YWAM Letter #1

Dear Friends and Family,

As fall approaches and the changing of season comes in the natural, changes are coming for the Farrows too! It’s been an exciting time and has been a whirlwind few weeks for us.

As many of you know, we have been investing our time, energy and resources into being a part of what God has been doing in Winnipeg in the area of prayer & worship for the last 4.5 years, through our involvement with Sanctuary House of Prayer. Now, as an extension of our obedience in following whatever the Lord may lead, there is a new chapter beginning!

Our hearts beat with desire to see the Church across the world found in the place of prayer with the Lord about the things that are on His heart. We also have hearts that beat for missions and reaching the people of the world with salvation, compassion and love through acts of mercy and justice. In the past few years we have focused more on the prayer side of things and now we are excited to have more experience where both missions and prayer converge!

As of September 28, 2010, we are setting sail for a new adventure that will further train us in the way prayer and missions join together. We are doing a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) discipleship training school (DTS) from September 30, 2010 to March 11, 2011. We are joining a specific DTS called Call2All that focuses on prayer, missions and evangelism (www.call2all.org). Our DTS starts in Kona, Hawaii for the first 12 weeks and includes listening to many lectures, doing work duties, receiving all that we can from the Lord in training and teaching and whatever else that could be planned for us. During the DTS outreach phase, we will be putting into practice all we have learned, taking the Gospel to places where people may have never heard the name of Jesus and participating in expanding God’s Kingdom. This portion of the DTS is 2-3 months long and will take place in a variety of overseas locations. Outreach activities will include evangelism, mercy ministries, teaching, preaching, intercessory prayer, Church planting, and reaching out to present Jesus in a variety of other creative ways, At this point we don’t know where we will be located, but we’re excited about the possibilities (South Africa, the Philippines or Brazil)! We have both had missions experience before but have never gone out together! Now is the time!

We are very excited to see all that the Lord will do over the 6-month period we will be away. The last Call2All DTS team shared the gospel with over 2,144 people, prayed for over 480 people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, prayed with over 435 people who recommitted their lives to the Lord, and they saw 7 people miraculously healed from pain and chronic illness as they were prayed over. We are excited to see what Jesus will do through our team!

We spent our 6th anniversary in June in Kansas City asking the Lord for direction for the next season of our lives. We strongly desire to commit this year of our marriage, our seventh, to the Lord in a focused way. We long to use our lives in any way, shape or form that He would ask. What better than an adventure, full of faith and risk, to be trained in an intentional way, apart from the rigors of day to day responsibilities. We are excited with what the Lord will do in and through us in this intense season of training!

Back in 2000, prior to starting our relationship, Shane was planning on going to Hawaii and doing a YWAM DTS. Well, we started our relationship and God had other plans for that season of our lives. It’s funny that exactly 10 years later, when we’d least expect it, He brought the idea around full circle but now involving both of us! We hadn’t thought about doing a YWAM DTS as a couple and we only started praying about it on June 1st. It’s amazing how quickly the Lord can move sometimes and it’s only 2 and a half months later and we are planning to go in 5 and a half weeks!

Many of you have walked with us, prayed with us, supported us and encouraged us over the years and we are looking forward to continuing our friendships as our lives take this turn in the journey. Thank-you for all your support and friendship!

The steps of obedience often have a risk element involved and doing this DTS has a lot of cost and sacrifice involved. Kristi has to quit her job at the hospital and Shane will be taking a sabbatical from Sanctuary for the next 6 months. We have had many decisions to make about our apartment and possessions and the cost financially is big one! But, the Lord has miraculously provided over the last 4.5 years time and time again and so we know that what He calls us to, He will provide for!

Please partner with us in prayer and please continue to support us with your friendship and encouragement. We need it! Prayer is THE most important thing you could give us. We need a covering of prayer from many friends and family through this process.

Prayer Requests:
- All the little details that need to come together
- A stress-free 5 weeks of preparing and planning
- Finances
- Grace and comfort for our friends, family and community
- Protection and peace with traveling
- That God would prepare our hearts for all He wants to do

We also have tangible needs in the area of resources, things needed for our trip and finances. Please pray about supporting us financially on this endeavor. The Lord rewards those who partner with His Kingdom in every area, including the important step of finances. It’s through generous people like you in partnership with those going out that the Kingdom is accomplished on earth! Neither role is superior but instead we need both roles to accomplish His work on the earth. We are keenly aware of how important you are in this process. When people are saved, healed and set free with the ministry of the people you support, you are a big part of making that possible!

Here are our financial needs at this time. Note that we are not able to provide tax receipts for our DTS. We anticipate at this time a general cost of $35,000. We had just announced our news and within a day we already had over $1000 come in from one person! So, that brought us down to $34,000 left! This looks impossible with man but with God nothing is impossible! $35,000 could be provided by one person donating $35,000, 35 people donating $1000 or 350 people donating $100 to put it in perspective! In the last 3 weeks, we have had the equivalent of 3 people at $1000 come forward generously so we are encouraged that God will do great things in the area of finances! The stories of provision are incredible already!

If you would like to support us financially please email us if you have our email addresses or leave a comment. We will be sure to contact you.

Thank-you again in advance for your support, friendship and generosity. We love you and look forward to partnering with you as God accomplishes great things on the earth in this time to further His Kingdom across the globe.

Shane and Kristi Farrow
Intercessory Missionaries and now YWAM students