Where to Begin...

Well, the last month and a half has been eventful in the best way possible to say the least.

So far I have made at least 50 new friends (YWAM Ireland staff, my DTS, Kerygma DTS, and other random people along the way), walked 55 miles in one week, been to at least 10 new Irish cities, received massive inner healing from Jesus and Tom and Donna Cole, learned about the bigness of God from Andrew and Terry York, Celtic Christianity from Brother Thierry and Jonny Clark, and Spiritual Authority from Marriette Louw, slept on Church floors and extremely springy beds, shouted John 15 while standing on a bench in the middle of the town square of Coleraine, ate Chinese food in Ireland (what?!), and learned that I'm going to GREECE on outreach for 3 months! :D

So, to break it down, but not give TOO much information, the first week of our DTS was just an orientation week, but the Lord was already starting to do a lot in my heart. I'd say what He did this week was probably the most significant thing He's done so far. When I first went into this DTS, I was really struggling with fear of rejection. This fear had really taken root in my heart when I was in 4th grade and endured some pretty intense bullying, and had since struggled with it pretty much any time I got in any social situation. I would worry that people would think I was strange, or that I wouldn't fit in if I was myself, so I basically would sit in a corner and watch. I knew that the things I was worrying about weren't truths, but were lies that I had come to agree with over time. We had a team ministry night (which was basically just a worship night for our team), and towards the end I started getting really hit with fear of rejection again. This time though, when I was hit with this fear, I began to cry out to the Lord for freedom. I realized that I couldn't do this DTS, couldn't walk out in the ministry the Lord wanted me to do if I had fear of rejection. For 3 hours I was crying out to the Lord and contending against this spiritual stronghold that had taken hold of my life. After those 3 hours I felt freer than I had in a really long time. The Lord was quick to deal with that issue in my heart from the very beginning because He knew, as well as I did, that I couldn't do this with that HUGE wall around my heart. Jesus is FAITHFUL, and He knows us. YAY!

The rest of this DTS so far has been amazing, as well. Jesus is working in all of our hearts immensely, and is faithfully changing us into the people that He wants us to become. Week 2 of our DTS, we had Pure Heart week with Tom and Donna Cole. This was probably the most emotional time of ministry I have ever experienced and the most I have ever cried in one week. We were all crying our eyes out for the first 3 days of the week, which were dealing with the mother wound, the father wound, and true femininity and masculinity. There was some really deep inner healing that took place during this week and it was so the strategic plan of the Lord that this happened on our second week of DTS.

The third week was on the Bigness of God, with Andrew and Terry York, which was also incredible. The Lord really impacted my heart with how amazing it is that He cares for us even though He is SO BIG. He created the stars and the earth and all the galaxies, which are millions of times bigger than the earth and that much bigger than us, but He still cares about our tiny hearts, individually, and intimately. What an amazing God we serve. The fourth week was on Celtic Christianity, with Jonny Clark (The director of YWAM Ireland) and Brother Thierry, a Benedictine Monk from a monastery down the road from the YWAM base in Rostrevor.  This week was also substantial for me because I had a very limited understanding of Catholicism, and I feel that I really got a good perspective of it during this week. Week 5 was our crazy 90 mile walk along the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This week was challenging, but really great! I walked 55 miles of the 90, which is absolutely incredible! I never in a million years would have thought I could have walked that much in one week! Praying for the land from a place of walking on the ground and zig-zagging from North to South was incredible, and so powerful. From there we began the mobile part of our DTS, heading from Lisnaskea to Coleraine.

This past week, in Coleraine, we had the AMAZING South African Marriette Louw teaching us about Spiritual Authority. I thought that I would know a lot going into this, but boy was I wrong. This older lady had such a HUGE inner man, you could literally feel it when she walked into the room. She carried the presence of the Lord so well, and taught it well, also. I learned more about spiritual warfare and the power of speaking in tongues (and interpretation of tongues!! Woot woot!) in one week than I have in my entire Christian life so far.  We also had our very first official team Greece meeting! Woohoo! I don't know much, but we'll be definitely doing ministry with an anti-human trafficking organization, as well as possibly doing university ministry. We are definitely going to be going to the island of Patmos (where John wrote the book of Revelation), as well! Which is off the hook AMAZING! :D

That said, I still have a bit that I need to raise for the outreach portion of my DTS. I need about $950 more for the remainder of my Outreach phase fees and $500-$600 for airfare to and from my outreach location. That makes a total of about $1500. AND I need all of it by the beginning of October!
Unfortunately, since we ARE a mobile DTS, through Paypal or my Gofundme account is the best way to make a donation. If you would like to donate through paypal (https://www.paypal.com/), you can donate to my illuminatetheworld@hotmail.com email address. However, Gofundme (http://www.gofundme.com/IEDTS) is simply the click of a button.

I would LOVE if you would pray about partnering with me for this second half of this journey! This DTS has been INCREDIBLE so far, and I can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for me, my teammates, and the people we encounter. To everyone who reads this, you are absolutely amazing and I love and miss you! Please continue to pray for me and my team, that we would continue to grow to love Jesus, others, and ourselves even more, and that our hearts would be continually open to hear what He has to say. Also, please pray for protection against sickness as we have all been fighting colds, and spiritual opposition.

Thank you so much!
God bless!
Rachelle Butow