Earthquake hits Ecuadorian coast
Light of the World
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14
When I was younger, I LOVED lighthouses. I remember having a poster of a lighthouse on my wall with a huge wave hitting it in a storm. What an amazing a beautiful image to wake up to each day. Much like a lighthouse, Jesus was sent into a world of darkness to be a light. We are called to do the same as followers of Jesus. Just like a lighthouse, a city can be seen clearly from a distance, even in the darkness. As Jesus was light sent into a world of darkness, we must also be the same in a world of darkness.
An amazing example of the above illustration is the church that we partner with, Iglesia Emanuel. Over 10 years ago, the Pastor of the church, Pastor Jose, had a vision for the church to be a light in the surrounding community of Juan Montalvo, just outside of Cayambe. He had a vision for building a clinic to serve the people in the area of healthcare, as the majority of its inhabitants are unable to afford healthcare for their families. Around the same time as Pastor Jose felt a call to build a clinic, Joel and I felt God tugging on our hearts to start a clinic and to help children in need. After so many years, God has brought our calls and visions together in a small community in Ecuador. Iglesia Emanuel and Pastor Jose have built the clinic and as of today, it is open to the community of Juan Montalvo to serve those in need and to be a light. As God has called so many before us to be a light in a dark world, Iglesia Emanuel and Pastor Jose have answered that call and are a light in a community where poverty, illness and lack of access to many things are limited. We consider it a privilege to call them partners and friends and we are thankful that God has gone before us to pave the way to be the hands and feet and light of Christ in a dark world.
Written by Kim
Our Medical Clinic Officially opens
On Monday, April 11th our Medical Clinic in Cayambe, Ecuador officially opened to the public!!! After almost two years from starting in Ecuador, the first ministry in our two part project has commenced. After almost ten years of constructing the clinic and trying to open it, the Covenant Church Iglesia Emanuel has finally achieved what it has dreamed for so long. After almost 14 years of planning and tirelessly serving, the Delp family can rejoice in what the Lord has accomplished through the local and national Covenant church of Ecuador. We thank God for his faithfulness in helping us see this dream become a reality.
As an outreach ministry of the local church, the Medical Clinic will serve the children at the Compassion Center at Igelesia Emanuel as well as other surrounding Compassion Centers and will be open to the public with very affordable costs so that way medicine is accessible to all. If you are interested in knowing how you can support the ministry of the medical clinic, please watch the video here: https://www.santiagopartnership.org/64-for-ecuador/
Please meet our medical clinic staff below. One prayer request is that we are still needing a dentist to complete our team so please pray that God leads us to our final candidate very soon.
Medical Caravan Completed
This past week the Santiago Partnership held a Medical Caravan in the Kichwa community of Lote 4 and with our partner church, Iglesia Emanuel, where we saw over 340 little patients as the children of the two Compassion sites were receiving their annual check ups. The service was performed by a collaboration of our Medical Clinic staff, our missionary Kim Delp and our volunteers for this week, Erica Liebelt, and Richard and Tara Euler. Thank all for your collaboration and service with the Santiago Partnership.
Clinic staff is being formed
It was an exciting day yesterday that during our weekly Wednesday meeting, we welcomed some of our staff to the team.
In the final picture from left to right you see, Dr. Abimael Hernandez, Nancy Morales (who is helping us a nurse intern) and our nurse Myrian Molina. These are our staff members as they are working this week to prepare to open the clinic. The clinic’s opening day is planned for Monday, April 11th as our staff will be helping with a Medical Caravan in Lote 4 next week.
Covenant missionaries, Erik and Kristina Amundsen, were also in attendance at the meeting as we were planning our next steps on the agricultural front.
Singing for Ephraim
We received some great news this week and Simeon and Esther can’t stop singing. See the video below.
We learned last week that Ephraim has developmental deficiencies and so we have been a bit concerned about him. The neurologist noticed things like him using the left side of his body more than his right (instead of both sides equally which is the norm) as well as occasional tremors. He decided to have an MRI performed on his brain to see what could be determined. The MRI was taken last Thursday. Thank you for your prayers for that as we were a bit concerned about giving anesthesia (necessary to keep him still for the MRI) at such a young age. But everything went fine.
On Monday of this week we learned of the results of the tests and the kids are a singing because the MRI showed no major abnormalities!!! Praise the Lord!!! The neurologist recommended a little bit of physical therapy to strengthen the left side of his brain but he thinks he should be fine. We thank the Lord for good doctors who help us catch the little things and get them corrected quickly. Make sure you watch enough of the video to see Esther’s solo.
Easter Celebrations
He is risen! He is risen indeed!!!
Happy Easter everyone! Sorry we are few days late in sharing this post but we wanted to share some pictures from Easter. We were able to celebrate with friends. Enjoy the pics!
Sweet Surrender
I was standing in church the other day, trying to intimately connect with Jesus through worship. We usually sit in the back on a regular basis (with 3 kiddos that seems to be a necessity at this point). I had Ephraim in the car seat beside me and Esther in my arms. She is just precious during worship, she claps, she raises her hands, imitating what others do in the worship. I love it! This specific Sunday, as I was trying my best to focus, I was struck by a distinct picture. I was worshiping, I was praising Jesus, doing my best to raise my hands in praise, all the while trying not to drop Esther and every minute or so glancing over at Ephraim to see if he needed anything. I felt closer to God, although I was distracted, but God uses that time, no matter how short or how distracted, He uses it. While in the midst of this, it hit me that this is often what we do with God. We say we give Him everything, having our arms wide open to Him, but we still have…”stuff” in our arms. Much like the picture of me holding Esther and lifting my one hand to heaven with an outstretched arm, I was still holding on. My whole self couldn’t fully commit because I would have dropped Esther. Now, I’m not saying it would have been good to drop Esther, you get the metaphor, right? OK, moving on…here’s the point. We can’t totally commit and surrender our lives when we are still holding on to things. We say it, we even sing it (add in I Surrender All track), and we mean it, we really do, but if we are honest, we are still holding things, we are still holding our kids, our jobs, our ministry, our future yet still saying we surrender all. We can’t! Believe me, I have tried. But the bottom line is there is no better place for all of that “stuff” to be that we try and carry but in the arms of Jesus! (Can I PLEASE get an AMEN!) He is the master of balancing it all and carrying it all and guarding it all. Is it easy? Of course not. Are our lives going to be completely different when we can fully surrender in worship to Him? YES! When our focus is fully on Him instead of balancing all that is in our arms, WOW! What freedom, what sweet surrender. What are you holding on to? Know that God can do better with it than you can today. He is the author of whatever it is. Surrender it and embrace all that He has for you!