We bought a house!

If  you have been following Kim and I here in Ecuador for very long, you know that you have been praying for us as we have tried to purchase a house.  Well, those long-time prayers have finally be answered!  Here are the pictures from the signing this past Thursday.  We´ll be showing pictures of the house very soon as it will take a lot of work to fix it up so we will be showing you the before and after pictures soon.  However, in the meantime, you can rejoice with us and see the pictures from the signing day.  Praise Jesus!

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Meghan Rocks!

We have been blessed by having the best volunteer by the name of Meghan Lóser for the Santiago Partnership project in Cayambe who came to us through the Covenant.  Meghan comes to us from Saranac Community Church in Saranac, MI and has been with us since the beginning of March and we will be, unfortunately, leaving us in the beginning of July.  She recently graduated from the University of Michigan and is in her gap year before she starts Medical School in August.  The time that we have had her with us has been a true blessing as she has such a servant heart and has always been so ready to serve in any capacity that she is asked.  She has worked with us in all of our Medical Caravans mainly serving as a translator as she is fluent in Spanish.  Additionally, she has taken on the large task of assisting us with the inventory of all of our supplies for the Home for At Risk Children as well as the entire stock of Medical supplies that we have in our storage room of the Medical Clinic.  There are before and after pictures below of Medical storage area.  That alone has been a lot of work but all the while she still found time to teach English classes and help the Delps when they needed an extra hand with the kids.  Meghan will be sorely missed but we know she will be successful in her Medical career. Hopefully, we will see her again in the future here in Ecuador!   You can read her blog of her time in Ecuador thus far here: https://megsmissionmoments.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/here-and-now/  As a part of her time here, we were happy to welcome Mark Seversen and Praj David from the Covenant Offices in Chicago this past weekend as they wanted to see where Meghan has been serving as a volunteer as well as talk with us about future Covenant interns.

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Esther turns 3!!

Happy Birthday to our precious Esther Ashby Delp and her third birthday today!!!  Here are the pictures from her party yesterday.

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We are open!!!

We are open!!!! Today, is our first day of being officially open with our Home for At Risk Children where we are awaiting children with open arms. In reality, we wish the services of the Home weren’t necessary but alas the needs for its services in the area of Cayambe are greatly undeserved. We will soon be receiving children coming from situations of neglect, abandonment, abuse and other unimaginable situations. Please pray for our friends pictured here as they will be on the front lines working with these children and their families day and day out.

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Opening the Home for At Risk Children

These are exciting days for the Santiago Partnership. This past Wednesday was the first day of work for the employees of the Home. It included a lot of introductions, explanations about our organizations, systems and structures and a tour of the Home. The rest of the week included team building and planning activities. We plan to open the Home on June 1st.

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Moving toward self-sustainability

We have been on a three step process with our project in Cayambe, Ecuador.  Step 1: Open the Medical Clinic.  Step 2: Open the Home for At Risk Children.  Step 3: Become self-sustainable.  As you know, the clinic is open and serving the community and we are in process of opening the home right now, so onto step 3.  Recently, we had a visit from two of our Board Members, Tim Eberhard and Zach Stevens, as well as the pastor of the Coshocton Christian Tabernacle, Mike Jansen.  The purpose of their trip was to bring down and setup a CNC Router that will be used to make wood frames that can be sold in artisan markets which then will produce income for the home.  Please pray for this endeavor and its success!

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Serving Iglesia Nazareno

After our big day of celebration a week ago with the Inauguration of the Home for At Risk Children, we went right back to work again on Monday with another Medical Caravan.  This week we partnered with a group of doctors from Chicagoland, headed up by the Santiago Partnership’s very own Kristi Lundblad.  We served the Compassion children of our sister church, Iglesia Nazareno, and its two satellite locations in Cangahau and Oyacachi in providing the children’s annual medical check up. In addition to the check ups, all the of children received a hearing test as two of the doctors who came down were Audiologists.  It was a wonderful week of serving together!

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Inauguration of the Home for At Risk Children

On Saturday, April 29th the Home for At Risk Children in Cayambe, Ecuador was inaugurated!  We plan to have the people working in the Home start on May 15th and the Home be open to receive children on May 22nd. These are pictures from Saturday of the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and the Prayer of Dedication for the Home.  Our ceremony started by forming a parade to reenact a traditional Kichwa House Warming Ceremony called “Huasipichai” where the house is “cleansed” before people move in. We began our parade with balloons, the house cleaners, dancers and a folkloric band as we walked from the Medical Clinic all the way up to the Home for At Risk Children (about a half a mile). Once we arrived, the house was cleansed and we started the Inauguration with more music.  We took time during our ceremony to say a special word of thanks to Erik and Kristina Amundsen as they were completing their missionary service and have help us a ton in the area of agriculture.  Many people came from all over from different parts of Ecuador as well as from the United States and Sweden to be a part of Saturday’s activities. After our delicious meal of roasted pork and the fixings, our day was completed by a full setup of cake and cupcakes prepared by our missionary friends.

Saturday was a great party! We were celebrating the fact that the Home for At Risk Children is now FINALLY opening! After years of blood, sweat and tears building the home physically, structurally, emotionally and legally, we are finally opening! Praise the Lord!  We now have our permit and are planning on opening on the 15th of May, God willing!  Thank you to so many of you who have been so loyal in your support.  It is because of you and God’s help that we have arrived at this celebration.  The Santiago Partnership will be a bit financially strapped in order operate both the Home and the Medical Clinic as our funds have dropped in the process of getting the Home open. If you would like to provide a financial gift to congratulate everyone on their hard work in order to get to this point, please click this link and don’t forget to put “Home for At Risk Children” where it says to “Add a Personal Message.”  https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/

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Thank you Canada!

Doing Partnership the Canadian way!  Our friends from the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada are back again this year and are doing partnership in Ecuador in a new way.  We came together with a Pastoral Interchange with pastors from Canada and pastors from our Kichwa conference of the Covenant Church of Ecuador.  It was a great time of encouragement and sharing for all involved.  The Canadian pastors also visited many other Covenant Churches and ministries that are a part of the Kichwa conference.  Oh Canada!

 

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Serving Quevedo

This past week we partnered with Bethany Covenant Church of Berlin, CT, the Iglesia del Pacto de Missionera de la Valle of Sangolqui, Ecuador and the Covenant’s Merge Ministry in order to hold a Medical Caravan in Quevedo, Ecuador where the Missionera de la Valle church is planting a new work.  We came alongside them and collaborated with Bethany Covenant to hold a two-day medical caravan for the underprivileged in the area.  It was incredible to see how when we work together, we can offer so much more as the team brought with them a pediatrician, a psychiatrist and an occupational therapist.  It was a wonderful couple of days in partnership through service!

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