Content in All Circumstances

I love reading Paul's letters, especially since becoming fully reliant on the saints for our salaries.  Again and again, I see how Paul's attitude was when he asked for help, and when he thanked his supporters.  In a modern world where support-raising is strange at best, and at worst taboo, it is so encouraging.

Today I was reading Philippians 4, and here's what I ran across:

"For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength... I have received full payment and event more; I am amply supplied [by the] gifts you sent.  They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.  And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:11-12, 18-19

This passage encouraged me for a few reasons:

1) Like Paul, Elliott and I have experienced what it is like to be in want and what it is like to be in plenty.  And in both situations, we have learned that our only contentment comes from the Lord.  In everything, we need to be grounded in Christ Jesus -- our faith should never be in material comfort.  We pray that you can experience this type of contentment too, no matter your financial situation.  Our God is the God of all comfort, and he is LORD over ALL -- including our bank accounts.

2) Being amply supplied - Although we still need a couple more monthly supporters to keep us at a consistent monthly paycheck, we have had full support because of the generous gifts from our summer support-raising project.  This is the first time we have been at full support since I have joined the ministry.  It is amazing to be able to budget from a consistent paycheck. 

3) I love Paul's visualization here about the support being a fragrant offering.  Yes!  That's exactly how we see your giving -- a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice!  The ways that you support us go beyond earthly monetary value and are eternally valuable.  We receive spiritual blessings through asking for support, even when (and maybe especially when) it is uncomfortable for us to do so.  We are required to sacrifice our own understanding of what money is, and we ask you to do the same.  We pray that God WILL meet all your needs -- especially spiritual ones.

Thank you for your willingness to enter into a partnership by supporting us.  Your decision to support us is counter-cultural, and so Biblical!  I get so excited when I read Paul's words, and God brings to mind every single one of our supporters.  And, like Paul, we cannot help but consistently give thanks to our Father for your goodness shown to us.

Thank you!

Rachel

Student Stories from the Summer, Part 1

While we have had our own life-changing summer (hi, baby!!!), our students have also experienced life transformations. Each story is very different and occurred in varied locations. We're posting a couple now, and have more to share later. These are also extended versions of what will appear in our September newsletter.

But before we share the stories, here are some updates on the Simko front.

Praise: We surpassed our goal in raising for the matching grant, which means we got the matching grant, the match, and some extra! What we raised this summer will give us full paychecks through the fall. Praise the LORD! This is the first time this has ever happened! We are so thankful!

Prayer: As was mentioned in the previous post, this is the busiest time of year for us, which is fine because we expect it. What we didn't expect was the other unexpected hardships this week. Our car needs a new transmission and we haven't had it for over a week, and it will take another week and a half to fix. Pray that it gets fixed sooner and for a lesser cost than was quoted to us. We have also had some other things going on that have added stress that don't need to be named, but we ask for prayers of clarity and peace, and a refocusing for the beginning of the semester.

So without further ado...

Student Stories from the Summer

Samantha

This summer has been packed with many welcoming memories. As I finished my freshman year at Eastern University, I moved across campus and settled into my very first full time job, working for Sodexo. At first, it was really tiring but it became nice to have something to do all day. When I was not working, I was preparing for a missions trip to Ometepe, Nicaragua and participating in a small group with Elliot Simko. The small group really has helped me to become more aware of the details of being a disciple of Christ and while in Nicaragua, I used some of the things that I learned to help evangelize with the locals. The small group has been a huge blessing in my life. When I was in Nicaragua, I was working with a church that I helped with last year. It is amazing to go back to the same place each year and see how God is continually helping there. Once I returned to Eastern, I began working again and classes will soon begin. While this summer was a great time of growth for me, I look forward to the blessings that I will be given through my professors and friends in the upcoming school year.

Chris

This summer, I got an internship as an assistant youth pastor at a church called Bethel Lutheran in Colorado Springs. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. On the bright side, the church itself was great. It was a very welcoming community, and I really loved being a part of it. But it seemed like nothing really went right this summer. Some of it was my fault; I’ll own up to it. However, it didn’t end with just my own faults. There were an abundance of miscommunications and circumstances that made things even tougher. This, however, led to the main work that God did in me this summer. I couldn’t survive it without Him. There was absolutely no way. And so as I was breaking down, I realized this. I began to give everything back up to God. Giving Him my faults, and feelings, and circumstances, and worries, and anything else I was carrying inside me. And He showed me the power of His glory. The summer did end on a higher note, but was still tough. It wasn’t all about God fixing things. I found that it was about holding on to Him for dear life. It brought a peace that was certainly not brought on by my surroundings; a joy that transcended my circumstances. Though the summer was tough, it taught me a lesson that is simple, yet paramount in its importance: God is truly in control.

James 1:2-4: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

A Matching Grant and Rachel's Forgetfulness

Wow. So much for that "15-minute-per-week" thing, huh? I totally forgot about last week's update. Even now, as Elliott leads a discipleship group in our dining room, I scramble to get these few sentences out as Gwen dozes in and out of sleep beside me. I'm learning how to type with one hand, as the other hand must be on "binky duty" (Gwen still hasn't mastered the technique of holding the binky in her mouth by herself).

Anyhoo.

So I wanted to share with you a super exciting opportunity with have this summer in support raising. A number of generous supporters have banded together to raise $2350 as a grant for us. Our job is to match that grant by August 13 at midnight. As I type (with one hand, I might add), we have about $700 raised of the match.

If you want to give and help us reach our goal, please follow this link, click donate online, scroll down to staff member "Simko, Elliott & Rachel," and donate. Please email us at elliottsimko at gmail dot com to let us know of your donation for the match.

Woohoo! God is so creative, and this is our creative attempt to raise money this summer so that we can focus more on ministry once the school year starts. I hope you can help us!

And this post was a little shy of 15 minutes, but now I'm going to see if Gwenny will let me use both hands to do some font work.

God bless!

Rachel

Our Wishlist

During our support-raising trip in May, we had a number of supporters recommend that we do a Wishlist of things we need. This way, people that are not able to support us financially could still contribute to our ministry—possibly with things they already have in their own home! It took more months to put together than we anticipated, but without further ado, here is our Wishlist!

For our ministry...

These items will help us keep the ministry running efficiently and without added cost to our monthly budget.

• Button-down shirts for Elliott (size Medium)

• Nice pants for Elliott (size 32/32)

• Stamps (for mailing our newsletters and thank-you cards)

• Cards and stationary

• Business-sized envelopes (for mailing our newsletters)

• Gift cards to coffee shops (so we can take our students out more frequently!)

• Gift cards to book stores (so we can get books for our students)

o We particularly like to shop at Hearts and Minds Bookstores, since the owner is a partner of the CCO. http://heartsandmindsbooks.com/

• Board games (so we can have more game nights with our students)

• Printer paper (for our newsletters)

• Gas cards (for all that driving back-and-forth between home, school, and church that we do nearly every day, as well as for support-raising trips)

More personal...

Having these items will help us cut down on added expenses.

• Financial advising

• Baby stuff (for our expected arrival in June!)

• Sneakers for Elliott (size 11)

• Food items (canned vegetables, anything gluten- and corn-free for Rachel, chicken broth, spices, etc.)

• Soap, dish detergent, paper towels, etc.

Please contact us with any questions or clarifications.

Elliott can be reached at 215-756-3155 and elliottsimko@gmail.com.

Rachel can be reached at 215-756-3020 and chellysimko@gmail.com.

Support-Raising Mondays!

It's "Support-Raising Monday!" Please keep us in prayer throughout the day for the following matters:

-that the Lord would provide full support by the end of August

This request is really important to us. Many missionaries and friends/families of missionaries think that 80% of support is "enough to get by on," and that 100% of support is impossible. This shortchanges the power and call of the Lord. We know we have been called to this ministry by the Lord; He has directed our every step to this place. There is no reason we should not reach 100% of support. However, it is our job and part of our calling to invite people into the ministry. We have to keep working to spread the good news of the gospel working in college students' lives. We cannot cease our efforts, and we cannot wait to see how miraculously the Lord will provide!

Also, we would like to reach full support so that we may spend more of our support-raising time on current donors. We have promised them a partnership, and we long to fulfill that partnership by calling, visiting, and praying more consistently. The sooner we reach full support, the sooner we can strengthen those already a part of this mission.

-appointments for our SR trip in August

We have a support-raising trip schedule for August 2-7. We currently have no appointments and people have been difficult to reach. This has been discouraging. Pray that we receive word from the Lord today on how best to utilize that time and our time now in preparation for it. Pray that we receive appointments or find a better way to use that time. If you know of anyone who would be willing to have a conversation with us about our ministry, please e-mail us - chellysimko@gmail.com.

-continued grace to rely solely on the Lord

It can be easy to get discouraged, frustrated, and confused when support-raising. We try to rely solely on the Lord, but sometimes we rely too much on our own efforts. Pray that grace abounds--that God would renew us and encourage us today and this week. Pray that we absolutely trust in the Lord for our support.

-direction

Every Monday we are faced with a multitude of choices: Whom should we call? Should we write thank you cards? Should we send out our next newsletter? Whom should Elliott call and whom should Rachel call? What should we do with this time? How does God want us to use it? Pray that we use our time wisely and lean on God's direction.

Thank you for your prayers, friends! We are so grateful to be a part of this work and praise the Lord that you have joined us!

Support-Raising, or Dwelling in the Periphery

Well, hello there, elusive blog followers!

It’s Rachel here, Elliott’s wife. I figured it was about time God figured it was about time to switch things up a bit.

As Elliott pointed out, I will now be joining alongside him in ministry to college students. I have to admit, it was a huge step of faith, but God takes seriously the “Here-am-I” prayer. Although I was initially fearful of support-raising and our unknown finances, God suddenly showed up with the “peace that surpasses understanding.” You can read more about this “jump of foolishness” here, at my personal blog.

So what’s on the schedule this week? Support-raising! I have been so nourished by the encouragement of the saints! Although not everyone has been able to pledge to give monthly, we have been supported through prayer and love. The thing I love the most about support raising is the opportunity to connect and reconnect with people we would not normally have the time to see.

Our culture is a very independent, task-centered society. Our lives revolve around the immediate, and leaves no time to dwell in the periphery. Well, support-raising allows us to dwell and linger in the periphery. I love the relationships we are forming and maintaining, and look forward to see how God will provide for us in miraculous ways that point directly to His power!

Waiting upon the Lord,
Rachel