In the Home Stretch!!!!

We are in the home stretch of our preparations for heading to Ecuador!  We have purchased our tickets and we fly out on June 26th. 

We have just sent out our final pre-departure newsletter update.  You can view it here: Spring_2010

There is much that must be accomplished before we can head down on June 26th.  Here is everything that must get done, so please pray!!!

– We have 90% prayer support in – If you are interested in praying for us while we are in Ecuador, please email and let us know

– We are at 87% of our financial support.  Still just a little ways off.  
You` can now donate online.  Here is the link:

http://covchurch.kintera.org/give/delp

Also, if you have pledged support in the past, but haven’t set up a recurring gift, you can use that link to set it up.

We also need these things to happen:

– Receive Simeon’s passport from the U.S. Government

– Receive our letter from the Ecuadorian National Church granting us permission to come to Ecuador under their supervision (for the visas)

– Get our Visas from the Ecuadorian Embassy in Chicago

– Attend Covenant Short-Term Missionary training event in Chicago: June 3rd  – 12th

– Visit two Covenant churches in Nebraska & Iowa: June 15th – 18th

– Sell all of our life possessions in our Yard Sale: June 20th – 21st

Then we fly out on American Airlines in the morning on June 26th!!!

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Getting closer!!!

Just a quick note to let you know that we are now up to 88% in prayer support commitments and 84% in financial support commitments!  Praise God!!!  As our departure date gets closer and closer, we just keep getting closer and closer in support thanks to your gernerosity and care!

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Pictures from April 25th @ Northwest

 

Here are some pictures from Delp Sunday on April 25th at Northwest Covenant (see post below).  The first two are pictures of Simeon’s Dedication both the Traditional and Contemporary Services.   We also have a picture of us with family and lastly a picture of our Mission Board at Northwest.

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Thank You Northwest Covenant!

Today was a big day in the Delp Household and all of the glory goes to God but the thanks goes to Northwest Covenant Church.

Today Simeon Carter Delp was dedicated during both church services.  Each dedication was unique and wonderful!  It was a very powerful moment to have our son dedicated to God and have ourselves, our sponsors and our congregation all pledge to raise him showing him God’s love.

In addition to this, we were also commissioned as missionaries to be sent from Northwest Covenant to Ecuador as Short-Term Missionaries with Covenant World Mission.  It was awesome as friends and family surrounded us, laid hands on us and prayed for us.  They also had a reception for us for both the commissioning and the baby dedication.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful and loving congregation that have showed us so much love and care.  It was an amazing day and we feel so touched to be so close to such a wonderful church family.  We are proud to be your representatives in Ecuador.  Thank you for the special day!!!

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The Power of a Hymn

The peaceful face of Simeon

On Sunday of last week, Joel and I had the opportunity to speak at my parents church in Hartford City, IN @ Trinity UM Church. It was a wonderful time with people who I know have prayed for us over the years. During the service, we sang the song Because He Lives. This hymn has always had significance in that it shows the power of the resurrection and was written by Bill and Gloria Gaither and their son. However, on Sunday, this song had new significance. The second verse says:

How sweet to hold a newborn baby, and feel the pride

 

and joy He gives; but greater still the calm assurance,

 

this child can face uncertain days because He lives.

 

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives,

all fear is gone. Because I know, I know He holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because He lives.

HOW powerful to know that no matter WHAT happens, we CAN face tomorrow. What a blessing to know that our baby can face ANYTHING because Christ is in control and because Jesus died for ALL of us! AMEN!

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Church Visits

We have a few church visits set up and are looking to setup more.  Here is our current church visit itinerary.  Please be in prayer as we visit with these congregations:

April 18th – Hartford City United Methodist Church, Hartford City, IN

April 25th – Northwest Covenant Church, Mount Prospect, IL

June 16th – Ceresco Evangelical Covenant Church, Ceresco, NE

June 17th – Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, Essex, IA

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Pictures of Simeon

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Support Update

Thank you so much for your continued support!  We continue to receive new responses for prayer and financial support.  At this point we are at 61% of our 150 desired prayer partners and have reached 76% of what is needed for our finances.  Praise the Lord!

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Simeon’s Story

We need to share of God’s goodness to us through the birth of our son Simeon. It is a pretty neat story!

Before beginning the story, we should explain that through Kim’s experience and knowledge in the healthcare industry and with what we had learned in our birthing (read “modern day Lamaze”) class, we had decided we would like to have as natural of a birth as possible. We had a Nurse Midwife instead of a doctor and were planning on doing as much as possible at home during labor before heading to the hospital. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan.
To begin with, Kim had some early signs of preeclampsia (high blood pressure, swelling, and additional protein in the urine) heading into the delivery date. This caused a little bit of anxiety for us and our midwife heading into it.
Early on Simeon’s due date, March 4th, at 3 a.m., Kim’s water broke, but since she was not having major contractions, we decided to wait until 7:00 a.m. to paige our midwife. When we were able to get a hold of her, she told us to come on in to the hospital and get setup. Even though Kim’s contractions were not advanced, with the preclampsia symptoms, she didn’t want to take any chances.
So we headed in and by 9:30 a.m., Kim was all hooked up to the equipment and had a pitocin drip started to have the labor induced. The pitocin definitely worked as hard contractions quickly started and lasted for about 8 hours. At around 5:30 p.m., after going through a little over 8 hours of grueling contractions which resulted in a lot of sickness, we were seeing very little progress. Kim was only dilated 1 cm. We could see that this was going to be a long haul and decided that Kim could not do this forever, so we opted for the epidural.
The epidural was met with a lot of relief. Much comfort and rest resulted. In addition, the pitocin drip amount was increased and so the contractions were strengthened with no pain to mama. Kim was able to sleep pretty well while she labored. Unfortunately, not much progress was made with the delivery. By 7:00 a.m. on March 5th, Kim was only dilated 3 cms and Simeon’s head had hardly descended. Our midwife consulted with the doctor on call and they both felt the birth was not going to occur vaginally. Being folks with good common sense, we followed their advice and decided to go with a C-Section.
Simeon Carter Delp was born at 8:34 a.m. on March 5th via C-Section weighing 6 lbs 9 ozs and having a 19.25 inch length. Our first family picture is at the top.
Here is the kicker: during the C-Section, the doctor noted that umbilical cord was extremely short, as well as it was wrapped around Simeon’s neck. In the end, the birth could not have occurred vaginally as every time he would try to descend, the cord would wrap around his neck and not allow the descent.
We are thankful to our risen Lord Jesus Christ and his provision of a healthy and well cared for birth our son and a healthy operation for mama. Both mom and son are doing well and recovering from the ordeal. Simeon has started nursing from mom.
We decided on the name Simeon because of the biblical reference in the Old Testament to the 2nd Tribe of Israel and in Luke 2 to the priest who was aware that Jesus Christ was the messiah. In Hebrew, Simeon means “obedient” and “listening”. We really like this name!!!
You can see more pictures of Simeon on our Facebook pages. Thanks for reading!

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3rd Missionary Added!

Today, God gave us 2 gifts: 1) A son by the name of Simeon Carter Delp, weighing 6 lbs 9 ozs and measuring 19.25 inches at 8:34 a.m. this morning 2) A healthy delivery for both mom and son.  We feel so blessed to be given the responsibility to care and raise such a beautiful child.  Thank you Jesus!

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