, absolutely, Psalm 23 is my life chapter. Psalm 23:4 ("Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;") has been with me recently. I first found that chapter when I was a child. I would get frequent nightmares, as any kid does, and I would be afraid to go to sleep. So my dad told me to read Psalm 23 and memorize it, and repeating that to myself helped me fall asleep. So, that's always stuck with me. I'm actually about to get a necklace engraved with 23:4, because of how much it means to me, personally. I really like Psalms also, because that's where my name comes from. My name is Hebrew, it's a verb, specifically a shout of joy and rejoicing that people would shout. I think it's in Psalm 30:5 ("For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy ["רנה" - Rinna] comes in the morning")