Student’s “give it all” attitude includes her witness
Tori Petry has many talents, but she has taken the challenge
to be a campus missionary to her school seriously.
By Josh Wellborn
Users of urbandictionary.com have defined the phrase “Go big, or go home” this way: “extravagant, to go all the way, and do whatever you are doing to its fullest — and not flake out.” After spending time with eleventh grader Tori Petry of Ocala, Florida, you may just want to use her picture to fulfill the definition. As the Peninsula Florida District Fine Arts Festival Award of Merit winner for both Human Video and Short Sermon, one of the top swimmers in her state, leader of her school’s prayer group, a member of International Baccalaureate and recipient of an Emmy Award (Yes! The kind they give to TV stars), she is the teenage embodiment of “doing it all.”
You can add music and drama to Tori’s already long list of talents and abilities. During this week’s Fine Arts Festival alone, Tori will have presentations in six different categories. “Rarely do you find the drive and desire to excel that you find in Tori,” says her youth pastor Charles Greenaway. “She has a desire to achieve great results not only in athletics and extra-curricular activities, but in ministry, too! I truly believe she can do anything she sets her mind to, and will do much for the Lord!”
Such a lifestyle of overachievement may not be for everyone, but 17-year-old Petry believes a lifestyle of doing your absolute best is the mandate of every Christian. “Jesus didn’t give half of Himself when He came to save us. How can we settle for [less than our best]?”
Having grown up in a Christian home, Petry can’t remember a time when she wasn’t serving the Lord. Her salvation took on new meaning in eighth grade when she read Rachel’s Tears, the story of Rachel Scott, one of the victims of the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Rachel was killed, along with 11 other students, by a teenage gunman when she professed her faith in God. The book contains numerous prayer journal entries describing Rachel’s passion for loving her Savior. “Reading her story touched and changed my life,” says Petry. “I began a prayer journal [like Rachel] and that’s when my relationship with God took on new meaning.”
After hearing a challenge to become a campus missionary at National Youth Convention in Indianapolis in 2007, Petry started a prayer group in her high school. What started as five people meeting for prayer in a classroom has become 25 people praying in the school courtyard. “Many people [some from other religions] have visited and joined in because they see us praying in public,” says Petry.
Beyond school, Petry is a missionary to her swim team also. She began swimming competitively in seventh grade, and it has been a passion ever since. She now practices 40 hours a week during summer break, finished in the top 15 at state competition in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle, and is a member of the Scholastic All-American Swim Team. Petry also competed in the Junior Nationals swim event. “My swim team is like family,” she explains. “Pretty much all of them have been to church with me at one time or another.”
Petry’s interests extend to the broadcast field as well. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gives eight student Emmys every year, which Petry’s team won for producing a sports news story. The team traveled from their home in Ocala to Chicago for an awards ceremony, along with other nominees across the United States.
Petry treats her achievements in so many different arenas as an opportunity to witness to people. She is quick to give the real credit to God. According to Petry, what she does is a representation of who she is. She wants to be the best representation of Christ possible. “If I’m not giving my all in school, swimming or anything else, how can I say I’m giving my all in my faith?” she says.
An all-or-nothing attitude is visible in every aspect of Petry’s life. When her school’s eleventh grade class chose to raise money for a school in Haiti, Petry took it to the next level. Not only did she help raise over $10,000, she actually went to Haiti for spring break to help build the school.
But Petry doesn’t consider her ministry limited to special achievements and international trips. She believes her most effective ministry is how she lives her life. “I really want to have a Christ-like attitude,” she says. “I want to be kind and compassionate — I want to respond the way Christ would, especially when things don’t go the way I want.”
For more information on Youth Alive and resources for becoming a campus missionary visit yausa.com. To learn more information on Fine Arts visit www.faf.ag.org.