Dear Friends and Family,
Two years and five months ago, on June 13, 2009, Derek Simke and Christina Urso sealed their love with wedding vows and their first kiss. What have we been doing with our lives since that first smooch? We have been pretty busy! We live in Lake Worth, Florida, and have been an active part of an intentional community called Coral House. The majority of our Saturdays are filled with the Burrito Project, where we feed and practice the art of redistribution with the working poor and homeless of Lake Worth. Christina is currently in her fourth year of teaching third grade at a Title I school named Barton Elementary. Derek is working at Hot Shots Paintball, teaching music lessons, cooking for a soup kitchen on Thursdays, gardening, and taking care of small farm animals shared within the community. The first summer of our marriage we had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with Pura Vida Missions. In August 2011, Derek was able to travel with our church to Haiti to plan for future opportunities to serve with El Shaddai ministries. We are extremely grateful for this season of our lives as we have learned much about love, conflict resolution, forgiveness, serving, humility, and much more!
We desire to continue to grow in who we are in Christ, and have been earnestly praying and seeking for the answers to, “Where are we going, and what are we doing next?” We have just recently received that answer! In July 2012, we will be leaving for eleven months, traveling to a different country each month with Adventures in Missions. Our specific trip is called World Race. We look forward to developing relationships with brothers and sisters around the world. A wide variety of cultures and missions await us in the countries of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Latvia, Estonia/Lithuania, and a surprise country in Asia.
You’re invited! We want to invite you to come on this journey with us. Follow us on our blog! We will soon have a blog and will inform you of when it is up and running. We hope to fill this blog with pictures, stories, challenges, lessons, honesty, and much joy! We invite you to pray for us and with us. Pray for us now as God prepares us for what is to come, and during our trip. Pray with us that God will increase in our lives and we might decrease (John 3:30). Pray that God will provide for all our needs-spiritual, physical, emotional, and financial. Last, we invite you to support us financially. After our initial deposit, the trip’s cost through Adventures in Missions totals $30,710. This includes plane fare and travel expenses from country to country, food, lodging, etc. Additional support for travel insurance, training camp, and other necessities (such as hiking backpacks, tents, etc.) for the trip also needs to be raised. We will be having many fundraisers over the upcoming months, and will notify you of the details. Enclosed in the envelope is information if you would like to make a tax-deductable donation to go towards our account.
We want to conclude this letter with some of our favorite verses from Isaiah 58:6-9, “This is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.”
Thank you in advance for your love, support, and prayers. We look forward to sharing with you our journey!
Agape,
Derek and Christina Simke
