November Update

Hello beloved friends and family,

After four weeks away in both the US and England we’ve finally returned to Scotland and are back in the swing of things! It was such a joy to have time back home with family and friends. I also greatly enjoyed being able to be back at City Church and hear about all the wonderful things taking place. While at home, William (my fiancé) and I received news that William’s grandfather had passed away and only 24 hours after returning to the UK we left for England to attend the funeral and be with his family. It was a very sad occasion, but also such a joyous celebration knowing that his grandfather has gone home to be with the Lord.

The October DTS is in their fifth week of classes and it’s been a pleasure to join in all the fun and exciting things the Lord is doing. With only six more weeks until their outreach phase starts there is lots of planning to do, but in the meantime we have been hearing lots of great lectures and studying more about God’s goodness and faithfulness. The school will be spending two weeks of their outreach working in Glasgow with some of the ministries I was involved with during the last school and I am hoping to be a part of some of their time there. They will then leave for Cambodia where they will be working with a variety of different ministries that reach out to women and children in the sex trade industry.

Seamill (the base) is currently playing host to a two week “homecoming” event that is set up for long term missionaries working in the field. We are hosting times of prayer, worship and counsel for those in need of rest and replenishment before heading back out again. We have families from all over including Turkey, Israel, Morocco, India, etc. It brings me so much joy to serve those who are serving the Lord’s call.

Prayer Requests:

-Please continue to pray for William and his family as they adjust to life without their loving Grandfather Howard, especially his grandmother. Pray for comfort and for compassion as they grieve their loss.

-I am prayerfully considering going along with the DTS for a couple of weeks on their outreach to Cambodia in January. I would like to ask for you to pray for wisdom for me in my decision.

I can’t express enough how wonderful it was to be home and to have the opportunity to connect with some of you. Nothing makes me happier than when I get to just hear about what has been taking place in your lives and what God is doing through you. Please feel free to send me your prayer requests as well and I will do my best to be faithful in presenting them to the Lord on your behalf.

Thank you again for all of your love and encouragement. I hope you are enjoying your fall season and looking forward to the holidays that are just around the corner.

All my blessings,

Eileen

Happy Fall!

YWAM Seamill Update!

Greetings friends and supporters! Fall is quickly approaching and there is lots coming up here on base! Here is a little look into some of the things coming up for me in this next season here.

September:
Our tri-annual face-to-face staff meeting will be happening at the beginning of the month in which we all come back together to take a look at what the Lord has done over the past year and what He is speaking to us as a community about in the year to come. Seamill is also hosting a 2 week leadership seminar course which I will be attending. The goal is to walk away more equipped as a leader on my team and to give me tools for leadership opportunities in the future.

October:
The next DTS will start October 1st. I am hoping to play a role in this school. The emphasis for the school is going to be the life and times of Jesus Christ. For the outreach we are hoping to take the school to Cambodia or Thailand to work with victims of the sex trafficking industry.
William and I will be returning to the States for three weeks of this month so my participation in the school will have a brief interruption, but I’m very excited to take this next step in my leadership training and move for staffing a school to the experience of leading a school.

And Beyond…
Besides playing a role on the DTS department here, I am also looking at carrying on relationships with some of the ministries I made contact with while on outreach with the last school. In particular, the Salt and Light ministry which reaches out to street workers and drug addicts. I hope to continue assisting them by going into the city once a week to work in their drop-in center with the women. I also hope to continue going out on Thursday evenings once a month to serve meals and help give aid to those living on the streets.
As well, there is an opportunity for me here on base to assist in some re-designing of the base building. I will be able to put my interior design skills back into good use. This will most likely be an ongoing thing as there is much work to be done around here 

In the Future…
As you may have heard I recently got engaged and William, my fiancé, and I have begun the process of planning our wedding and marriage together. We’re looking at an early Spring wedding in England to be followed by a party held in the States. Please keep us in your prayers as begin to plan this very exciting next step together. We are seeking the Lords foundations for us as we make big decisions as well as

I’m very excited to be branching out into some new areas of the base. As part of the DTS this past six months I haven’t had much time for anything else but the school. I am really looking forward to seeing where the Lord leads me in this time. I would ask for your prayers that I will continue to seek the Lords will for each and every one of you.

All my love and blessings,

Eileen Simon

Support Update

Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,



Greetings! I hope you are having a wonderful summer! So much has happened for me in these past three months that I hardly know where to begin. I’ll start with the ending of the Discipleship Training School (DTS). We returned from outreach in mid June and from there we had an additional three weeks of lecture before finally graduating the school on July 8th. I must confess the school was one of the most challenging working experiences I’ve ever had, but also one of the most rewarding. I will be sending an full update regarding the school soon. Upon finishing the school my boyfriend William and I left for England to go and visit his family and home church for a couple of weeks and while down there we got engaged! We can’t express how excited and happy we are to be starting this new step in our journey with the Lord.



With all these new and exciting changes happening, William and I are seeking the Lords will for our future together. Please join in praying for us as we begin to explore where the Lord is leading us in our journey towards man and wife along with our call in missions. As William and I are seeking God for our future I find I am in need of prayer with regards to my financial support. I have been greatly blessed over these past seven months with the financial gifts available to me in order to remain on staff with YWAM as well as to allow me to lead the students on their outreach. However, in order to remain on staff I will need to raise additional financial support.



Currently, I have been receiving monthly support of $55 US dollars. Along with the generous one-time gifts I’ve received I’ve been able to pay my monthly base fees of $480 US dollars along with the required $2,100 for outreach costs during the school. My one-time gifts have helped me greatly, but in order to remain on staff I urgently need to raise a total of $600 in monthly financial support. I’m writing to you to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting me in the amounts of $10, $20, $50 or $100 a month. All monetary gifts are tax deductible and can be set up as a monthly withdrawal from your bank account.



If you feel led to join my support team please contact me at: eileenlsimon@gmail.com. I have also attached instructions for making a tax-deductible contribution to this email. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss things further.



Thank you for all of your love and encouragement over these past months. And thank you again for the generous financial gifts I've received which allowed me to be a part of the DTS. I will be returning to St. Louis with my fiance for three weeks starting October 4th. If you’d be interested in getting together over that time please let me know and I will be sure to contact you once I’m home.



Many blessings!



Eileen Simon (soon to be Satchell)

And We're Off!

Dear Friends, Family and Church body,

Greetings from Scotland! Spring has come here at last, the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining (most days) and my fingers are beginning to thaw! So much has been happening that I hardly know where to start. The October DTS returned to the base at the beginning of March and it was so nice having so many new faces around here. The two schools got along really well and it was sad to say goodbye to them all after their graduation last week. However, we’ve been keeping ourselves very busy most nights with various ministry opportunities around the area.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been preparing for our outreach. As I mentioned last time I will be leading a team of 8 students to Glasgow and Edinburgh for 7 weeks. My time has been shared between wrapping up the lecture phase and making plans for the outreach. Our team will be working with various ministries in the cities serving the homeless, men and women in prostitution and those with addiction. We will spend the majority of our ministry time in the evenings, out on the streets all night meeting the needs of those we encounter. We are very excited and anxious to see how the Lord will use this time.

Along with the 7 weeks in the cities, the entire school will also be completing a two week short-term outreach. We will split up again into smaller teams and head for two cities in Turkey as well as Morocco and Sierra Leon in Africa. I will be going to Morocco with a team and I can’t express how privileged I feel to be in a Muslim country again, serving God’s people. Our teams will return to the base from our outreaches in Scotland only to be leaving again on the 1st of June for these locations. Please pray for our safety and for continued unity within the team.

As always, I welcome your prayers in this time. It is invaluable to have others lending their support in prayer!

 One of the staff members for our school has received some bad news regarding a family member and has had to leave to go home quite suddenly. Please pray for her and her family that the Lord will be their comfort and support in this time. Also, please pray for her outreach team that all their needs will be taken care of and that we will have other staff ready to help lead.

 Please pray for continued unity among the school. With the school splitting into three teams for the Scotland outreach it will be crucial that they do not start dividing up amongst each other. Pray that they will lend each other support and encouragement as they go out!


 Please pray for me as I find myself working many hours and sometimes getting little sleep. I’ve had a cold a few times since arriving in January and with the time coming for us to leave I will need all the energy I can get!
 Also, please pray for our protection and the Lord’s leading as we “Go into all the nations” spreading the good news and serving those in need.

I hope this update finds you well! It’s been nice to hear some stories from home and I continue to welcome them, along with any prayer requests or needs.

All my love from across the pond,

Eileen Simon

“We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before you god and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thes. 1:2-3

Happenings in Scotland

Hello Friends, Family and Church,

Even as I sit down to write this I realize it has been 5 WEEKS since I’ve arrived here in Scotland. The time has quite literally flown by! We are into our fourth full week of lectures and the school is going strong.

Just to fill you in on what the last few weeks have been for me, I find myself working about a 15 hour day sometimes, but I couldn’t love it more. Everyday I find encouragement from God that I was born for this job. We have 19 students from all over the world and they are an eclectic bunch with massive servant hearts for the Lord. They seem to be settled in nicely and it is such a privilege to walk along side them as they journey through each week, learning about God’s character and His heart for the world!

I had a real desire, before the school arrived, that this school would have a handful of students who would make a commitment to serve in a more long term missions position after completing their course and in the last two weeks I’ve seen the Lord bring this to fruition. One of the girls, Sarah, who happens to be one of the students I get the honor to meet with once a week and disciple, told me she will be heading to India to work with some of the YWAM long term missionaries there immediately following the school. I’ve also had a few conversations with some of the other students who are considering doing some long term work in various parts of Africa. It’s quite an answer to prayer, and not just for those nations, but also for me in my personal vision.

We are beginning to prepare for our outreach phase of the school and it looks like I may be heading up a small team of about 6 students to go into Glasgow and Edinburgh for 7 ½ weeks. I’m SO excited for this opportunity. Glasgow is quite a rough city in areas, but I feel the Lord has told me to “go into all the world” and to serve the prostitutes, drug addicts, homeless, abused and the youth. At this point in time we may also be spending two weeks at the end of our time in various parts of Turkey, which I confess, I am very excited to return to the place where I completed my outreach.

I find myself praying for St. Louis quite a lot and all of you who mean so VERY much to me! I pray the Lord has been blessing you with His love and His never ending provision of all areas of your life. I have compiled a list of prayer needs if you would be able to lend your voice in prayer for these things I would appreciate it:

* Please pray that the students would seek unity and love towards one another. This will be CRITICAL to their outreach and I long to see them come together more now. Pray that they will step out of their boxes of comfort and into what God has for them in this season of their lives.

* Pray for the Nation of Scotland, it is quite a difficult country when it comes to sharing the gospel, especially for a place that, like America, is labeled a “Christian” nation. Pray for the ramped alcohol abuse. A young man from the village here died within the last year of suffocating on his own vomit from over-drinking. There are many others in the village and especially in the big cities, who struggle with this and it is evident in the violent fights that break out which often lead to severe physical harm.

* Pray for the leaders and myself that we would be led by the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. My greatest desire is that the students would get EVERYTHING the Lord has for them in this time. I long to be pour myself out in service to them and to stand with them in their victories and walk alongside them as they process the difficult things in their lives. We have quite a few students who were abandoned by their fathers as children and it’s been a journey for them to receive the love of the One, true and good Father.

* Please pray for our upcoming outreach phase. We leave April 9th and we will be going out in 3 teams. Pray that the Lord will give us clear vision and make strong connections with those ministries we seek to partner with in this time.

I will send more information regarding outreach as it starts to take shape. I miss you all and long to hear how things are back home. Please don’t hesitate to send me any update so I can celebrate with you and pray for your needs.

I’ve included a few photos of the school for your reference. We took the students out the first week to Lock Katrine, which Sir Walter Scot inspired the famous poem “The Lady of the Lake”, to see a bit of the highlands here in Scotland. There is another shot of our classroom where we had a worship time one morning.

All my love from across the pond,

Eileen Simon

“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation” Psalm 5:3

The Latest and Greatest

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you well! As you may know, this past July I returned to St. Louis after completing a missions training school in Scotland. During my time with the mission I felt the call to return to the mission field by serving on staff with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Scotland. I am raising support to return for a two year commitment to serve on staff for the discipleship training schools (DTS), the very same school I attended as a student.

My job responsibilities as DTS staff will include training students who come through to prepare for full time missions work. I will help oversee the care and education of roughly 20-25 students from all different nations and Christian denominations. Each school consists of a three month lecture phase for the students. Guest speakers come through each week to provide in depth theological study and to teach them about the foundations of mission work as well as helping them to grow in their individual relationship with God through learning about His character and practical service.

The school also consists of a three month outreach. My responsibilities will also include leading teams of students in the outreach phase by taking them into other parts of Scotland and/or countries that our base has established relationships with (such as Turkey, Morocco, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and India to name a few) to work short term with various ministries, churches and service projects. The students will gain firsthand experience in missions work. The goal of these schools is to educate, care-for and equip long term missionaries to be sent into the mission field or to go back into their church homes and communities to serve.

All YWAM staff members are required to raise financial support. I am looking to raise a total of $29, 808 (£18,630) for the two year commitment with a monthly allowance of $1,242 (£776). I have included a break down of where my annual fees will be distributed to:
• Base Fees (room and board)
• Transportation
• Travel Insurance
• Medical Expenses
• Communications (newsletter)
• Conferences/Seminars
• 10 % Tithe
• U.S. Income Tax
• Savings
• Outreach expenses
• Misc. (living expenses)

My vision and desire is to help train and care for young people as they respond to the call the Lord has placed on their hearts to serve Him. I hope to develop in my leadership abilities as I serve these students as well. I am looking for people to partner with me in prayer and financial support to help this vision become a reality. Please prayerfully consider joining my support team as a monthly supporter of $25, $50 or $100. I would also greatly appreciate any one-time gifts. I have setup an account through a YWAM base in Texas which allows for all donations made to be tax deductable. YWAM is a registered member of the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Please see the enclosed response card for additional information.

I hope to return to staff for the next school starting at the end of January 2011, but I would love to see you before that time. Please don’t hesitate to call or email me if you have any questions (eileenlsimon@gmail.com). I would LOVE to hear from you!

Most sincerely,




Eileen Simon

Just Wait

I've been home and reinstated back into life in St. Louis for over 4 months now. I must admit, while I love this city and it's lovely old brick buildings with all my heart I've faced some very difficult days trying to figure out where I fit. I find myself star gazing a bit of what's to come.
Thinking back to January of this year I remember how nervous I was to quit my job which I had worked so hard to get and maintain, to leave a beautiful city apartment which I'd grow quite attached to (despite one cranky landlord) and to have to say goodbye to all my friends and family for a season in which I had no idea what to expect. I knew a few things: 1. God was calling me into this and 2. I would most likely survive it!
The road was long and not always easy, but definitely the BEST decision I've ever made. I attribute that God's goodness and my obedience to His request. He asked me for 6 months of my life, to be completely surrendered to Him and in return He gave me healing in the deep, deep parts of my heart and He gave me strength to face what's coming. He also gave me hope. And that's been the best gift of all.
I had my first test of that hope I place in him the first few minutes I stepped off the plane in St. Louis only to find out the airline had made a mistake and informed my parents I wouldn't be returning until the next day. I walked off a long 14 hour day of traveling in hopes to see my family waiting for me and was greeted with the news that the airline had left my luggage in Chicago and, oh yeah, they no longer have any payphones on site. I remember feeling like, "really God, really?!" Eventually my family did arrive and it's been a bit of a slow and steady climb up from there. Some days are good and I lye down at night thanking God for the blessings in that day and others are not so good and I've even had to endure a few nights of tears wondering where God has gone.
But sitting here tonight I begin to slowly understand some things. God was good to give me a clear direction for the future. I've decided to return on staff with YWAM in Scotland to work with the very program I just graduated. Over the past few months since coming home He has been building an excitement and a passion for walking alongside others on their journey. He is revealing to me more of the hope He sees in me to be a leader in faith. To walk with others as they seek to serve the Lord and to grow in strength and to be prosperous in their faith. He's given me more conviction to serve those in need and to help fight the battles of injustice in this world. He's speaking to me all the time of what a gift I've received in spending time immersed in other cultures and what it's done to my view of the world. In short He's been very kind and faithful all throughout.
So it really shouldn't be too hard to find reasons to celebrate in this time I have at home, but of course that wouldn't be the "human response" now would it? I confess I still struggle to trust that God will be my provider. That He will fulfill this call I feel He's placed within me. I fear the finances I need to return on staff won't be available or my visa application will be denied. I even go as far as to fear that I've heard this all wrong and that to stay and try to return to the life I once loved will be best. And not that staying would be bad, but it would be settling for me. I've seen what God can do when I gave Him 6 months of my life and I can only imagine what He'll do if I continue to walk in faith and give Him the next 2 years of my life!
I can't stress enough how much prayer I need and appreciate from others in this time and I look forward to seeing how God continues to work out this next season for me and for those I love around me. But for now I'm called to wait. I'm to let Him nourish the vision He's spoken of to me. I'm to let Him continue to prepare me even in the ways which go unseen by my eyes. I'm to wait. Simply wait.