Happy New Year from the Delps!
Christmas family festivities!
We have had a very fun-filled Christmas break celebrating many family activities which has included a lot of Christmas cookie baking and playing soccer and fixing puzzles. Joel’s dad, Earl, came down to Ecuador to be with us for the holidays as well which has been nice. We were also able to slip away for a couple of days with Earl to the beach. A big highlight for this trip was for us seeing baby sea turtles hatch out of their eggs and make the trip to the ocean. Witnessing this personally was one of the things on Kim’s bucket list. Enjoy the pictures!
Celebrating Christmas in Cayambe!
Yesterday, we celebrated the staff in Cayambe and the children in the Home for At Risk Children with a Christmas dinner. It was a beautiful night filled with delicious food, small performances put on by the kids in the Home, each of the teams that make up the personnel of the project, a Mariachi band as well as other small interventions by various people. It was a special and beautiful night and it filled us with joy to celebrate our staff.
Constructing a Women’s Artisan Studio
For the Santiago Partnership in the end-of-year, we are starting a new initiative to construct a Women’s Artistan Studio to allow women who are the victims of domestic abuse break free from violence by starting a micro-enterprise of Jewelry Making. Learn more about the iniative below:
Thanksgiving
We had a fun Thanksgiving this year as we invited a lot of our friends over, twenty-two to be exact. People got to experience a lot of delicious American dishes and then we played cards afterwards. When we aren’t able to be with our family in the States, this is second best as we are with our Ecuadorian family.
Merry Christmas from the Delps!
A Special Visit
This past week past week we had a vist from the ECC president, Tammy Swanson-Draheim, the ECC Executive Minister of Serve Globally, Grace Shim, the ECC Latin American Regional Coordinator, Pia Restrepo, and NPTS Professor Elizabeth Pierre, as well as her best friend, Yakong. This was the first time ever that the President of the ECC has visited our project and the first time in 6 years that we have had a visit from the Executive Minister of Serve Globally.
We were super blessed to have many very special visitors from the U.S. and all over Latin America that were all here in Ecuador as a part of CIPE. CIPE is a triennial event/gathering of pastors, missionaries and leaders from all over Latin America, including Colleen, a missionary friend from Argentina, Jochy, a pastor, Christian rapper, missionary from the Dominican Republic!
We had a lot of great memories and new friends made. Here are some of the highlights in pictures. Meeting, chatting and learning from Elizabeth Pierre and her friend Yakong, amazing, just amazing! Having so many leaders come to the project and visit was a definite highlight. The new program we are developing for women coming out of domestic violence (which you will hear more about soon), made necklaces for all the ladies. One of the children who has been reunited with his mom from the home for at-risk children came back for this visit and gave his testimony. We were able to pray for him which was a MAJOR highlight for me (Kim). We had friends, pastors and missionaries over for fajitas! We had the privilege of hearing testimonies from patients from the clinic, whose lives have been touched and changed by the staff and care they have received. We heard Jochy rap! We were able to pray for leaders and pastors from CIPE at our church.
The Delps are on Sabbatical!
During the months of June, July and August 2022, we will not be sending out our normal monthly newsletter as after 12 years in ministry (17 since Joel first served as a pastor), we are taking our very first sabbatical. Thank you to everyone that has supported us in this endeavor! We’ll see you again in September!
Reflecting on the Women’s Caravan by Kim
I was listening to a song a couple of weeks ago and there was a part in there that says:
“Some days are long, some work is tough
Whatever I lack You make it up
Your yoke is easy, Your burden is light
You gave me life, You give me love
Whenever I’m dry You fill my cup
Your yoke is easy, Your burden is light”
The song is based on Matthew 11:28-30 which for a couple of months now has been a bit of a theme verse in my life. At every turn things come back to this verse and this experience with this song was no different.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I went in to last week’s women’s caravan burdened. There was a lot more prep than normal since we were going to be in a remote area with minimal access in which to refer patients for consults. Not only was I feeling burdened, but there was a very strong sense of anxiety that came along with this caravan as well. I didn’t know why the anxiety other than the prep had been more than I thought and as is often the case, I felt in over-my-head in leading a caravan like this. So, I hear this song and one of the lines that stood out is what is highlighted above, whatever I lack, you make it up! That is a fabulous summary of this caravan for me. I felt in over-my-head, weighted down and burdened, anxious and God made it all up. All that I lacked, in spite of me, HE made it up. He showed up. As He always does. In spite of all of our weakness, He shows up, again and again.
During the second day of the caravan, a family traveled five hours to see us from Puyo (another jungle town) for help because they heard there were doctors that could help them. Their son has a genetic condition that requires a lot of care and a lot of expensive medicines. As he was one of our last patients of the day, I was feeling tired and worn out and wondered what else I could give. None of us are specialists in the area, but I felt such a responsibility to help or at least try since their family had traveled so far…for some hope. I contacted my kids’ pediatrician in Quito who is well connected and eventually he was able to reach out to contacts of his to try and get them help. Is this what I imagined this situation might turn out like? No. After talking with the family I felt very helpless and in all honesty, pretty hopeless that I didn’t think we could do anything. Did we cure our sweet new friend? No. But we were in a place where we could connect them and that is a win, that is hope! Our team prayed with the family and as so many times before, I realized my limitations as a medical provider. That sometimes we have to get over ourselves and the idea that we can cure everything and realize the great healer has been here all along and shows up in ways we can’t imagine, connecting the dots and putting people where he wants to be a piece in a much bigger puzzle.
That is what so much of these caravans and care are. It isn’t curing everything. Sometimes it is being a piece in a puzzle, sometimes it is a laugh or a smile, but mostly it is presence. It is time spent together empowering women to know and understand their worth. To know they are loved, seen and cared for. Did I feel burdened, yes, was it worth it? Again, yes. It is always worth it to be part of God showing up and allowing us to be instruments in this love journey together.
Por Mujeres y Para Mujeres
“By women and for women” is what the above title means. You may be wondering why that wording. Well, the significance is significant! You may have heard previously or read in prior blog posts that the Santiago Partnership does this exact work through the hands of women FOR women through medical caravans ONLY for women. Another one of these caravans took place last week in four jungle communities in Ecuador. The significance for the women serving on the caravan and those who received care is that women were serving women to care, empower and let other women know they are loved!
It was a diverse and amazing group of women serving together from Ecuador, Sweden, Finland and the U.S. There were four nurse practitioners. In total they saw 213 women! There were two counselors, Gunila (a Swedish missionary serving in Ecuador) and Pia who is the Covenant Regional Coordinator for Latin America for Serve Globally of the Evangelical Covenant Church. They saw 51 women through counseling services. We had a dental hygienist who saw 40 patients and two Ecuadorian oral surgeons who saw 59 patients and did 80 procedures! We also had an amazing teacher who came to give Days for Girls workshops and hand out reusable menstruation kits to all of the women as well as incontinence kits for some ladies. Kim’s best friend, Christa became an optometrist for the week and her niece Shea was our expert nurse! We had a lot of help from the communities as well setting up, preparing, getting the word out and the amazing work of the Women Ministries of Ecuador who lead beautifully! In total, in the four different communities in the jungle where we served, Pacto Sumaco, Bellavista Alta, Rukullakta and Tambayaku, we saw 363 women! Por Mujeres y Para Mujeres! That’s what this last week was. What a blessing to all of us who gathered together for a common goal of service for women.
PICTURES BY PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHEA