Hi,
I'm Toni.
To be honest, even doing this campaign is horrifying and pretty humbling. I'm afraid.. but the risk is worth it.
In September, I was able to attend a Bethel Worship night in the fall and that was the first time I had ever heard of their music school and online teachings through Worship U. Last month I heard about the opportunity to participate in two weeks of Worship U on the Bethel campus in Redding, CA. I applied and last week, I was accepted.
That past few years have been some of the most difficult of my life but God has done so much. As a teenager I remember praying the prayer, "God, shake everything that can be shaken in me so that what's left is unshakable". The past few years of my life have been a jolting answer to those prayers.
Every day God is teaching me more about my own identity and who He is. He is calling me to be brave and (as Jason Vallotton said in a recent teaching) rather than ask what I am going to do, to ask what have I been given. I have been asking God who He says I am and whether or not I am ever on a stage, I believe I am a worshipper.
Worship can move mountains, it heals, it brings freedom, it has won battles, and has crumbled a kingdom's walls. Worship is powerful. To think about being part of that or leading others in corporate worship feels like a HUGE responsibility that carries a lot of weight.
Have you ever had something in your heart that you feel so strongly that you are meant to do but is so precious to you that you're afraid to even tell anyone? Something that, if you said it out loud and it didn't happen, would make you feel like a child whose dreams are being crushed? Music and leading worship has been that thing for me my entire life.
Theodore Roosevelt said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
This is my attempt to jump into another arena in my life and to dare greatly.
Details:
Worship U on campus will be July 11-22, 2016. Classes will be from 10am-9pm (with meal breaks) every weekday for two weeks. Classes include things like songwriting, sound & recording, worship leading, voice, various instrument classes, and even photography. The entirety of the $3,000 I am asking for help to raise will be used to pay for the cost to attend Worship U. The tuition is $795, flights will be about $1,200, accommodations for two weeks could range anywhere between (a minimum) $400 to (more commonly) $1,000. Transportation for the two weeks duration of Worship U is TBD and food will be $80 for lunch on the weekdays and then I will need to pay for breakfast and dinner on weekdays as well as all meals during the weekends. Gofundme and We Pay also take about 9% of the funds raised. The total tuition is due by April 1st and I will need to pay for and secure accommodations and flights as soon as possible to keep the total trip cost to a minimum. Having only been accepted last week, I am working as hard as I can but realistically, with life responsibilities and trying to get back on my feet, I will not be able to do this on my own.
It is so important to me that you know that you even being here and reading this is SO humbling to me and I am SO grateful that you'd even consider giving!
For more info on what Worship U on Campus is:
https://www.worshipu.com/events
I'm Toni.
To be honest, even doing this campaign is horrifying and pretty humbling. I'm afraid.. but the risk is worth it.
In September, I was able to attend a Bethel Worship night in the fall and that was the first time I had ever heard of their music school and online teachings through Worship U. Last month I heard about the opportunity to participate in two weeks of Worship U on the Bethel campus in Redding, CA. I applied and last week, I was accepted.
That past few years have been some of the most difficult of my life but God has done so much. As a teenager I remember praying the prayer, "God, shake everything that can be shaken in me so that what's left is unshakable". The past few years of my life have been a jolting answer to those prayers.
Every day God is teaching me more about my own identity and who He is. He is calling me to be brave and (as Jason Vallotton said in a recent teaching) rather than ask what I am going to do, to ask what have I been given. I have been asking God who He says I am and whether or not I am ever on a stage, I believe I am a worshipper.
Worship can move mountains, it heals, it brings freedom, it has won battles, and has crumbled a kingdom's walls. Worship is powerful. To think about being part of that or leading others in corporate worship feels like a HUGE responsibility that carries a lot of weight.
Have you ever had something in your heart that you feel so strongly that you are meant to do but is so precious to you that you're afraid to even tell anyone? Something that, if you said it out loud and it didn't happen, would make you feel like a child whose dreams are being crushed? Music and leading worship has been that thing for me my entire life.
Theodore Roosevelt said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
This is my attempt to jump into another arena in my life and to dare greatly.
Details:
Worship U on campus will be July 11-22, 2016. Classes will be from 10am-9pm (with meal breaks) every weekday for two weeks. Classes include things like songwriting, sound & recording, worship leading, voice, various instrument classes, and even photography. The entirety of the $3,000 I am asking for help to raise will be used to pay for the cost to attend Worship U. The tuition is $795, flights will be about $1,200, accommodations for two weeks could range anywhere between (a minimum) $400 to (more commonly) $1,000. Transportation for the two weeks duration of Worship U is TBD and food will be $80 for lunch on the weekdays and then I will need to pay for breakfast and dinner on weekdays as well as all meals during the weekends. Gofundme and We Pay also take about 9% of the funds raised. The total tuition is due by April 1st and I will need to pay for and secure accommodations and flights as soon as possible to keep the total trip cost to a minimum. Having only been accepted last week, I am working as hard as I can but realistically, with life responsibilities and trying to get back on my feet, I will not be able to do this on my own.
It is so important to me that you know that you even being here and reading this is SO humbling to me and I am SO grateful that you'd even consider giving!
For more info on what Worship U on Campus is:
https://www.worshipu.com/events