My Story..

I have been telling ya'll that I would eventually share my story with you. I feel God telling me I need to hurry up and do it.. so here it goes..

Beginning when I was 5-6 years old I was in church with my family whenever the doors were open. I grew up in Sunday school, GA's, and Acteens. I heard the gospel many times just like it was any other story. When I was about 10 years old or so I told my parents I wanted to be baptized. To my knowledge, I did not know what that meant. I remember the preacher asking me if I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I said yes and that was it. Growing up after that point was not much different than before. I went to church, I was nice to people, and prayed for what I wanted or felt I needed at the time. Once I got into high school I called myself Christian because I did believe in God and Jesus and I tried my best to live up to Christian standards. I did not drink (a lot), I tried to care about people, and I made myself look good from the outside. I starting dating a guy in 10th grade and things began to change. The idol of that relationship became my world and who I looked up to. It wasn't until we had been dating almost 4 years that I began to feel worn down.  I felt God pulling on my heart and telling me, "You are not happy.." I ignored it and continued to try to find happiness in drinking, new friends, and him. I soon again felt God telling me that I could not live like this anymore. I pushed my feelings to the side once again.
We broke up, and I felt my world around me slowly fall to pieces. I did not tell my family or friends for weeks after because of the embarrassment and pain. Soon after I called out to the only person that knew what I was going through. I asked God to comfort me and help me grow stronger. I told him I was tired of planning my life and failing at it. I want him to plan it and walk with me from now on. I literally felt God holding me in his arms. The next day I told my family what happened and fought through the pain of it all. Through the summer I had a lot to rely on God for when it came tough times. I grew closer to God though every tough moment and learned that He makes me perfectly strong in my weakness. When I went back to school I quickly got involved in CRU, a student ministry, and learned about the new heart that God gives me when I accept him. I had never heard of this before in the past and I loved learning about it. I can see now where my heart has been continuously changing this past year. God has showed me so many things that I was blind to such as my pride, being judgmental, selfishness, and guilt. I now have a true love that supply's me with all I need. Its a personal relationship with God that I needed and tried to find in other things that never lasted. I now know that my heart's true desires are to be God's desires. He's slowly making me into the person he wants me to be, and that's fine with me. 

Week #8-- I am Father

Ahh, Well its the end of Week #8 here in Chi-Town.
 Its 1am on Saturday night and I just got home from work. I don't usually do a "on the spot" description of what I'm doing or my day, but I want to give God praise for my night at work.
 I have gotten into somewhat spiritual conversations at work this summer. One was getting to know a 47 year old guy I wait with. Another was hearing about the dishwashers bad experience in a Catholic home and sharing what I believe the differences are. And tonight I got to share my story with Leanna. She is 23 and probably the sweetest girl you will ever meet. We were talking about guys and whatnot and I mentioned my "wild" past. She immediately said, "Wild Past?! You?" .."Yeahh, I am human," I said. She started asking questions about why I changed and how It happened. Long story short I shared my testimony and she wanted to know if I was happier now than I was before. I of course said that I now have complete joy that I don't have to search for. I saw her begin to think about her own life and things starting clicking for her.
--That was end of that conversation but I hope she will have more questions. Please keep Leanna in your prayers as I only have another week with her to talk. I probably will only work 1 one day with her. Its not anything I can do but to ask God to work in her heart as I want her to have the complete joy that I think she is searching for.


This week on Summer Project our theme was I Am, Father. 
We looked at 1 John 2-3 and how God is said to be a father with four main characteristics: Holy, Truth, Hope, and Glory.
When you say "father" to someone they probably have a different view of what a father is than everyone else. Some of ya'll had a wonderful dad growing up, some didn't have one at all. Some might of had an abusive father, or one that was just absent all the time. No matter what your father image looks like, there is one truth that can be said: you have a heavenly father that chooses and adopts you, blesses, redeems, unifies, and seals you with his love.  In John 1:12-13 says we are born of God and not of humans. In Galatians 4:4-7 it says that we are adopted by God and we call him Father. If we accept God and what he has done for us then he says that he has redeemed us and he buys us back with Jesus. He also unifies us (John 17:20-23) --Jesus wants us to have the same unity with God that He has! That is crazy!
He also seals us forever! 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 says that he "sets his seal of ownership on us" and that he puts the Holy Spirit in our hearts only as a down payment for what is to come.

**I have learned that God really really loves me.. He created me, watched me fail over and over searching for significance in this world, picked me up again and again, then I finally gave in. I told him I would follow him with my life and that's when he told me that he chose me! He adopts me into his kingdom as a child of the king. He redeemed me and sealed me with his love. And "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

"I AM.."

Hey Ya'll ! 

I'm so sorry I have not blogged in a couple weeks! Things have been busy and exciting here in Chicago CSP 12' ! With the staff gone the students are running this project and I think we are doing it well. We have our budget for meals, meetings, outreach days, project fun and much more! I have been having many spiritual conversations, seeing people accept Christ, and following up with those who have more questions. Most of all I have been growing in my walk with God..

Our awesome leadership team created our theme for the rest of the summer. It is "I Am.." 

where we will be going through 1 John in bible studies and group meetings (with the studies created by leadership) and looking at the characteristics of who God is on a deeper and personal level. Last week our theme was "I am Eternal.." 

We  look at what "eternal" is based on scripture in : Romans 1:20-23, Genesis 9:13-15, and 2 Samuel 7:13-16. We talked about the difference between happiness and joy in scripture. God promises us complete JOY and not just bursts of happiness. Think of happiness as bubbles and complete joy being the bottle the bubbles are in. The bubbles might and will eventually pop but the bottle stands the same whether its full or empty its still a bottle, its still in complete Joy. 

Jesus gives us complete Joy. 

**I have learned through this that I can not fathom what and eternal relationship looks like. We have relationships with our family, friends, teachers, and pets. We think that these will last forever but we know for a fact that they will all have ups and down and some will one day come to an end. But my relationship with an Eternal God will never end. I know this because his presence is manifest in my life. He promises me that I will continue to grow and since he is from the Beginning and the End, he will be with me from Beginning to End. 

Last week's theme was "I am Light.." 

Light: something that makes vision possible; enlightment; truth

We looked at John 1 where it says he came as a witness to the light. Also in 1 Timothy 6: 14-15 where it says that he lives in unapproachable light who no one has seen or can see...Let's take a second and think about that. God is unapproachable, we can not see him or no one has seen him here on this earth. Through this and Revelation 22:5 telling us the visual aspect of God being light, this is might-boggling. In John 3:19-21 it says how men of this world choose darkness. God is light and this world chooses to live in darkness. 

--On a personal note, I know what it means to live in darkness. I constantly searched for significance in this world through grades, sports, attention, and especially guys. When scripture tells me that I chose darkness, I believe it! I did not want to come to God for what he had to offer. I was content in my dark life and did not want out. But when my world started to fall to pieces and I called on God, I began to see the light. and when you see the light of what he has to offer, you are no longer satisfied in the dark.--

John 3: 19-21

Think of the sun and your shadows.. The more I come closer to the light the more I see my past and present shadows of darkness.

I have also learned that this darkness is not just the actions we do that displeases God but it is the core of our heart that is dark- Matthew 15:17-20 . When we only address the action that we did as the sin we are only brushing the surface of confession. When we look for the heart reason of why we did it (for attention, our pride, our selfishness) this is when we start to see why we need God-

-Its not our actions that God is concerned with, its the heart's attitude, and that is what God wants, our heart, and that is what God's gift is, a new heart--

"God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain.." -C.S Lewis

Thank you so much to all my supporters! I would not be here  if it was not for your support and prayers. I can not imagine not being there as these people have became my family and friends for a life time. Most of all I would not have grown as much as I have and stepped out in faith as much as God has allowed me to! I can not thank you enough for all you have done. Please keep me in your prayers for my last few weeks here =( I honestly hope they go my slow as God is doing amazing things in this place! 

<3 you all !

Danielle Cassidy
910-625-5786

410 S. Morgan st. apt 407 

Chicago, IL

60607

~~Magnificent Life~~~

This week has been filled with excitement and sadness. Excitement, because we went through our topic of Magnificent Life and what that even looks like to have a God centered Life. Sadness, because all of our Staff and Staff families left yesterday. Its up to us students to run the rest of project by taking on their roles as leaders. 

Monday night our Project director talked with us about what our Kingdom Vision is how we will individually achieve that in our lives. I personally said that my vision is to see larger and more ministries on college campus', numerous bible studies of all levels taking place, weekly evangelism being done, and college students making a decision to follow Christ. We talked about how we are gifted to achieve this vision and how it can be done. Of course God is HOW it will be done but we also talked about who can we lean on back at school, who will hold us accountable, and how we can be equipped to do small groups, bible studies, and discipleship. Over the past few weeks God has given me a huge desire to disciple girls back at my campus. I am literally praying for the girls that I will talk to when I return to ECU and I do not even know who they are yet. Please keep my vision and others in your prayers as we seek to live for God's kingdom. 

How to live a Magnificent Life for Christ~~

-Philippians 4:10-13-- Being content and thankful to God for what you have 

-Be in the Word daily 

-Live with integrity

-and never think that ________ might not happen to you..cause it can.

   For example, do not look at someone who has fallen away from God and say "wow look at ____. I can't believe he/she is living like that after all God has done for him/her. I would never do that..."  Do not think in this way because we Do Not choose God, He chose us ..

Psalm 116 <3

**Helen**

A lot has happened with Helen in the past couple weeks. I have met with her a couple of times and talked about numerous topic from cultural differences to what being a Christian actually means. 

I have an amazing story to tell if your willing to read, but bear with me.... I have found out through Helen that there is a guy named Peter who is from China and reaches out to college students that come to the U.S from China. This is who Helen contacted when she arrived in the U.S. This man is 50-60 years old and gives his life to these students. He picks them up from the airport, gives them a place to stay if they need it, food, and makes sure they are settled into their college to start classes. Not only does he just serve these students but he also places the Gospel in their lives. He runs a ministry that holds fellowship on Thursday nights for internationals and Friday nights for Chinese students. When Helen told me she found this ministry to go to recently I was worried. I immediately thought she was going to a colt as there are many on the campus' around Chicago. I, prayerfully, said I would join her one Friday night to see what she was getting herself into. When I went I was taken by surprise. Me, Logan, and Sarah (Sarah is a girl who has been studying the Bible with Helen that I did not even know about, AMAZING) were the only non-Chinese people there and we stuck out like a sore thumb. It was obviously in a Chinese community and a lot of the older men and women could not even speak English. There was no AC in the building and we sat in our sweat for a few hours surrounded by Chinese people. Long story short, we ate, sang songs (in Chinese), and listened to a man's AMAZING testimony. Everything was in their language so a girl sat near us and translated the whole thing. This man went to the #2 college in China, then Notre Dame in the U.S, and had fought God's existence his whole life until one day a professor asked him if he could prove God was Not real. He tried to do this for about a year or more until he gave up and prayed to a God he did not want to believe in. God whispered to him and said, "Yes , I am God." He lives for a God that is more real to him than ever now. 

I believe with all of my heart that God has brought Helen, who had never heard the Gospel before, to this amazing Christian Community in Chicago. I thank God for Sarah as she will continue studying the Bible with Helen and her roommate, Ester, even after I leave.  

--I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July !! 

Thank you so much for supporting me prayerfully and thoughtfully 

Love, Danielle 

Magnificent Community

Oh Heyyyyy =) 

This week has been really awesome for me as it has been filled with working, digging into 1Peter more, and learning about how a "community" of believers looks like. This was our theme for the week, "Magnificent Community." 

Fact: The number one reason why missionaries leave the mission field is because they can not get along with other missionaries!  

--How disgusting is that?? We live to serve the same loving, and Just God but we can not  even take steps to love one another? 

We learned during training this week what Conflict looks like to God and how we as believers should approach it. I know what your thinking, Christians do not have conflict between each other because they are all happy all the time...wrong...and wrong again. Conflict between believers is common but should be dealt with differently than the world's view of conflict resolution. This is just one of the awesome characteristics of what community should look like. Another is the steps it takes for a community of people to reject praise to themselves and give it to God. 

A story that our speaker told us is a good example of what this looks like. 

So a symphony performed a piece by Beethoven and it was the hardest piece for anyone to perform and do it correctly. They did an amazing job and the audience rose to their feet and applauded greatly after. The conductor quickly sushed the audience and told them to hold their praise for "who are we to play this when Beethoven is the greatest one of all?"

This is a community of musicians who knows the difference between playing a song that is given to them and receiving praise for it and taking a song that is given to them and playing it for the glory to go to the creator of the song.

A Magnificent Community is one that longs to take their song, their lives, all of the praise they may receive, and give it to God, the creator. 

WORK:  I started my first day at Buffalo Wings & Rings on Tuesday! I am waitressing about 5 days a week so far and I love it. I honestly do not know if God gave me this job to test me or to just trust in Him with making the decision; but I quit Forever Yogurt. I am already building great relationships with the girls I work with, they know why I am here and they assure me I will leave with a "dirty mouth like them." haha They do have some filthy language and rebellious actions but that is why I there..to correct them? NO . That is one thing I want them to know. I am not there to judge them or convert them. I want to show and tell them that I was just like them, searching for significance in all the wrong places: boys, drinking, my appearance, and pleasing others.  I simply want to get to know these girls, share stories, beliefs, and answer questions they may have about my reason for life. 

Cookout-- This week I also lead a cookout at UIC for the students we have been meeting on campus. We enjoyed passing out waters, playing games, and getting into conversations with students we either had already met or just walked up to us! We had hotdogs, water, candy, and smores. We played corn hole, threw the football, and played a little frizz-bee. This was a fun time of fellowship with project people and UIC students to come together and simply share the love we have for them by serving them with food and fun! 

Scripture: 

This week we have been going through 1 Peter3:11-4:11 with reference to Isaiah 53. I encourage you to go read it yourself because there are so many things I could tell you that it has taught me about Jesus and His character. Jesus' birth, death, and rising from the dead was and is an example for how we are called to live: with submission to God's plan, humbling ourselves, trusting God, suffering for others, and not reviling when we are sinned against by others. 

--"He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open is mouth"  -Isiah 53:7

We are called to serve our Father in Heaven just as Jesus served His Father. 

Prayer: 

Last week of staff being here with us

Work -relationships I build there

Leadership on project as staff leave us their roles

UIC Students hearts to be open to the Gospel (Helen, Selina)

( Thank you for your prayers and your support!! )

Love, Danielle Cassidy 

PICS:

Our meeting room

Andrea, my disciplier