Thank you Vanessa & Janelle!

Thank you to our friends Vanessa Alleruzzo and Janelle Fountas as they are heading home after three months of volunteering with us in the area of Occupational Therapy.  They served the Medical Clinic as well as the Home for At Risk Children and also reached out to a school for Disabled Children in Cayambe.  It has been a great time of partnership and serving together.  You will be missed!

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Ecuador Missionary Retreat

This past weekend we were blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the Ecuador Field Missionary Retreat.  Our Regional Coordinators, Pia & Eugenio Restrepo, were able to come down lead us in our time of devotions.  In addition to this, we also had a special family, the Bulgrins, who were able to come down from their home in Omaha, NE to be with us and for the sole purpose of watching all of our kids during the retreat.  It was so nice to be able to worship and have our time of devotion knowing that our kids were in good hands and were having a great time.  It was truly a time of rest and relaxation in the midst of an incredibly busy schedule that we have had.

 

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Thank you Emersons!

A little over a week ago, we received a visit from Brad and Sarah Emerson and their kids from Grand Rapids, MI. Brad and Joel are friends from college.  They took a family vacation to visit Ecuador AND to help in donating an I-Stat Blood Analyzer for the Medical Clinic that can perform many laboratory examinations in just a matter of minutes.  This equipment will be incredibly useful on many of our medical caravans as laboratory tests can be performed there on site in just a matter of minutes.  This analyzer will be of incredible benefit to our medical ministry.  Thank you to the Emerson family!

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Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Santiago Partnership!!! This week we celebrated Easter together in the Home for At Risk children with all of the staff of both the Home and Medical Clinic. We prepared the traditional Holy Week soup called Fenesca which has 12 different grains representing the 12 disciples. It takes many hours to prepare and it was delicious! In addition to celebrating Easter together, we also took time to thank our volunteers Vanessa Alleruzzo and Janelle Fountas as they are finishing up their time with us.

 

 

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Thank you IU School of Dentistry!

We had the privilege of working once again with the Indiana University School of Dentistry this week on a medical/dental caravan. We visited the Kichwa communities of San Antonio and 4 Lote. On Friday we spent the day in Juan Montalvo at Iglesia Emanuel. The dental team saw over 230 patients in total and the medical side saw approximately 150 patients. Thank you team for a great week and for your hearts to serve the people of Ecuador!

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The Loss of a Dear Friend

Kim and I lost a dear friend yesterday, Pastor Paul Thompson.  Paul was a member of the Board of the Santiago Partnership but more than that he was the pastor of our Home Church, Northwest Covenant Church in Mt. Prospect, IL, the many years we attended there.  He was the one who introduced us to Ecuador when he invited us to be sponsors on one of their Youth Trips there.  That is where we fell in love with Ecuador and soon followed the process of becoming missionaries with the Covenant to Ecuador.  You could say that we probably wouldn’t have ended up in Ecuador if it wasn’t for Paul Thompson.  In total, he took something like 15 trips to Ecuador over the years as it was one of his favorite places, especially to show and teach others about.  Paul has always been one of our biggest cheerleaders and emotional support.  He also dedicated both Simeon and Esther at Northwest.  For all of those who knew Paul, they would always comment on his love for life and love-for-others personality in which you always felt better after talking to him.  He lit up the room when he entered.  Kim and I will always remember him as a continuous example of unconditional love for others.

He will be greatly missed by all of us as we await our heavenly reunion one day again.

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Trip to Tarapoa

Earlier in the week, I (Joel) made a quick trip to the jungle town of Tarapoa.  Since I didn’t want to leave Kim without a car, I made the by bus.  It was a whirlwind trip leaving on Sunday night, traveling 8 hours to get there by Monday morning to have a meeting and a tour of a potential project and then finish of with lunch, all just to head back on a bus and make it back home at about 2 in the morning early Tuesday morning.  My head was spinning afterward with the lack of sleep and crazy travel.  I wanted to do it like that because we are really busy right now and we don’t have a lot of free time to spare.  The trip was a part of my responsibilities as being on the Board of Directors of FACE, the branch of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador that administrates the social projects.  We were visiting Tarapoa to scope out a new potential project of starting a coffee business by members of the Covenant Church of Tarapoa.  Though it was all a whirlwind, it worked out to be a great trip and I am very excited about the project.

 

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Thank you Indiana Wesleyan University OT Team

We just finished up a great week with the Indiana Wesleyan University Occupational Therapy Team.  It was a fantastic week of learning together and partnering together in mission as we served the Home for At Risk Children and the School for Special Needs Children in Cayambe.

 

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Oh Canada!!!

Thank you to the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada and their continued commitment to Ecuador and the Santiago Partnership.  Our friends from Canada joined us again this past week to keep moving forward on the construction efforts of our new extension.  It was a great week with a lot of laughs, some tears shed and a lot of partnership in mission.  Thank you Canada!!!

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Thank you Chicago friends!

Whew! What a busy yet encouraging and uplifting week! We welcomed a team of medical professionals from Lutheran General Hospital and Audiologists from the Chicago land area, led by the Santiago Partnership’s own Kristi Lundblad.  Some were returning from previous trips and for some it was a brand new experience.  However, I think all of us would agree it was a life changing and life giving week for us all! I think it was a great reminder to all of us why we got in to healthcare in the first place. A week like this takes us back to basics because everyone deserves them and not everyone has them, as we served children from Compassion centers in some of our partner churches in Ibarra and Carera.  Thank you ladies for giving your time, your gifts and talents, your amazing minds and experience to help others who are under served.

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