grow

2 weeks and 3 days…(i’ve had longer intervals without a post)…

anyway

in this 2 weeks and 3 days…

i’ve gone from having almost $700 to raise for our l.a. missions trip to now only having $250 to raise!! God has been blessing me in so many ways. my friends (even friends who are trying to raise their own money for l.a.) have given to me. my brothers (jd and lincoln) gave me everything they had, too! …

at refuge last week, (when i still had like $650 to go) i started thinking about all of the money i had left to raise…and i got a little worried. but then i remembered phil.4:6-7 (don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.)

and i realized that i had not ever actually asked God to help me raise the money. (i felt like an idiot when i realized that!) so, of course, i immediately asked God for His help. then-not 10 min. later- someone left $100 and an anonymous note for me in the office!! the note is hanging on my wall…i look at it everyday and i remember that no matter what i’m worried about, God’s going to take care of it.

and the coolest thing about this whole experience is that at enthralled, 2 days before, mandi ash spoke about how being thankful- even when we don’t feel like it- can change our entire outlook on life. honestly, i’ve never had a life group lesson speak to me and stick with me like this one did. all day tuesday, i tried my best to keep a thankful heart- and everything seemed so much lighter. and i tried to do the same on wednesday… and then- after i had displayed (or at least tried to display) thankfulness- God blessed me.

it’s sad that i’m just now beginning to grasp this…but thankfulness can truly transform our lives. it’s like the load is so much lighter…and negativity fades while the good things in life become more vivid. we can see beyond ourselves and into what others are going through. we aren’t blinded anymore by our selfishness and we can see opportunities to do good. and we begin to appreciate God and His love for us so much more!!

so… that was the highlight of the past 2 weeks and 3 days for me!
along with…
-seeing spiderman 3 with heather
-eating sushi with a bunch of the closer girls
-getting to hang out with some soon to be refugees (THE FRESHMAN!! -oh yeah!) at nestle tollhouse
-goofing off at sonic with candace, misty, madalynn, and mickey
-seeing the first showing of SHREK 3 with closer, full time elevate, and my entire family!!
-hanging out at emily wooten’s amazing harajuku party (with edamames and sushi!!)
-chilling with my pal leah…(shopping at tj maxx, slurping wedding cake snowballs with cream on top, and visiting her poppy {who gave me a new nickname- “torrey pines”!!!}
-going to sandra’s going away party and eating julia’s german dome cake!

(unfortunately i missed salem’s graduation party…i was puke-ing my guts up! but i heard it was a pretty slammin party)

and…
-finishing my junior year of highschool!!!

woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

can’t wait to go to camp and l.a. and then start elevate!!
life’s good!

i am so thankful for all of the awesome people God has surrounded me with. thank you guys for speaking into my life like you do!

-tori

it’s saturday!! so be happy!

oh- yesterday was josh-bob’s 18th birthday…so leave him a belated comment!

and tonight is the very last late night until the end of the summer. don’t miss it!

i’m soooo excited because today- i get to eat at hello sushi!!! oh yeah! and my mom is taking me to rent spider man 1 & 2 cause i can’t see the 3rd one until i see the first 2. it’s a good day!

here’s another pic of the jewelry i’m selling…
these are my other favorites..!!

love you guys!!

here’s the letter i’m going to be sending out for the summer…

hey people,

it’s tori. i want to let you guys know about a few amazing things that
God is letting me be a part of this yearŠ

first, refuge (the high school ministry of healing place church), will be
taking a missions trip to the dream center in los angelas. (july 16-24) on
this trip we will be given many opportunities to reach out to the lost, the
hurting, and the forgotten. We will be participating in a number of
outreaches and serving opportunities. i know that God wants to do incredible
things in us and through us on this tripŠ and i¹m believing that through
this experience, our eyes we will be opened even more to the reality of what
goes on in this world and even in our own country. and i believe that what
we encounter on this trip will not only affect the people there, but it will
change us and push us to take more action to bring people into the love of
JesusŠ

next, God is allowing me to be a part of an internship at healing place
called elevate.(begins in august and lasts until may) this program provides
several classes and a lot of hands on experience in ministry. i know that
God has called me to give my life to Him through ministry, and i believe
that this is the perfect opportunity for me to learn how to do that. i want
to do all that i can to reach the lost. they are the only reason that this
earth is still spinning. i want to dedicate my life to leading them to
Jesus, and i believe that elevate will equip me to do that.

i am truly amazed at all that God is allowing me to participate in this
year. please support me through your prayers. i need them more than
anything.

and i also need a lot of financial support.
the cost of the missions trip to los angelas is $1,000.
and the fees for elevate are $700 (?)

so if you can help with finances that is much appreciated, but either
way, please support me through your prayer.

thank you all so much.

-tori

my dad brought me a ton of african jewelry to sell for our refuge missions trip to l.a.
my dad knows what’s in! (with the help of katherine) haha.

so if any of you want to sport some of this handmade bling…let me know. $10

i only have five more of this kind of necklace…they went like hot cakes. (who says that?)

and i also have some other kinds of necklaces along with a ton of awesome bracelets.

…

i felt kind of weird selling stuff from africa to go to l.a.- but it’s all missions! people are people no matter what. so who says that mozambique and l.a. have to be serparated. it’s all the same to Jesus.

haha.

today..i was reading in 1 thessalonians. (tweezy spoke from 2:8 last night).

here are a few of the many verses that stuck out to me.
1:4

“For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.”

i love how it says that our purpose is to please God and not people. people are what our focus should be…but because we are aiming to please Him. they are small pieces of who He is.

i love people! i am intrigued by some and i adore others. (of course i may slightly dislike others, also.;) but sometimes i let all of that become what drives me. when i see someone hurting i want to help…when i see someone doing right i want to praise them for it. but i guess, sometimes my focus gets so set on the people that i forget who i am here to please.
i forget that the beauty i see in them is just a window to who God is. it’s all about God.

i can’t seek to put people on a pedestal, nor can i seek for them to put me on one.

yet…when the motive of my heart is right…

people are all that matters! if i am living to please God, then i am living to help others to Him.

verse 2:19-20 says this “After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy.”

we should delight in people. my constantly quoted, favorite verse is isaiah 61:6, “You will be called priests of the Lord,
ministers of our God.
You will feed on the treasures of the nations
and boast in their riches.”

PEOPLE!
the treasures of the nations…
we will boast in their riches- in all that God does in them.

i had a thought today…

in Heaven, what if the crowns that we lay at Jesus feet will represent each person that we helped lead to Him?

how many would i have to lay at His feet? would i have any?

they’re my favorite…
especially this one.

i got to take my little bro lincoln to get a hair cut (from the amazing jen rivet!!)

that’s my boy!! haha.

then i got to eat CAINE’S! oh yeah. (but i’m still a hippie! modified version remember..:)

and then!!! my mom and me and all of my brothers piled in the car to pick my dad up from the new orleans airport! everyone made it home safely!!

thanks for the prayers.
from what i’ve heard so far, from my dad, angella, and jared, the trip was amazing. and WE all want to live there!

my dad brought back one of the coolest gifts ever for me…

it’s a water bottle of african soil. i wrote on it, in a literal sense, “tia” (“this is africa”).

it’s so cool. i actually have a piece of africa in my room reminding me that what i see is not all there is.

then…
refuge!!

first of all…
elton veals has an annointing that makes me want to curl up in a corner and sob… seriously he has the Holy Spirit running through his music.

last night he sang a song that he wrote called “creed”- it was so powerful…

here’s the chorus:

for You kingdom we will cry
for Your orphans we will pray unending
nations will be called
for this is the creed of Your generation

if you haven’t heard this song yet- you will. it’s gonna be like the number one song for a hundred years!
it was truly soul stirring.

then…
the one and only tyler barry got to share about what happened in him at displace me… and how we can do something to help.

he and ryan and johnny did get permission to show the movie at dutchtown within the next couple of weeks…but it’s gonna take a lot of money and work getting it together. so please keep them in your prayers. they have the passion..and they are standing up to take something that is wrong and make it right- doing justice! pray that the people who see this movie at dutchtown will be impacted by it and prompted to do something, too.

also…

instead of pastor jason preaching a message for the closing of our bling series, he decided to show us the movie “emmy”. it’s one of the invisible children stories. (red bracelet).

so heartbreaking- these kids stories. how do they live like that? their parents die of aids and they are left to be the head of their homes. and relatives can barely help them if at all…

i can’t imagine..watching one of my parents die- with the other already gone. how would i live?

at the beginning of the movie, they say that children as young as seven must be taught to work in the fields..because they have to be ready for life- ready to take care of themselves. they don’t know when their parents will die, so they must be prepared for it.

it’s just crazy. i don’t know how to imagine it… again i think of my 7 year old brother. he is just a normal kid who likes to laugh and play computer games and eat candy. but these kids don’t even have a childhood. they are forced to become adults before they can even understand.

here, our childhood is filled with love and hope…we know that we will be taken care of and that everything will be okay, but they don’t EVER have that.

that’s not the way it should be. and we have to do something to give hope to these little lives.

God knows how He wants us to help. we just have to listen and ask for wisdom and understanding to do the right things.

hey y’all…

jordan prince was on the cover of the advocate today. click here to read her story. it’s really cool how God is using her testimony and her sweet and giving heart to reach people. tomorrow she is going to meet governor blanco!

God is going to use her to reach out to people and to give them hope. she really does encourage almost everyone around her- including me!

_____________________________________________________________

hey…and we have a few new bloggers!!
ariel whittington and alex pilgrim!

check them out- they’re great!!!!

!!!!!

this was certainly an unforgettable three days! God did some awesome things in our hearts.

friday, God really had His hand on the showing of the invisible children movie. we had probably forty people!!! i was amazed.

i really believe that this movie opened people’s eyes and stirred their hearts. it’s so unbelievable- all that these little kids go through! and i pray that we will be able to stay focused on God so that He can use us to reach out to people like that.

saturday morning we had soooo many people show up for the justice project! yet again, God had His hand over the whole thing. we painted bleachers and locker rooms and re-did the teacher’s lounge at prescott middle. it was great.

one thing that pastor jason shared friday night, after the movie, is that if we want to go to the world- to other nations and reach people- we have to begin with where God has us now. we have to be faithful here before we can expect Him to entrust us with any other places. that is so true!

after the justice project, we all headed home to get cleaned up and packed for displace me. at 4:30 we all met up at the annex- and for the third time this weekend, God sent an abundance of people to participate! seriously- we filled up the shuttle bus and we had to ask like four other people to drive, too! how awesome is that?!! it took us a little while to get loaded up and to get everything in order, but we made it!

when we got to tulane (where displace me was held), we all got to set up our own little cardboard huts and decorate them. ashlyn and i put our sleeping bags together and set up a very simple headboard type thing…without a covering so that we could look at the stars when it got dark. the only problem was that the dew made some serious puddles on our sleeping bags. (but God really took care of me- i didn’t see any bugs whatsoever!! plus- there was not one cloud in the sky or any sign of rain!)

so after we set up our houses, we got to be a part of their filming…and we watched some videos from the people of uganda…telling us how they live their lives everyday. what their homes are like, how they get food and water…
we had to get our food and water in a similar way to their’s, but really nothing even near to what they have to go through…

then we had 21 minutes of silence and prayer (each minute counted for each year that they have been at civil war). this was such a cool experience. i loved how there were hundreds of people- and yet (pretty much) total silence. the feeling was so peaceful- being under the stars…just reflecting and crying out to God for these beautiful people- His treasures! (isaiah 61:6 nlt) during this time of silence, i began to read psalm 91…and that chapter always brings me comfort..no matter what i’m going through… but this time i began to read it and i let it become my prayer for the people of uganda- that they would be able to feel this type of assured peace and comfort. they need it so desperately.

well…after that, everyone wrote letters to the government of america and to the president of uganda asking for aid in helping end this war.

then our group of refugees all sat together and sang some worship songs while paul and ryan played the guitar. it was so awesome. just to sit in God’s peace.

then tyler barry stood up and shared something that God put on his heart. he said that someone asked him why we would displace ourselves for the kids in uganda- it’s not like they care.

he said that this hit Him pretty hard…but God spoke to Him and said that it doesn’t matter- even if nothing changes in uganda or if these kids never know what you are doing for them…it’s not about that. it’s about you representing Me. you’re here not for recognition, but to worship Me.

i was like…WOW! that really hit me. i know that i’ve said before that sometimes i feel like “why bother? what i’m doing won’t possibly make a difference.”

and other times, honestly, i do things wanting to be recognized for it. i get so prideful and so caught up in who sees me doing what.

and i tend to be really quick to want to take credit for my actions when they’re good, but when i am being sinful, i have no problem with just letting Jesus take it from me and moving on. it’s terrible.

pride and self-centeredness get you nowhere. somewhere in proverbs it talks about praise being one of the easiest ways to become full of pride- and it’s sooooo true.

anyway, God smoked me when tyler said that. it’s all God- and if i want to be a part of reaching the beautiful people of this world- i’ve got to stop seeking recognition and credit. it’s all God’s.

so, displace me turned out to be AWESOME!!

and by the way…
i’ve decided that i want to be a (modified version) hippie! there really were hippies everywhere and it was soooo cool. except for all the smoking and weirdness. but i am somewhat fascinated by this lifestyle. i would love to be able to make my own version of a hippie. i’d be a vegetarian who eats caine’s. i’d sleep outside but kill bugs and snakes. i’d be a tree hugger who writes almost a whole notebook in a week! and i’d be all for peace- but by standing for justice rather than just having a go-with-the-flow attitude.

i’m a freak! but it would be fun!

anyway…
this weekend was an incredible experience! thanks to everyone who came and helped get it together- especially tweezy and jennifer, leah, miss carole, and miss lori. you guys are AWESOME! and thanks to everyone who helped promote it and who was praying for us.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

AND!!!!!

check out tyler barry’s blog. he’s got some awesome stuff up about this weekend…and please be praying- he and ryan fontenot and johnny nguyen are going to ask their principle if they can show the invisible children movie at dutchtown!!

click here and read all of his posts (starting at friday’s).

_______________________________________________________

oh and my daddy gets home wednesday! oh yeah! i’ve been reading katherine and barton and all of the elevator’s blogs. crazy and awesome stuff. God is really using them and speaking to them. He’s changing them. and He is REALLY protecting them.
__________________________________________________________________________

that’s it for now.
thanks for reading (well, rather skimming probably.:)

-tori