晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023Growing up, junior Joanna Torrey knew her great-great-grandfather was someone important a well known missionary and evangelist whose picture was framed on the piano of her familys Connecticut home. But to Joanna, R.A. Torrey was always just this ancestor who did really cool things.
It wasnt until she arrived as a freshman at 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 that she came to understand who R.A. Torrey really was: 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023s first dean and the name connected with the universitys Torrey Honors Institute and the annual Torrey Memorial Bible Conference. As the first Torrey to attend 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 as a student, Joanna admits that its a little odd seeing her familys name all over campus and having to constantly tell people that yes, she is a member of the Torrey line.
Its a big name to live up to.
I felt some pressure at first when I came to 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023, learning about all that R.A. Torrey did and feeling like I had to live up to that, Torrey said. But last year the Lord really told me, Jo, your identity is not in your ancestry. Your identity is in me.
An intercultural studies major and one of the directors of the prayer ministry for the , Joanna plans to continue in her familys strong missions heritage after she graduates. R.A. Torreys son, R.A. Torrey II, was a missionary to China, and his son, Joannas grandfather (R.A. Torrey III), was a missionary to Korea and founded the Jesus Abbey a new monastic community of about 50 or so Christians who live, work, eat, pray and worship together in the mountains of South Korea.
Photo by Mike Villa
Joannas parents are also serving in South Korea, educating and training South Koreans to eventually go into North Korea and preach the gospel.
As for her own future in missions, Joanna who spent two years prior to 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 serving with YWAM in the United Kingdom and Albania has a heart for North Korea, but shes open to wherever God leads her.
I just want to help people and tell them Jesus loves them, she said. And Ill do that however God tells me to, whether its feeding people or preaching to people, in New York City or a jungle on the other side of the world.
But for now, Joanna is enjoying being a student at 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023.
In some of her classes, shes had to read books and sermons by her great-great-grandfather, which helped her get to know him in ways she hadnt before.
What I appreciate about him is that when he preaches, hes to the point and doesnt beat around the bush, she said. Hes all about You need to accept Jesus. And I love his emphasis on how the Holy Spirit empowers you to do anything.
Reading R.A. Torreys has been especially meaningful as a full circle sort of moment for Joanna, thinking about how God answers prayers and blesses us from generation to generation.
I remember at a Torrey family reunion a couple summers ago, we were at the house in Pennsylvania where R.A. Torrey lived for a time, she said. We went up to this little tower room and my mom told us that this was the spot he would come and pray every morning for an hour for his kids and grandkids.
Thinking about those prayers, and how all these years later she is leading a prayer ministry herself at the very university R.A. Torrey helped shape, Joanna takes a deep breath and considers how God weaves everything together.
Just being in that room and knowing that Ive been directly blessed by those prayers that he prayed even before I was born that really hits me.
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