Let me tell you a little about where my life has been to help you understand what God has done in me.

I accepted Jesus into my life at a young age, and believed that He died for me so I could go to heaven, however I didn’t understand what a true relationship with Him was or much about the Bible. Then my love for sports became more important than Jesus and so did the approval of friends. In my sophomore year of high school I was expelled for selling drugs and experienced deep rejection and shame at having lost all my friends and sports. This led to rebellion and a belief that nobody cared about me. I was forced to my knees over and over again in a cycle of insanity which we call in society—addiction.

I continued to move deeper and deeper into drug dealing and reactive violence. In the end of my rebellion, I had done about ten years in prison, a year in an underground solitary confinement cell, overdosed eight times and was put on life support twice. God has brought people to me many times in miraculous ways always keeping me alive when I should’ve been found dead. Jesus met me in prison the last time I was there and let me know He was calling me.

A few years later I was in CenterPoint church in Concord and I had this moment where Jesus spoke loudly to me and told me to drop everything and go to His Mansion. Instead of continuing to try and build my own life, I listened and I’m now graduating after spending a year here in two weeks. He has completely transformed me and my desires for life.

In considering graduation and praying about next steps I’ve been given this calling and acceptance to a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Kona, Hawaii. I will be trained for three months to evangelize, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) and learn how to train people to share Jesus with their culture (Matthew 28:19). The second three months will be the outreach. The specific DTS that I got accepted into is called Extreme Places. It is focused on bringing Bibles to areas of the world that can only be reached on foot, as well as sharing the Gospel with unreached people groups that have never heard of Christ before.

As I follow God’s leading and fully surrender my life as a missionary with YWAM, I’m in need of a support team that is willing to stand with me in prayer and financial partnership. The six months to complete the DTS will cost me roughly $10,000 including plane tickets, travel insurance, and necessary gear. Thank you in advance for your prayers and consideration. Feel free to reach out with any questions - joesgagliardi32@gmail.com                                                            

Arrival Date: April 9th

Lecture Phase: April-June

Outreach: July-September

Outreach Location: TBD.

Released during lecture phase.

Financial Support Goal:

$10,000

(Lecture $4k + Outreach $6k)

• Travel

• Housing

• Equipment

• etc.

Prayer Requests:

• His Mansion graduation

• Transitional Housing

• My two brothers Nick and Jake

• The Lord’s Provision

Joe