Approved!!!
We received the wonderful news today that our Medical Clinic in Cayambe, Ecuador has been approved for service by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health! As many of you know as you have been following along and praying for this approval, we have been waiting for quite a long time and had to make many adjustments to the clinic in order to receive this approval. Praise be to God that the day has finally arrived where we now have all the permits we need to open the clinic to serve the medically underprivileged of the greater Cayambe area. Now, we will be working diligently to hire our staff and have our official opening day. Here’s where things get real for us from a financial perspective in that we will be hiring a doctor, dentist and nurse to staff the clinic. We are still underfunded in this regard. If you would like to learn how you can be involved in supporting the medical ministry to underprivileged of Cayambe, Ecuador, you can read about the 64 for Ecuador here: https://www.santiagopartnership.org/64-for-ecuador/
Categories: 501c3, Cayambe, Clinic, Ministry, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Updates
Tags: 501c3, Answered prayers, Cayambe, Clinic, Ecuador, Evangelical Covenant Church, FACE, Ministry, Prayer Requests, The Santiago Partnership, Updates
Leave a comment
Home for the Holidays!
Friends of the Santiago Partnership are working hard to complete the construction of our first house for at risk children in Cayambe, Ecuador. It is our goal to create a welcoming environment for the children while they are separated from their families. Will you help make this house a home by donating towards the purchase of an item listed below? Our Home for the Holidays goal is to reach $10,000 by January 1st, 2016. This mission would not be possible without the generosity and prayers of people like you. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Stuffed animal or Toy = $10
Chair = $25
Mattress = $50
Sink = $100
Living Room Furniture = $500
Hot Water Heater = $1,000
CLICK HERE TO GIVE NOW!
Categories: Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Party in the Park
Yesterday, we had a special get together in the park with all of the missionaries in Quito as well as many pastors from the Quito area. The idea was to just have fun together and relax, not spend so much time in ministry as we do but just have fun together. It was a special day and we are planning more in the future!
Categories: Family Fun, Ministry, Prayer, Reflections, Updates
Tags: Churches, Family Fun, IPEE, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Updates
Leave a comment
Que Viva la Quinceanera!!!
This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending our first Quinceanera! A Quinceanera is when an Ecuadorian girl turns 15 (15 is “quince” in Spanish). We went to the Quincenera birthday party for our friend Naomi, who is the daughter of Martita, our friend and babysitter for the kids. The party was held at the church, Santiago, in the south of Quito, who our friends Henry and Olguita Burbano are the pastors.
It was quite the party! In addition to having the normal birthday party fanfare of food, cake and lots of balloons. The Quinceanera birthday party also included a court, an entrance with her dad, the presentation of a bible, high heeled shoes and a promise ring. I was a ton of fun to be a part as we really enjoyed ourselves! We were privileged to be a part!
Categories: Family Fun, Reflections, Updates
Tags: Churches, Ecuador, Evangelical Covenant Church, Family Fun, Ministry, Santiago, Updates
Leave a comment
See the new kitchen!
Thanks to the team from Northwest Covenant Church and our Ecuadorian partners, we made incredible progress on the home for at-risk kids this week – tiling, skim coating, sanding, painting, digging, hauling, installing cabinets and appliances, and more – and the kitchen was mostly finished! Part of the team also worked in the clinic – organizing, doing inventory, and preparing for inspection See pictures of the progress and the beautiful new kitchen!!!
Categories: 501c3, Cayambe, Construction, Home, Ministry, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Reflections, Travel, Updates
Tags: 501c3, Answered prayers, Cayambe, Ecuador, Evangelical Covenant Church, Ministry, Mission Teams, Northwest Covenant Church, Prayer Requests, The Santiago Partnership, Trips, Updates
Leave a comment
Welcome to the United States!
This week we welcomed Ephraim to the U.S. even though he has never been there. After a long delay, we know have Ephraim’s Birth Certificate and U.S. Passport so he is now officially a U.S. Citizen and can travel to the U.S. when he would like to. We’ll let him let us know when he is ready to go. Yeah Ephraim!!!
Categories: Ephraim, Family Fun, Updates
Tags: Ephraim, Family Fun, Prayer Requests, Updates
Leave a comment
South American Missionary Retreat
This past week we had the pleasure of hosting all of the missionaries from South America (Colombia and Ecuador) as well as many folks from Chicago for a Missionary Retreat. It was a wonderful time of connecting, sharing, praying, and learning. We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
![IMG_5870](http://blogs.covchurch.org/delp/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2015/11/IMG_5870.jpg)
After the retreat concluded, Joel took Curt Peterson (former head of Serve Globally), Al Tizon (new head of Serve Globally) to visit our project in Cayambe
All be well!
You may want to click play on the song at the bottom of this post so as to let the music play as you are reading.
I (Joel) wanted to share a little bit from how God spoke to me during my Sabbath Retreat as I know you all are a little curious and also were praying for me during that time. I have to say, first of all, that this was an amazing time for me as I was able to spend three whole days with God without any external distractions and it was amazing!!! Each day God was teaching me something new and I was deepening my relationship with him all the while focusing on the importance of Sabbath and how my family and I can maintain a deeper sense of Sabbath in our lives.
I want to share what I learned one day and how God was working on me and I hope that this will serve as an encouragement to you as I know we all face our battles and are often looking for God to speak in our lives.
Whenever I share my testimony (at least the long version), I always talk about how God always needs to “shake me up” to get me to listen; I guess I can be a bit thick-sculled or maybe less observant than others to how the Holy Spirit is speaking to me but that has been the case for me, unfortunately, throughout my life. This was the case again for me with this Sabbath retreat as it took me flying to the U.S. and being “confined” to a campgrounds on the outskirts of Memphis and being “forced” to spend time with God in order to get me to listen. Now, a lot of that was tongue in cheek as you know, but anyways, you get the point. I need to take drastic action to be open enough to listen to God. I’m admitting a fault here if you haven’t caught on. It’s good to be able to be aware of your shortcomings and admit them in order to grow in them, especially in your relationship with God.
The first full day of the retreat we started with a group session and when we were finishing the up the session before being sent out to spend time alone with God, the leaders played the song below (or the one playing for you right now) as a way to do final worship before being sent out. I’ve never heard this song before and it really struck me. Or better, God really struck me with it. As soon as the song started and the words “All Will Be Well” started echoing, my mind immediately raced to a thought… a thought that could have only come from God.
Here is what God gave me in that moment. I realized in that moment right as the song started playing that Ephraim was born on August 26th and August 26th was two weeks earlier than his due date. The big thing there was that he had to come out THAT day because of medical complications. If we would have waited any further time than THAT day, his health would have been at risk. So Ephraim was born on August 26th, much earlier than what we were expecting. Then I remembered the 26th was an important day for us (don’t ask me why I didn’t think of this before now) because my mom, Ruthie, passed away on January 26th. Then as I thought about things further and started counting the months, I realized that Ephraim was born exactly 7 months to the day after my mom passed away. And then I remembered again that he had to come out THAT day, August 26th. As I pondered things further, I caught on to the fact 7 months was significant because there I was on a Sabbath retreat and focusing on the importance of the Sabbath, which is the 7th day of creation. The 7th day is the day God created for us, made it Holy in order to rest and spend time with Him. Then my mind kept racing as I realized that what God was sharing with me and wanting me to realize through all of these thoughts is that I haven’t yet had the time to mourn the loss of my mother and further that this is exactly why Sabbath and rest is so important for me and my family. If I don’t take time for Sabbath, time to rest and commune with Him, basic things like mourning for the passing of one’s mother, can get over looked. Incredible!
So, there I was in the middle of this group session taking time to worship and my mind went back to this song playing for us and reverberating… “All Will Be Well.” The words kept echoing and echoing, so much so that they penetrated my soul. I burst into tears just thinking about Ruthie and spent the next hour listening to this song on repeat and mourning the loss of my mom. I miss her so!!!
Categories: Ministry, Prayer, Reflections
Tags: Ministry, Prayer Requests, Reflections, Travel, Trips
2 Comments
How’s it look?
How is the home for at risk children looking? Thank you to all of you who have given to make this construction possible. God bless you! If you’d like to help us finish up the construction this year, visit us at:https://www.santiagopartnership.org/give/
Categories: 501c3, Construction, Home, Ministry, Updates
Tags: 501c3, Cayambe, Ecuador, Home, Home Construction, Ministry, The Santiago Partnership, Updates
Leave a comment