Thanksgiving in Ecuador

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Joel & Kim

We had the wonderful opportunity to have our missionary friends (as well as others) with us to celebrate Thanksgiving in our new home.  Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday in Ecuador so it was a new celebration for many of the Ecuadorians that were with us for the day.  We all came together to all make different dishes to make the Thanksgiving meal complete and have a missionary family Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Our Home

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Joel & Kim

After over four months of doing a huge home remodel, we finally moved into our new house on October 31st.  We are so happy to finally be in the house that we can call our Home.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!  Here are some pictures of our house after the remodel.

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Welcome Home

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Joel & Kim

After many years of planning and talking and praying and working, we are so happy that 2017 was the year that the Home for At Risk Children has finally opened.  We are already serving 11 children thanks to our past donors.  The first child we received, Mikal, was 3 years old when he came to us in June 2017.  His parents were going through a difficult custody dispute, and Mikal was left neglected.  However, things turned around for him and his family in working with our staff.  He was able to be reunified with his mother after passing a time of recovery and therapy.  Now they will continue to be a part of our ministry as they will be attending church at our partner congregation in Cayambe.  How exciting is that?

 

 

Will you join us as we strive to help even more children and families in 2018 by partnering with our “Welcome Home” Campaign?  We are welcoming you to our Home for At Risk Children as we have now opened.  Even a little bit goes such a long way.  The Santiago Partnership has a goal to raise $15,000 to ensure that the community of Cayambe, Ecuador continues to have adequate assistance.  Below you will see different options of tangible things that help the children in the Home.  When these children come to the home, the majority come with just what clothes they have on them and nothing else.  Some have not had a substantial meal in weeks, and most have shoes with holes if they have them at all.  It may seem simple, but even small gifts can change the lives that these children have known up until now.

 

If you are looking for a way to invest and help change lives, look no further because that is happening right now, and you can be a part of it!

 

Join our “Welcome Home” campaign and help us change lives in Ecuador!

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Ecuador!

 

Options to Support the Children in our Home for 2018

Pair of Children’s Shoes— $25

School Transportation for 2 Children for 1 Month— $50

Clothing for a New Arrival— $100

Food for the Home for 1 Month— $250

Industrial Size Washing Machine— $500

Special Outing for the Home— $1000

Costs for a Child for 1 Year— $3000

 

Click here to Give Now:

https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/

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Serving in Otovalo

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Joel & Kim

The first week of November was SUCH a great week.  Several of the board members from the Santiago Partnership worked on this team, a medical caravan.  We partnered with a church in Otavalo, a town about 30 minutes north of Cayambe.  It was such an organized Compassion International Center that we worked with, with very caring tutors that knew each child individually.  80 of the 140 children we saw were new to the program.  One story from the week is that there was a little boy who was 9 and the size of his 5 year old sister.  He had shoes with no soles and no socks and he had blisters on his feet from them being so wet.  The next day he came back and was all smiles because the tutors had given him socks and a new pair of shoes.  It was a very simple fix, but something that was found because we weighed him with his shoes off!  We are thankful to be able to partner here and are excited to see what this partnership will lead to in the future.  A big thank you to the team members.

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Forming Local Partneship

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Joel & Kim

As is fitting for our name, the Santiago Partnership, seeks to form partnerships that both benefit our project in Cayambe as well as with those whom we partner.  The same is true for our ministries in Ecuador.  Since our Home has opened back in June, we have seen growth in the Home as we now have 9 little ones with us.  We have also seen our partnerships grow.  Though we are yet to receive local financial assistance for our Home’s operational costs (a goal we have for 2018), we have seen many local donations of goods and services that help us offset our operational costs.  For example, we have a partnership with one local business owner that buys the Home a sack of rice as well as other staples every month.  What you see pictured here is a donation of fresh produce that we received this past week from the Comisaria Municipal de Cayambe.  What a blessing it is to receive support like this from our local partnerships!

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Report on Women’s Caravan

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Our team for the week was made up of a diversity of women.  All of the missionary women from the U.S., a missionary from Sweden, women from the national women’s organization for the Ecuadoran Covenant church, and three women from North America came down for the week.  We worked in two different locations in northern Ecuador.  The first location was San Gabriel, a village located just south of the Colombian border.  The second location was in Punkuwayku, a village located in the Kichwa district just north of Ibarra.  Each clinic was hosted by a local Covenant church and there were two days of clinic in each site.  We had around 100 women come through over the four days.  We were able to provide medical, dental, and counseling in each location.  We also had classes for women while they were waiting about normal body changes, as well as having women available to chat with about faith issues and other topics.  Each woman was given a kit with reusable sanitary pads and basic hygiene items.  At each church we also had a church service that was open to women from the community.  It was a great week of sharing and learning for all involved!

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Reflection from Kim on the Women’s Caravan

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Yesterday marked the completion of the first Women’s Holistic Medical Caravan in wonderful collaboration of the Women’s Ministry of the Covenant Church of Ecuador, the Santiago Partnership, Covenant missionaries from the States and Sweden, and volunteers from Ecuador, the United States and Canada!  It was a full week of focus on women’s health (mind, body and spirit) as well as building relationships with those on our team and those we worked with in the different churches.  We traveled to San Gabriel, a four hour drive from Quito.  We were there for two days.  On Wednesday evening, one of our Covenant missionaries, Denise Garcia, brought the word to those in the church.  We then traveled to Pungayuiaco, a Kichwa community close to Ibarra, about two and a half hours from Quito.  On Friday, we had a wonderful worship service with many women from the surrounding communities coming to worship and learn together.  We sang Kichwa worship songs, heard many songs from the different communities and were encouraged with our Pastora Lilliana Estevez preaching the word.  This week in reflection brings many images to mind as so many women worked together to help women.  One of the women who worked with us in counseling described moments together in the counseling sessions as “holy moments” when women share things they have never shared before.  I look back and this week and truly believe it was a “holy moment.”  Bringing women together to help women, in every sense of the word from feeling welcomed and loved, sharing the gospel, treating and healing, praying together, laughing together and many other ways of being together.  God’s hand was truly evident during the week.  Seeing how the women who were volunteering were helping and using their gifts was a holy moment indeed.

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Minga for the Clinic Expansion

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Pictures from yesterday’s Minga in Cayambe in order to construct the new wing to the Medical Clinic.  We had over 120 people who came out to support the project and specifically our medical clinic and the Expansion Project for 2017.

The Clinic Expansion Project is our construction project for this year and it has the goal of completing an extension to our clinic in order that we can offer Physical and Occupational Therapy in 2018.  The expansion of the clinic is significant and it is with the idea that there will be additional space for when the clinic grows in the future.  We have a goal to be a clinic that offers specialties, whether it be in Therapy, Women’s Health, Children’s Medicine, Traumatology, etc.

 

The Clinic Expansion Project will provide for the immediate need of space for Therapy but then there will be additional office space to grow in the future as well.  We had begun the extension previously in what we built earlier this year with the adding of the space for the bathrooms, office and expanded waiting area.  With what we have left to build for this expansion, we will need approximately another $25,000 in funding to complete the project.  If you would like to contribute to this construction project, please click below and type “Clinic Construction” in the place for a “Personal Message”: https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/

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Women’s Health

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Women all over the world often feel more comfortable being open about their bodies, health, and their lives when they are among women.  We have found that to be true here in Ecuador.  Last spring during our medical caravans we found that women would come more often when they knew that the medical provider was a woman and that they were seeking us out for private conversation about what was going on with their health.  From this experience, the idea was born to have a medical caravan that would be just for women, therefore providing a safe space for women to come to seek medical care and conversation regarding their health.

We started dreaming of what it might be able to look like to address the whole woman: mind, body, and spirit.  We partnered with the head of the women’s organization for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador (IPEE) and started turning those plans and dreams in to something more concrete.  She brought together a group of women from the local and national organization to help with planning the details and locations of the event.

In the end our desire is to do a series of events that will take place all over Ecuador.  The Ecuadorian Covenant church has 6 districts and we hope to hold an event in each district.  There will be two events a year and each event will involve four clinic days in two locations (two days each) in order to cover even more areas. Each clinic will be hosted by a local church.

Our first event will be September 26-30 in San Gabriel and Pungayuiaco (northern Ecuador).  We will have general medicine, dentistry, and counseling.  We will also have classes on physical, mental, and spiritual health. This first group of women that are helping to put on the event are a combination of women living locally and coming in for the week from the US and Canada.  We are excited to see how God uses this time to impact us and the women that we will be working with.

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Minga for the Clinic Expansion

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Pictures from yesterday’s Minga in Cayambe in order to construct the new wing to the Medical Clinic.  We had over 120 people who came out to support the project and specifically our medical clinic and the Expansion Project for 2017.

The Clinic Expansion Project is our construction project for this year and it has the goal of completing an extension to our clinic in order that we can offer Physical and Occupational Therapy in 2018.  The expansion of the clinic is significant and it is with the idea that there will be additional space for when the clinic grows in the future.  We have a goal to be a clinic that offers specialties, whether it be in Therapy, Women’s Health, Children’s Medicine, Traumatology, etc.

 

The Clinic Expansion Project will provide for the immediate need of space for Therapy but then there will be additional office space to grow in the future as well.  We had begun the extension previously in what we built earlier this year with the adding of the space for the bathrooms, office and expanded waiting area.  With what we have left to build for this expansion, we will need approximately another $25,000 in funding to complete the project.  If you would like to contribute to this construction project, please click below and type “Clinic Construction” in the place for a “Personal Message”: https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/

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