Missionary to NYC Youth (Part 2) - Danny Sanabria

My name is Daniel Sanabria. I am from New York, born and raised. I am a husband, a father, and I am a missionary to young people here in New York City under the Ministry of Call Youth for Christ, New York City. Happy to be here. Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders as they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life. Join us as we delve into their challenges, moments of encouragement, and answered prayers. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff, and volunteers. Learn more at Faithly.co. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as we unveil the heart of faith through stories from the front lines of ministry on the Faithly Stories podcast. Oh, we are so happy to have you, Danny. So we only just met a week ago. Yes. We met at the Pastor's Prayer Summit. We were in Pennsylvania and it was an awesome conference. Awesome. I met so many cool people, so many people that I just knew I had to hear more of their stories. So you're a missionary to the youth of New York City. I love that. Like, break that down from me. What does that mean? Yeah. You know, when I got saved when I was six years old, I mean, radically saved. I mean, I born a raised in church, but when I was 16, I rarely saved, and I said to myself, I got to tell my peers about Christ. This changed my whole life, my perspective. And I just became like a lover for Christ. And I said, I got to tell my friends, my neighbors about Jesus. And then I started my youth ministry journey from 16 on to my local church. And I got really involved in youth ministry and I haven't stopped. And so it became a full-time ministry later on in life and with youth for Christ and with other ministries. And I said, man, my will goal here in life right now is to see kids come to Jesus. I came to Jesus a young age. I grew up in church, but seeing young people following Christ when they're 13 and 14 and on is a, like, it's a joy, but a goal in my life to see, hey, if you could change your kids' life when they're young, you could change a generation. And so I want to see kids come to Jesus. And whatever it takes, if it takes a slice of pizza, hanging out with them or take them out to hear the gospel, to share the gospel, let's do it. And so that's been my heart. Now, when you, when you, when you felt those stirings as teenager, right, did you think that you would go into full-time ministry because you studied business in college? Yes, studied business in college. I'm an entrepreneur. I love business. My parents are in business. I got a friend and a family in business. And it's just, it's in me, my DNA starting something. My first business was in, was in the eighth grade, selling beads, Puerto Rican beads, flags, you know, back in those days. And raising money, right? And, and so it's always been in my blood. And I started, you know, at King's College here in New York City in the Empire State, Bill when it first started 2000 and 2000 on 1999. And, um, loved everything about the college. But again, ministry was, was in me. And so, did I ever thought I'd be full-time? No. Was it a dream? Yes. I knew I was going to business. I was, I was probably going to be in my dad's business in the dry cleaning business for, you know, all this years. But God has just put me in places that allow me to do full-time ministry. And so, I was just grateful, and I just jumped right in there to say, wait, I mean, if I could do this full-time, go into the trenches, go into the neighborhoods, and preach the gospel, especially in my local church, man, let's do it. I'm, I'm all, I'm all in. Yeah. And it sounds like you were right about all of that. Like the Lord has called you into all of it. Yeah. Into business, into ministry. Yeah. Because in addition to doing full-time ministry, you're also a, this is man, you're also an entrepreneur. Yes. Tell me about that. Yeah. So, again, Danny always wants to make money to survive in this city. And so, I, I started a t-shirt business. I was always interested in t-shirts in my youth groups, just creating t-shirts for them. I had a front of mind that was really in the in the t-shirt business. And I will just go to his shop and hang out them, give him orders, and give him orders. And I said, hey, man, can you show me how you do this? Because this is so cool. I'm paying you this much money. I'm trying to always get the, you know, cheaper stuff. And I was like, can you show me how to do this? And he was like, yeah, do this, do that. And he was bringing it down. And one day I told my wife, I went open a business. And she looked at me and she said, okay, Danny, you know, this is your dream. And I said, yeah, I won't buy a t-shirt business. And we're going to make our own t-shirts. And we're going to make our own money. And we're going to support my family. And she was like, okay. And then one day, I took me two years to save up. And I said, hey, I bought a machine. And she was like, oh, you are serious. You bought a machine. I was like, yeah, and I'm housing in here. My friends store, we're going to make it long story short. 10 years later, you know, we're doing really well. God has opened a door. This is a side business that I work at nighttime. I also got workers and partners into this small business called Community Print Lab. And it's exciting to be a part of that. But also I hire young people. I teach young people how to screen print. And so for me, it's a discipleship tool. Yeah. You know, it just, hey, they hang out with me for eight hours. And we're not just talking about t-shirt. We're talking about life and conversation about, you know, how can, how can this bless you? And I have so many kids right on their resume. I work with Danny, you know, in our printing business. And they got jobs. And so if I could be that help, I'm all in. Yeah. Yeah. So for you, it's not like business here and ministry here. It's everything together. Everything together. Has to be. Yeah. Everything together. Yeah. Well, and so you have another business. Yeah. You have a tracking business. And it's connected to youth for Christ. So talk a little bit about that. Yeah. It's just a great, great story. Um, during the pandemic, um, we, so we work with kids in prison. Our ministry is juvenile justice ministry. All right. Youth for Christ has different different different types of ministry. But in New York City, we started with juvenile justice ministry, working with kids with 13 to 19 years old inside the prison system. And we've been doing that for nine years. So when the pandemic hit, a lot of these kids needed to go back home. They were sending them back home and they needed furniture. Mom, they didn't expect them to come so soon. So they called us up and said, Danny, can you get them furniture? So I was like, yeah, so I call my board member up here and up inside. And, um, I asked her, Hey, do you, can you get me furniture? Her name is Ben Dia. She's awesome. She's like, yeah. So she went on Facebook. We need a bed. We need this. We need that. And I will go pick up the bed in my car or pick up the furniture in my car or rent on a truck to go deliver these kids. And so the juvenile justice people were like, this is awesome. Keep on doing it. I'm like, I mean, there was like, I mean, 10 kids probably every month. And I was like, I need, I need a truck. So I knew, I knew a guy. If you're from New York, you know, somebody, I think we're going to call this podcast. I knew a guy, you know, a guy. Yeah. So, you know, guy, I call, I say, Hey, you know, sunny, I need it. I need your truck. I know you have a truck in the back of the, you know, can you just give it to me? I'm doing this for a ministry. He was like, well, I'm not Christian, Danny. So this is, you got to pay me. So also, I'm sure we bought the truck with my local church. I'll be paid, you know, a good, a good price, great mileage. And we started this business called move for justice, move for justice. And my wife said, you should, my wife actually called it move for justice. And we started, we started a business, but this business was strictly for moving, but also hiring kids or forming incarcerated. They're coming out of jail. They don't know what to do. We have a relationship with them. They love us. Hey, why don't you work with us? Let's do some moving jobs. And we have people from different churches call us up, but also other ministries calling up. And I'll hire them. And I'll spend eight hours with them lifting up furniture up and down. But I'm, I'm going to tell you something right now is the best ministry when it comes to discipleship is working with them. I can see Jesus calling the disciples come follow me and just do ministry. But he was present. He was there doing ministry. And me doing ministry with them is, is that is taking these, you know, furniture everywhere, but, but, but having the deep spiritual conversations, it was better than preaching on, preaching on a, on a pulpit or in church. It was me speaking to these kids about, about everything that's going on. Yeah. And I can just tell them about a biblical worldview. And I'm telling you, kids have been changed because of that. Wow. That's powerful. Yeah. It's really powerful. I think you told me that all of this grew out of a prayer movement. Oh, yes. Right. Tell me about that. Man. So there's so, so my life is parallel. Like I have, it's not like I have to tell you to start something. It's everything started at the same time. And so God belongs in my city started, you know, probably in 2009. I was in ministry working with another ministry called Street to Street, uh, basketball tournaments. Um, but Goblin and cities started in my office. Um, I was a principal. See, I do a lot. I was a principal. Danny, are you 108 years old? I, I, I, I feel like it. I was a principal of my church local school. Mm hmm. They needed a principal because the principal left. And I was a secretary when I first got to college and then like, Danny, can you join me? I was like, sure. I, I, it's, there's entrepreneur. It's, it's starting something. It's helping. It's starting. What I, I can, let me do this and I great support. Uh, my board was there for me. Um, but in that moment, a teacher walked in and said, Danny, look at this, look at this article. And this article said one million New Yorkers don't need God. So the eighth years were putting these ads all over New York City. And so in my office, where my youth leaders, we had a Monday morning, you know, conversation, uh, meeting. And I read the article in front of them. And in my book, it was like so quick. In my book, I wrote God belongs in my city. Hmm. He belongs here. This is his city. And there's believers in this city that love Jesus. And we cannot stand for this. So let's pray for our city. And so one young person said, man, we should put it on two shirts. I was like, I know a guy. And so, like, so he was like, we should do a prayer walk. Danny, why don't you get older youth pastors in New York City that you know, and, and, and, and bring them together and do a prayer walk from battery park all the way to Times Square. And let's do it in two weeks. And I was like, Oh, okay. So I called my youth pastor friends called Adam Darce, so I called everybody and said, Hey, let's do a prayer walk against this, you know, eight years ads. And let's just do it in two weeks. So I called my friend. I need t shirts. I had no money. I need 300 t shirts. Two days he gets to meet 200 t shirts. Wow. White t shirt. This is God belongs in my city. Wow. No church name, no sponsorship. It was just me and my youth that are like what, 25, 30 of us. Hmm. And so let's just pray, pray, pray. Those 27 years old, I got young people 13, 14, 15, and they're like, let's do it. They call their friends. Everyone started to find out on Facebook. We didn't have Instagram back then. It was on just Facebook and Twitter. I mean, we just blew up. Long story short, I ordered 2000 t shirts in two weeks. Wow. At a big bill. 2000 t shirt. I was, okay, this is bad. I was selling them really cheap because I really wanted to get the word out there. Give out many at the end of the day, 1500 kids came together from Times Square, from Battery Park all the way to Times Square. And then we had another group from 110th Street, come down and meet us at Times Square. You could look it up, Goblin, the city. I google it and telling you blew up. Prayer, the youth pray for the city. Yeah. And it started there. And then again, we'll be here all day. Talk about this. But that started this movement of prayer in New York City and all over America over 80 cities did a prayer walks. Wow. And across the country and across the world. So who would have thought that my young people, four of us in a room would be all over the world saying God belongs my city? Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. And we had no money. We had nothing. We just did it. And you know, the pandemic slowed us down. And I'm four eight three years old. And I'm like, I got to make, you know, this wasn't paying me. This wasn't. We get all the proceeds. We gave it back to heatham issues. We did retreats with them. We gave it to youth ministry to support them. And youth for Christ's national office said, man, we need, let's hire Daniel. Let's let's bring this together and reach kids with a gospel. And I'm like, I'm all in. And so all of that came to fruition. That's why I'm here. And that's why I love the city. That's why I'm not leaving the city. That's why I have 50 jobs to make sure to survive. But at the end of the day, we want to see kids know Jesus. And we want, we want kids in youth ministry to cross this city to be young people of prayer. I do believe when a young person praise the church is stronger and will last longer. That's what I believe. Wow. That's really. That's a beautiful story. And your story is not over. You're only 43 years old. 43 years old yet. Yeah. Wow. So when you think about New York City youth today, you know, you've been doing it not for 108 years. No. For a good couple of decades. Yeah. What has changed about reaching youth in New York City today? And what do you think is needed? Do we need another prayer movement? Yeah. I believe the church is in New York City. It's like it's it's like a fire. You know, you start fire. It's just like it's coming up. I believe that there are prayer movements happening right now. Yeah. In the Bronx church, the city with prayer, you know, NYC. God is moving. And I don't think we need to start something. We got to see what's there and we just got to jump on it. Yeah. And I think that the need for youth ministries to be on fire is now like I think the church leadership they're all in, but the youth don't neglect the youth. Yes, they're occupied by social media. Yes, they're annoying. Yes, I have a liberal. Yes, there's all of the above. The reality is we need to invest in more of youth have never before. If we're not putting a large budget in our youth ministries, we're going to lose these young people. They're hungry. This generation is hungry. If you're not investing in them, we're going to lose them. Because again, 24 hours, seven days a week, the enemy is after them. It is one click away is one entry away. It's in their faces. They can't get away from it. But we need to be on the offense all of the time. That's why I get upset when a youth ministry tells me I get, I get wholly upset. That's the holy discontent. When all we're going to just meet once a month. What? All we're going to meet twice a month. No, we got to meet every week. We got to be on top of them because this generation is going to die if we're not with them. That's my goal as a youth for Christ. Our goal is to empower youth ministries. The temperature of youth ministries in New York City, I think, from what I see is they're ready. They're there. They're ready. My daughter is hungry. She's living as old. She's not hungry because her father is hungry. She's hungry because she's she's she's feeling the spirit of God and she's doing it on her own. She's literally like, Dad, I go pray, walk, pray a service with you. The, you know, the grumpy dad would be like, Mom, you gotta go to sleep. You gotta go tomorrow. And there's a lot of parents like that. No, you want to come? Let's go. My dad used to drag us to church. Seven days a week, I'm coming from a pedocopsy church. Seven days a week, I've been a part of every single ministry that you could think of. And yes, we went home late. You know, yes, we tired next day to go to school, but there were seeds planted. And I, and I taking my daughter to prayer and seeing her pray on her own, I gotta feed that. And so we have to do that as a church. We have to look at the youth when you say, Hey, let's disciple our kids and let's reach more kids. So, Danny, if, um, if you're a lead pastor and you're listening to this conversation and you're getting stirred up and you're saying, Yes, I want a light of fire. We have youth and we have a youth ministry, but they're not quite sure how to do that. What's like a practical first step they can do to unleash the power of what is there? Yeah, get in the room with all your leaders and have a five or 10 year plan and say, how many kids we want? What's the number? 50, 100? Okay, this is what we need. What's our budget? If our budget is only 1%, you're losing. It needs to be a higher percentage, especially here in New York. It has to be high. I mean, I mean, I raise a lot of money to get to where I'm at. And I encourage pastors to support me, but I also encourage some what's your budget on the ground? And so that's key. And then get in a room with young people and do not be a church of authority, but a church of a relationship. Meaning, asking the questions, Hey, what's going on out there, guys? You know, it doesn't have to be spiritual conversations. It could be just natural conversations that will become a spiritual conversation. We call it a youth for Christ, Christ, sharing relationship. A friend of mine, Paul Cody said this to me, he's from young life. He said, when you say hello to a young person, that's the beginning of the discipleship. That changed my life. It's not like when they begin to discipleship, it's not when they come to church. Begin to discipleship when I go to the park and say, well, what's up to a kid? I said, I'll be here next week. I'm going to be true next week. I promise you. I'm coming next week. And I'm coming to the following week. I'm coming every week. So make sure that kid knows my name. And I know their name. And then there's a God, because this is a problem. We think we could save people. We don't save people. The scripture is clear. God saves people. God brings the bride together. We just got to be faithful and consistent. So also the church, hey, be faithful and consistent. And do it weekly. If I went back to my youth days, my youth days, my doors are open seven days a week. The church leadership will be upsetting me because the kids will be in the church off hours. I said, what do you want me to do? They love the church. Mama, dad don't go to church, but they love being part of the church. I got to feed that. I got to help that out. Now, again, there's rules. I understand that. But these kids are hungry. You got to get on top of it and you got to focus on it. And there's always, you always have to move with it. There's not one just straight structure that we used to grow up like this. There's always a movement of it. But never fall away from the truth. Right. So that's what I would tell youth to a pastor. Get on the board. Everyone on board and let's focus on them. Yeah. Let's focus on them and be faithful and consistent. I love the, yeah, that's so simple, but it's so powerful. I think anytime. And I see this as someone who's trying to build a new thing. When you're trying to build a new thing, being faithful and kiss this is such an important ingredient. That's good advice. Can we talk about youth for Christ for a minute? So youth for Christ has over a hundred chapters in the country. And I got to imagine that every chapter is a little different. Every city or every town needs something different for their youth. You had mentioned that your chapter, the New York City chapter is really, really grew out of juvenile justice. Is that particular to New York City? Is that all urban areas? I'm just a little curious. Yeah. I mean, youth for Christ and nationally is well known for their juvenile justice ministry. So youth for Christ goes wherever where their students are at. Like where they're at. Park schools. Where are they? We're going to get juvenile justice are as a ministry focusing on young people that are incarcerated. Who's going to reach them? Who's going to have to them? And so youth for Christ for over 65 years has been doing that. And when they came to New York City and hired me, Adam Durso actually endorsed me. And I told Adam, Adam, I can't do executive director. That's not me. That's paperwork. I can't do it. I was so scared. I was terrified. He's like, no, Danny, I believe in you. I think you can do it. And so when they came to me and sat down with me, it could be nine years, they said, hey, Danny, listen, we love what you're doing. You're doing a phenomenal job. But we want you to be a part of this for Christ. I was like, yes, I'm getting paid for this and reach kids. I'm excited. Youth for Christ is all, you know, and Billy Graham was a first employee. I was like, I'm a part of that lineage. I'm excited. So I'm like, that's my hero. And but they're like, listen, you know, you can reach kids and campuses in the neighborhoods. This is what you do. But there's a ministry we want to bring here near our culture and I was like, what's that? Like, I was like, his going to jail is like, yeah, I was like, I mean, I got arrested a couple times. I was a kid. I mean, but you know, I never visit. I probably was a one kid in Rikers. But I didn't know the ministry. I have friends that did the type of ministry, but I wasn't really into it. Like, well, then this is what we're doing. Take it away. And during that time, I was, I was off for another job for another ministry. And I was like, this one or this one? I was debating this one. I can do it. Let's do it. This one is new. It's dark. It's challenging. No one's doing it from a from a gospel perspective. And I said, Lord, tell me, he's like, go to the dark. This is that. Go and no one's going. I was like, I don't know all that. I forgot you, but no, I'm like, let's do it. Let's jump in to something that no one's really doing. And so I call a friend of mine and say, Hey, I need your help. You're doing this. I want to bring it to gospel. You're doing this from a legal stuff. And you want to change clothes, clothes, clothes, jails. I'm going to come with Jesus. And he was like, man, it had been praying for this. Dan had been praying for the partnership. So I'm like, just show me. So I walked in. I'm in the Bronx now from Brooklyn. Okay. We don't go to the Bronx. All right. That's just we go there for the Yankee game. Probably we don't go there hanging out. Even the Bronx people from the Brooklyn. It's a whole, it's a, it's a whole different thing. And so I said, all right, he was coming at 10 o'clock. I said, 10 o'clock in the Bronx, bro, I don't, I don't know, dude, 10 o'clock. It was just a reality. But he says, come at 10 o'clock and come inside, horizon and come and see what we do. So I sat down. I waited for two hours. And I waited. And then a young girl walked and she was 14 years old. And he basically said, now talk to her. And I was like, hey, I was, hey, what's your name? Where you're from? From Chelsea, blah, blah. Just like, I'm here because off the bat. I'm here because I robbed a domino pizza delivery. I'm like, okay, okay. And right there was like a punch in my gut. I just had a, I just had a baby. And it was like, she needs to get the gospel. This is where you need to be at. It's not just a, it's not ministry for juvenile justice. It is, it's, it's, it's going to the darkest places. I'm like, I'm in, I'm all in. And I went to her court date the next day. Wow. I was the only one that she, that she knew. Mama, that was in there. Her bosom. I was the only one. She looked at me. She was like, like, what are you doing here? Like, you just met me. Yeah. And that, that moment she told the court, um, I'm pregnant 14 years old. I need help. And I'm like, please Lord. And right there just shook me and says, no matter what I do, I got to get to these kids faces. I got to do what I have to do. And so I did call people and call government officials and said, let me in. By the grace of God, we've been in facilities for nine years. By the grace of God, we have volunteers. By the grace of God, those churches involved. But there's a lot more work to do. And then as my time has come, I became more of a fundraiser now than on the ground. And do I like, do I like to be fundraiser? Yes. Do I want to be on the ground? Absolutely. But, Lord, it's put me in a position to train, develop more leaders that do that and raise the funds to get to those door. And I tell all my donors and to pastor to say, let's keep the door open. Because we have the door open for nine years. They love us. They want to be, they want to be us to be part of his kids' lives. And yes, it says, it's a useful question. But they see our consistency. They see our yeses. They see our drive. And they tell us, why are you doing this? I'm like, because this is what God's call us to do. Yeah. So, well, so we've got a lot of New York City pastors and churches who are following along with what we're doing and listening to the podcast. What do you need? That's a big question. That's a big one. I don't want to get in trouble. What I need is this. I need the church. Youth for Christ is not function as a power diminishing only. It's, no, youth for Christ functions as long as the church functions. Can't do without the local church. I can't do it. I can't be in there and say, Youth for Christ has a minister. No, I have to call the churches in and say, you have the people, you have the heart and your longevity. Youth for Christ could literally end, could be closed today. But the church will never close. They will never close. It's going to be open. And so I need the church to be inside the facilities. So we're doing a new thing called adopt a hall. We have 20 halls. Halls are where kids stay and live. The 10 to 15 kids per hall. And we're looking for 20 churches to adopt a hall. Focus on those 10 students. What does it look like going with them once a week, go to their court dates, spend time with their families, tell the families where the church is support you. What are your needs? What are your wants? What praying for you? What will help you? So imagine 20 churches. Now there's 7,500 churches in New York City. I only 20. To support help YFC doors open to get the church in the building. And then that church could support just that 10. Not the whole facility. Just those 10 kids. The 10 roughest youth ministry you'll ever have. It is not easy. It's not easy. I'm not on churches all over for nine years. I've knocked on churches. I've called churches. I have friends that run churches. But most of the time, they're like, Ah, this is too much. And that's the reality. Could we deal with kids? I've just murdered a murdered kids in the streets. But they do need hope. They're going to spend time in prison for 15, 20 years. But we need to plan the seed. And we need to be consistent in their lives. And I and only got can change. So the reality is this. The church needs to be involved with youth for Christ. I can't do without it. Because I'm not the church. I'm just part of the church. So if a church wants to get involved, Danny, what do they do? Do they reach out to you? Yes, please. YFCNYC.org. And hit me up. Let's do this. Let's train you. Let's develop you. Let's help you. Let's guide you. Let's get involved. We're looking for funds to resources to make our budget to make sure our staff is good to go and make sure all these kids need what they need. Got it. Got it. Well, I have a feeling, Danny, that we've only just scrapped the surface of your story of the work that you're doing. So the feeling will be talking again. But thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I've been such a blessing to hear how the Lord has used you, how he's woven his story together. Can you believe like when you were arrested, like that, that would be such a key moment that I would like feed into your ministry. Like the Lord knew what he'd be doing. The Lord knew what he was doing. Yeah. Shaped me up, changed my life. And now I'm all in with him. As Paul said it, I'm like, he says, Paul said, a slave to the loss. And so I want to be a slave to the lost. Thank you, Danny. Thank you so much. I'm excited for faithfully what you're doing. Let's bring the cue. I love it. I believe this. What I believe on its end is God's gonna bless you because you're all about unity. John 17 talks about it. Jesus, we pray about it. I think you're doing that. Thank you. Thank you, Danny. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Faithfully Stories Podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithfully Stories Podcast is brought to you by Faithfully, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. The Faithfully Digital Platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the Frontlines of Ministry on the Faithfully Podcast. Stay bold, stay faithful and never underestimate the power of your own story.