Missional Servant

    So not even a week in and I feel like I have learned a ton but also that there is do much information that I couldn’t even share it in a sensible order but there is something I feel led to share. I am reading the book “Making Jesus Lord” by Loren Cunningham and he talks about how we are all either missionaries or are the mission fields ourselves. In Mark 16:15 it says “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Go calls all of His children to be missionaries. To go out into the world and share about His love. You’re probably reading this and like “No I’m definitely not called to be a missionary” Or “No I really don’t want to pack up my life to move to a third world country.” GOOD NEWS, that’s not what He, is calling us to do! The bible says go into the entire world…that doesn’t mean traveling somewhere to share the word or having to live in a tent and have no belongings or jobs. Nope not at all. God has a different way for each and every one of us to be missionaries. We share His love in our everyday jobs and communities by being servants to all Gods people with a joyful heart.

            Our base Director Jenny Barber has been teaching us how to serve the Lord in our everyday lives and how through that we will be able to share about our God because of the difference people will see in us. Servant-hood is not only doing the jobs that we are good at or even doing jobs we hate; it’s about doing everyday jobs we love or hate with a joyful heart because we are getting to serve our Lord. Jesus died on the cross for us. I mean he DIED a very painful death and still chose to do in joyfully because he loves us that much! If we do the little jobs like cleaning the bathrooms with delight we are still reaching those unsaved in multiple ways.

            The first way we are reaching the unsaved is that we are allowing those around us to go out and share Gods love because they aren’t stuck doing household chores when God called them to be on the streets that days. This doesn’t mean that your whole life has to be doing the dirty work so others can go out but it means that you must be willing to do the not so fun stuff when God asks you to so that He can use your humbleness with the large jobs.

The second way God can use our faithfulness in the little things for His glory is that if we do it with a joyful heart people will notice that you are picking up trash with a joyful heart and diligently…I mean guys how many times have you heard “actions speak louder than words” well then lets take action! And not just take action but also joyfully take action because when we do that we are serving our Lord Jesus Christ! How cool is that!! I mean what god says, “oh yeah I’ll take cleaning the toilets as a form of worship”? You probably cannot think of many if any. Well that’s what makes our God SOOOO special. He cares more about where our hearts than what we say or do. Please just take a few minutes to think about just HOW COOL that is! Like ahhhhhh all we have to do is chose to not grumble through our daily lives to show gratitude to God, I just cant get over how awesome that is!

Missional Servant

    So not even a week in and I feel like I have learned a ton but also that there is do much information that I couldn’t even share it in a sensible order but there is something I feel led to share. I am reading the book “Making Jesus Lord” by Loren Cunningham and he talks about how we are all either missionaries or are the mission fields ourselves. In Mark 16:15 it says “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Go calls all of His children to be missionaries. To go out into the world and share about His love. You’re probably reading this and like “No I’m definitely not called to be a missionary” Or “No I really don’t want to pack up my life to move to a third world country.” GOOD NEWS, that’s not what He, is calling us to do! The bible says go into the entire world…that doesn’t mean traveling somewhere to share the word or having to live in a tent and have no belongings or jobs. Nope not at all. God has a different way for each and every one of us to be missionaries. We share His love in our everyday jobs and communities by being servants to all Gods people with a joyful heart.

            Our base Director Jenny Barber has been teaching us how to serve the Lord in our everyday lives and how through that we will be able to share about our God because of the difference people will see in us. Servant-hood is not only doing the jobs that we are good at or even doing jobs we hate; it’s about doing everyday jobs we love or hate with a joyful heart because we are getting to serve our Lord. Jesus died on the cross for us. I mean he DIED a very painful death and still chose to do in joyfully because he loves us that much! If we do the little jobs like cleaning the bathrooms with delight we are still reaching those unsaved in multiple ways.

            The first way we are reaching the unsaved is that we are allowing those around us to go out and share Gods love because they aren’t stuck doing household chores when God called them to be on the streets that days. This doesn’t mean that your whole life has to be doing the dirty work so others can go out but it means that you must be willing to do the not so fun stuff when God asks you to so that He can use your humbleness with the large jobs.

The second way God can use our faithfulness in the little things for His glory is that if we do it with a joyful heart people will notice that you are picking up trash with a joyful heart and diligently…I mean guys how many times have you heard “actions speak louder than words” well then lets take action! And not just take action but also joyfully take action because when we do that we are serving our Lord Jesus Christ! How cool is that!! I mean what god says, “oh yeah I’ll take cleaning the toilets as a form of worship”? You probably cannot think of many if any. Well that’s what makes our God SOOOO special. He cares more about where our hearts than what we say or do. Please just take a few minutes to think about just HOW COOL that is! Like ahhhhhh all we have to do is chose to not grumble through our daily lives to show gratitude to God, I just cant get over how awesome that is!

He is greater

            The day that I leave for YWAM is rapidly approaching (I can’t believe I leave in less than a week!!!) and as I look back at all that has happened leading up to my final week on the east coast I am amazed. I never thought that I would ever believe in God, let alone going on a mission trip to share Gods love to girls who have been forced into the sex industry. My God is truly amazing. He has transformed the rebellious child that I once was into a child of God. When I would share with others about what I am about to do so many people would tell me that they’re scared for me, or they don’t like that I am going to do because I'll be in danger and I never quite have the right answer for why I am not scared of going. But I do now. My God is greater. He is greater than any fears I might have. My God is greater because he transforms and changes lives. My God is greater because he loves the unlovable and forgives the unforgiveable and for me to stay home and not show his love to others is selfish. I cannot stay home and live in luxury while others are suffering and living in fear everyday.

            This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to a conference called Collyde. I had little to no expectations for this conference. I figured it’d be just another cheesy “ You can do anything with Gods help” kind of conference. I was wrong. I was dead wrong. The Holy Spirit was so alive in that place, I learned so much that I don’t even know where to begin to talk about it. But one thing that struck me to the core was not anything the speakers said but something that struck me as we were singing. It’s that Jesus died on the cross for MY sins. You’ve heard it a million times but really, let that sink in. This guy, before I was even born, knew how messed up I am, He knew how many times I would, lie, cheat, ignore someone in need and sin in so many more ways yet He chose, HE CHOSE, to die on the cross for my sins. As he took his last breath on the cross he felt my pain, he felt the pain I would cause others and still chose to love me. Without God in my life I would be so selfish and probably just plain mean but Jesus Christ, Son of God, chose to be the middleman, to die for me so that I can enter into Gods kingdom and the wildest thing is after all that pain that Jesus endured, he still allows ME to chose if I want to be a part of Gods healing, love filled kingdom. It’s so crazy and so much bigger than I am that it can sometimes be hard to wrap my head around. In my next blog I will talk about how God has used my love for my nieces to help me better understand the love Christ has for me.

So it Begins

     This is my first official blog and I am an awful writer so I am apologizing in advance to anyone who is reading this. I wanted to get started on posting before I even left so those who are interested can follow along my change of heart before I even leave.
   To anyone who has not heard about my adventure I am preparing to venture into, I will catch you up. Around November I felt a calling to go on a mission trip with YWAM. I had originally thought that the Hawaii base was where I should go to get trained so I quickly signed up and was ready to go; but something didn't seem right. I was not feeling motivated to work on fundraising. Finally I decided I needed to just get over myself and try to write news letters. As I searched the internet for sample news letters, I came across one. As I read the sample letter I learned that there was a training base in Los Angeles, CA and they had a school that fought human trafficking, the program was called justice. My heart felt at home as I read about this training school. I told my mom about my discovery, saying that I wish I would have known about this program before I signed for the other one. My mom quickly suggested I pray about it but that it might not be to late to switch program. As I started to pursue this program it felt as if everything just feel right into place. It felt natural to type a letter about fundraising for the Justice program. Everything quickly fell into place.
   So now that I have explained how I got to the point I am at right now, I want ask everyone reading this to do me a favor. I ask that you pray, pray that those we will be sharing jesus with will be prepared to listen. Pray that their hearts will be soften and ready to listen. Pray that our team will be able to feel Gods love even win those dark places we will be entering.
 
  Also here is another link about what I will be doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZVL3S6Uv2g

Fundraising Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

I have recently been accepted into YWAM (Youth with a Mission). This is a short-term mission program that provides a three-month training before sending the trainees off into the mission field for another 3 months. The training takes place in Los Angeles, California and will begin September 24, 2016. The YWAM program has many different discipleship training schools (DTS) that prepare those attending in different ways to help people. The school I have chosen is called Justice. This school prepares students to fight justice issues such as human trafficking and slavery. For those of you who do not know, human trafficking refers to the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Many of these boys and girls being traded are taken and or sold to from third-world countries. My heart is to go and bring healing to these women, and children through showing Gods love, building relationships, going out and giving the girls toiletries.

 As a part of the training I will be going out into the city of Los Angeles and having hands on training by walking along side many girls being trafficked. We will also go through spiritual training to prepare us for the darkness we will be entering during our missions work. After the training I we will be sent out to another country to put what I’ve learned to action.

To go through this training and outreach I will need an estimated amount of $7,680. This cost does not include airfare or travelers insurance. I am currently working to help raise funds for this trip and trusting that God will provide for me.

If you feel lead to help support me on my mission you can donate at https://ywamla.wufoo.com/forms/q1wgzvi414zjy7e/ - you will need to select the school I am going to which is Justice DTS and my name Danielle Cupo

Another way to donate is to send a check to addressed to YWAM and leave a note in the envelope saying the money is going towards Danielle Cupo. The mailing address is 11141 Osborne Street
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

 Another way you can help me is through prayer. Pray that those we are going out to work with will be open to listening and we will be able to reach and rescue those we come in contact with, as well as, that our team will be physically and mentally protected as we enter these dark cities.

            If you are interested in following my journey I will have a blog called, http://psalm4610adventures.blogspot.com , that will have pictures and stories as I go through these next few months.  

            Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and considering supporting me. Below I have a link to a video about the particular group I am going with. Be warned that the video is very hard to watch at points, but this video strengthened my decision to go with this team.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shbxvdtn0zQ

If you have any questions or would like to hear more about what I am doing, feel free to email or set up a get together with me.

danicupo@gmail.com