Updated Monthly Support Level / Advocates Needed!!!

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Joel & Kim

44%

This will be our first update of many that will let you know how we are progressing in our goal of getting back to Ecuador.  Remember we need to be 100% funded in order to continue our ministry in Ecuador.

We are currently at 44%.  Now, when we say 44%, that means that we have 44% of our needed Monthly Support.  All of our support (including one-time or periodic gifts) of course gets included  in this amount but its the month-to-month commitments that are easier to track for determining our percentage and what is best for our long-term sustained ministry in Ecuador.  Remember that we are returning to Ecuador as Long-term Missionaries (that’s as long as our last interviews go well and we are approved at the Annual Meeting in June) and so we will be going back for a 4-5 year term.  It’s those monthly commitments, whether it be individuals or churches, that will sustain us in the long term.

That’s why we are looking to form new relationships with churches and individuals.  Our ministry requires more prayer and support than what it currently has.

Advocates are needed!!!  Just think of Joel & Kim as advocates for at risk children and the medically underprivileged in Ecuador.   We are sharing their stories because they are not able to.  In the same way, we need advocates for our ministry as we cannot reach everyone by ourselves.  We need people that are willing to reach out to others, whether it be a church or small group or friends or family members.   Whoever you think may be interested in hearing our story and about our ministry in Ecuador, we would like to know about them.  If you can just send us an email, then we will send you material that you can use to share with these potential new ministry partners.  If you feel comfortable, you can also just send us their name and phone number and we can reach out to them.  You can email us at joel-kim.delp(at)covchurch.org or call us at 574_238_0589.

In closing, we are continually reminded what a great and wonderful support team that we have that surrounds us and our ministry in prayer.  Thank you for being committed to us and our ministry and being so diligent in your continued support of us and following us so closely on our blog!  You all provide so much encouragement to us and we can never thank you enough!!!

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Updated Ministry Calendar

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Joel & Kim

God has put together some more church visits for us and here’s our updated ministry calendar!  If we are going to be in your area, please feel free to come and be a part of one of our opportunities to share about our ministry in Ecuador.

  • February 4 – 8: Covenant Midwinter Conference, San Diego, California (just Joel)
  • February 10: North Park Covenant Church, Machesney Park, IL
  • March 3: Hope Covenant Church, Indianapolis, IN
  • March 15: Interviews with the Department of Ordered Ministry for Ordination and Licensing, Chicago, IL
  • March 30: Northwest Covenant Church for Men’s Lenten Breakfast, Mt. Prospect, IL
  • April 27, 28: Coshocton Christian Tabernacle, Coshocton, OH
  • May 5: Hilltop Community Church, Mansfield, OH
  • June 26-30: Evangelical Covenant Church Annual Meeting for Commissioning and Ordination, Detroit, MI

As you can see there are still a lot of dates on the calendar to fill up with visits.  Please let us know if you have a church or small group that would like a visit.

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Prayer

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Joel & Kim

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  ~ Romans 8:26,27

Throughout our time in ministry in Ecuador, we have been so impressed about the need for prayer in our ministry.  It has been through God’s goodness and providence that we have been able to go to Ecuador and back, serve a short-term as missionaries, be so blessed in ministry and have every need met along the way.  It seems as though every single time we had a significant need that arose, whether it be emotional, social, financial or whatever other type, God came, saw and met our need in a way that only He could.

You all, our family, friends and supporters, have been His instruments in making the difference in our ministry.  Through your prayers, giving and support of us and our ministry, you all have made a significant difference in meeting our every little need.  We can never, ever thank you all enough for your faithful commitment and support for us.  THANK YOU FOR FAITHFULLY PRAYING FOR US.

Just recently, we have been reminded again about the continued need for ongoing prayer in our lives in ministry.  Spiritual warfare is at battle all around us.  The devil does not want us to return to Ecuador and that our ministry continue.  He doesn’t want us to partner with IPEE in creating new ministries to at-risk children and through medicine.  In addition, we just have been overwhelmed by the amount of continuous, monthly support that we need to raise before we can return.  WE CAN’T DO IT!  The good thing is: GOD CAN!!!  Where humans fall short, God always prevails.  We just want to ask you all to pray that in this year that we will be able to invite and recruit the necessary amount of new ministry partners that we are able to return to Ecuador when we are planning.  Though this task seems extremely daunting to us at this point, we know that anything is possible with God.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MINISTRY OF PRAYER FOR US AND OUR MINISTRY!!!

Please know that we are also praying for you.  We have a list of all of our supporters and have a calendar setup where we are praying for one of you each day.  So, please know that you also are in our prayers!

 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. ~ 1st John 5:14,15

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Santo Domingo Campgrounds receives donation

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Joel & Kim

Ruben & Amparo

 

 

The Rochas

We received some exciting news for our friends at the Campgrounds in Santo Domingo.  The camp donation that we had applied for and were set to receive has come through.  The funds will soon be sent down so that they can begin constructing the pool and family cabin and renovating the kitchen.  This is extremely exciting news as these improvements will greatly enhance the services that the camp provides and provide a huge boost for them.  We just give all praise and glory to our Heavenly Father and His good and faithful servants that have contributed to this donation.  We’ll be providing photos of the construction as we receive them.

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Church Visits Calendar… anyone want a guest missionary speaker???

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Joel & Kim

Would anyone like to have Joel & Kim (and Simeon of course!) come speak at their church or small group sometime this year?  We are looking to setup dates for visiting churches during the calendar year 2013.  At this point, we have an extremely open calendar and are looking for new ministry partners/churches that would like to be a part of exciting new ministries to at-risk children and through medicine in Ecuador, South America.

Here are the dates that we do have a visit setup:

February 10 – North Park Covenant Church – Machesney Park, IL

March 30 – Northwest Covenant Church (Men’s Lenten Breakfast) – Mt. Prospect, IL

April 27 & 28 – Coshocton Christian Tabernacle – Coshocton, OH

So, as you can see, we have many open dates at this point.  We know of some churches that we will be visiting and just don’t have dates yet but we still will need help in finding new ministry partners in this year.  If you have any questions or want to setup a date, you can email us at joel-kim.delp(at)covchurch.org or call us at 574_238_0589.  Thank you all and may God bless you!

The Delp Family

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Introducing the Santiago Partnership

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Joel & Kim

As you all know, we met with 5 other couples on the weekend of January 11-13th in Marion, IN.  This is our first meeting to begin the process of starting a non-profit organization which will be the development organization for the center for at-risk children and the medical clinic.  We have named the organization the Santiago Partnership.  The name Santiago Partnership comes from the book of James.  The name “Santiago” in Spanish is the name “James” in English.  We may come up with a particular theme verse but at this point the idea is being taken from the book of James that we want to have a faith that is alive and active, one that is lived out, not one that dead and has no good works to show for it.  We are also using the word “Partnership” instead of “Corporation” or “Project” so that we can emphasize the idea that everything we are doing is in partnership with the local church in Ecuador (both on a local and national level).  At this point we do have our mission statement which says, “The Santiago Partnership, as an international team of followers of Jesus Christ collaborating with the local church of Ecuador, South America,  seeks to transform the lives of at-risk children and their families, as well as serve underprivileged communities.”

All of this will take a while before we can be official with a 501c3 status.  We have seen God working amazingly through this entire process of bringing each couple to be a part of the team and as we have others that will be helping out (a lawyer and  website designer agreeing to help for free).

Please pray for us as we continue this process and become official.  We have broken up into subcommittees and have begun the work that needs to be accomplished to get up and running.  Here are the couples names so that you can pray for them individually: Tim & Angie Eberhard, Scott & Sara Hallam, Jeff & Kristi Lundblad, Janae & Zach Stevens and Paul & Mary Thompson.  Our Board of Directors also includes four advisory members which is one representative from Covenant World Mission and 3 representatives from I.P.E.E. (the Covenant church of Ecuador) who are Henry & Olguita Burbano (Henry is the president of I.P.E.E.) and Marcela Tapia (the director of F.A.C.E.).  It’s exciting to have I.P.E.E.’s participation on our highest level of the Board.

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Answered Prayer

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Joel & Kim

We just wanted to let you all know of a little way that God has been blessing us recently.  Some of you may know (we never told everyone formally at any one point) that Joel has suffered from migraines for quite a long time.  They actually started at the age of 16 but had become a daily occurrence 4 or 5 years ago.  For the most part, it hasn’t been a major difficulty because Excedrine has been able to treat it pretty much regularly.  It was only about once a month that a migraine would actually cause difficulties in going about his activities for the day.

In coming back from Ecuador to be in the States, Joel wanted to get this looked into because everyday Excedrine use for the rest of his life was not something he was looking forward to as they have a high amount of caffeine which causes other problems.  So, after returning, he got a physical from a family physician and got the doctor’s recommendation to see a neurologist.  The neurologist recommended a head MRI to make sure there wasn’t anything serious that was causing the headaches (which there wasn’t-Praise the Lord!).  Based off this result, the doctor began a couple of different treatments to deal with the headaches as well as getting off the Excedrine dependency.  We found out that a lot of his headaches were more than likely being caused by a “rebound effect” from the Excedrine use.

At this point, Joel is doing great!  He is off the medications that neurologist had been using as well as he has not been needing to take Excedrine on a regular basis – he’s taking it about once per week at this point.  His head doesn’t feel perfect but not having migraine-level headaches on a daily basis is a great start!  This has been a long standing prayer request that we have had and for those who have known have been praying for him and his headaches.  Thank you for your prayers and all we can say is that is great to know a good and mighty God!  What a mighty God we serve!!!

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Starting a New Chapter

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Joel & Kim

I (Kim) recently started working in mid-January as a hospitalist at a local hospital in Goshen, IN.  A hospitalist is just a fancy word for someone who admits patient’s to the hospital.  I am working in a group of 3 physicians and 2 other Nurse Practitioners.  We keep very busy, but it is going to be great experience for when we go back to Ecuador and for the clinic when it gets started, especially since the large percentage of the patients I’ll be seeing will be Spanish speakers.

However, I have gotten quite spoiled with always having Joel and Simeon around when I go to work.  In Ecuador, even when we were working and very busy, we were all together-whether traveling, being in meetings, etc.  Things are different here as I have been working a lot of night shifts and am away a lot (basically 12 hour shifts followed by 8 hours of sleeping and then only a couple of hours to see the boys).  This is new for all of us and although it is a good thing, it is not easy to see Simeon crying when I leave the house and wanting to stay in my lap so I don’t get up.  We have definitely been blessed with being able to always work together.  Please pray for us during this new chapter in our lives.  I am thankful it will not be forever, but for only a short time during our home assignment.

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The Vision continues….

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Joel & Kim

Remember back in September, we hosted a group of friends from the States that had an interest in partnering with us long-term in the project we are working on with the National Church of Ecuador of the center for at-risk children and medical clinic.  We called them The Vision Team.  We’ll the Vision continues.  We will be meeting again with these individuals and more as we discuss the process of forming a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization that will be the support agency for this project.  We are meeting all this weekend in a retreat style fashion and everyone is coming with their children.  The couples include Tim & Angie Eberhard, Scott & Sara Hallam, Kristi & Jeff Lundblad, Zach & Janae Stevens and Mary & Paul Thompson.  And us of course!  There are also included three Ecuadorians in the group, Henry & Olguita Burbano & Marcela Tapia, that were planning on participating via Skype.  Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict has arose and they will be in all weekend meetings also in Santo Domingo at the Campgrounds where there is no Internet Connection so that won’t be possible.

We ask for your prayers for this weekend.  If you would pray for each couple by name as we feel that God has brought each one of them to this place of wanting to be a part of something big that can be accomplished through the church in Ecuador.  We are all merely instruments in His hands.

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On the road again….

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Joel & Kim

The family is hitting the road again.  Tomorrow, Thursday, January 3rd we are waking up and leaving bright and early for Knoxville, TN.  We will be heading down there because Kim will be attending a Nurse Practitioner Review Course.  This is something that she has actually taken in the past right before taking her Nurse Practitioner Nursing Boards but something her work wanted her to retake before starting work.  It makes sense since she has been out of active practice for so long.  We decided to do this as a family since we needed to be further south in Indiana the following week anyways.  More about that to come.

Please pray about our travel tomorrow and our travel back to Indiana the following Monday.  Simeon and Kim have been pretty sick also so please pray for their recovery.  Thank you all for your love and support!

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