We just wanted to update everyone that Joel will be traveling to Santo Domingo again this week from Monday through Wednesday. He is going for more meetings over the agua potable (“clean water”) project. Please pray for safe travel and successful meetings.
In Santo Domingo
Categories: Ministry, Prayer Requests, Santo Domingo, Travel, Updates
Tags: Agua Potable, Ecuador, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Santo Domingo, Travel, Trips, Updates
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Preaching – Prayer Request
I (Joel) just wanted to write and ask for prayer for this Sunday and the next. I will be preaching for the first time in Spanish… well, ok… technically, I will be reading my first sermon in Spanish. I have the sermon series prepared and have it all translated and since my Spanish isn’t good enough just yet to speak freely, I will be using a script to preach in Spanish.
I will be doing a two week sermon series examining the early name for the Covenanters: Mission Friends. The first week I’ll focus on the word “friends” and what that meant to the early Covenanters and then the second week will be “mission”. I am hoping to be able to provide a little history on the Covenant as well as providing a picture as what the church should look like today.
I’d very much appreciate your prayers as, even though I’m just reading, I have a lot of nerves about speaking/preaching in Spanish for so long. It’s defintely a stretch!!!
Categories: Prayer Requests, Updates
Tags: Churches, IPEE, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Preaching, Updates
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Our book selection for this month (hopefully it will only take a month to read!)
This is a book that Joel and I just started reading. We will be blogging about what we are learning and hopefully inspire and encourage you to read this book as well.
OFFICIAL
Well, I (Kim) can say OFFICIALLY that I can drive in Ecuador. I got my license on Friday. It was such a huge relief off my shoulders. I was very nervous about taking the test only in Spanish, even though it was only 20 questions. Things are totally different here when it comes to government offices such as the ‘license bureau’ here. There was a line of probably 50-100 people, but since we had Simeon, we were able to jump ahead of all of those people and jump right in to registration. After registration, I took the test (and got 100%). Then they take your picture, another place where I jumped ahead of about 10 people because of Simeon and then we were out the door. 1 hour MAX and then a celebration mint chocolate shake from Baskin Robbins! YUMMO!
Tags: Ecuador
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March Newsletter Released
Newsletter_March_2011
Our March newsletter is available for download (Just click the link above!). You can see what all has been happening with us since our last official update in December. Also, please note the address for Covenant World Mission has changed. If you are sending checks, please send them to:
Covenant World Mission
Joel & Kim Delp STM Support
8303 W. Higgins Rd.
Chicago, IL 60631-2941
Categories: Ministry, Updates
Tags: Answered prayers, Blog, Ecuador, FACE, IPEE, Language Study, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Spanish Lessons, Travel, Trips, Updates
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New Roles with IPEE
We just recently realized that we have never posted on the Blog what specific roles we have at this point. Here is our list of responsibilities that we currently participate in: Joel is in a project manager role at the Covenant Camp in Santo Domingo, Kim will be doing disability diagnostic work in Tena (more information on this to come), we share a position on the FACE (the Social outreach branch) board of IPEE, Joel has a position on the committee in charge of the Camp, Joel serves as the treasurer for the Mission (all the U.S. missionaries) , we attend and help out at three different Covenant churches and Spanish classes (of course!)
Categories: Ministry, Santo Domingo, Updates
Tags: Churches, Ecuador, Ecuador Info, FACE, IPEE, Language Study, Santo Domingo, Spanish Lessons, Travel, Updates
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Agua Potable
Rueben (left), Edgar (right) and two ladies from the nearby community during our meeting
The family and I (Joel) just got back from a trip to the camp in Santo Domingo. Thank you for your prayers for safe travel. All went well in that regard. With this trip, I was doing some work for the camp, mainly in visiting some other camps in the area as well as some eco-lodges to get an idea as to what they are doing well to attract customers and utilize their facilities.
But another major reason for this trip was that I was to be part of a meeting over “agua potable” for the camp and a nearby community called Santa Marianita de Jesus. So what is “agua potable”? Well, it basically translates as “clean water” or we usually say drinkable water. Currently, the community of Santa Marianita de Jesus (around 300 people), the Covenant Camp, as well as 30 or so neighbors that live nearby but not in a specific community all do not have drinkable water. The camp has a well and a few of the families in the community have wells but even this water needs to be boiled before it can be consumed. The only real primary source of water there is in the community is a river that runs through it. Unfortunately, this water is not consumable but, as you would probably guess, people get thirsty and drink it anyway. This then leads, of course, to sickness and even more problems.
Well, one of the new roles that Kim and I have taken on is to serve on the Board of Directors of FACE. FACE stands for “Fundacion Accion Comunal Ecuatoriana” or in English the Community Development Foundation for the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador. We will be sharing one position but will probably both be attending the meetings. An example of what FACE does is shown in my recent trip to Pacto Sumaco (see “Pacto Sumaco” post below). Something else they do is help in bringing basic resources, like clean water, to communities that don’t have it.
The community of Santa Marianita de Jesus has been wanting clean water for some time, as you might expect. They’ve just been lacking the ability to organize themselves and follow the steps needed to request such a thing. Then after this is done, the government will have the power to decide what will be done. It can easily be denied for lack of funds or other such reasons.
The meeting that we had this last Friday night involved myself, Rueben, the Covenant Camp administrator, two ladies from the community, and Edgar, the current president of FACE who is also a local church pastor in Quito. Edgar will soon be leaving his position as president, so it’s good that I could be there to help with the continuity of the project with the next leadership. Also, it fits as I am so heavily involved in the work of the Camp. As you would guess, this will be a great help for the Covenant Camp to have clean water as a part of what it offers to its customers.
Categories: Ministry, Santo Domingo, Sumaco, Travel, Updates
Tags: Agua Potable, Churches, Ecuador Info, FACE, IPEE, Prayer Requests, Santo Domingo, Sumaco, Travel, Trips, Updates
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In Santo Domingo
Joel traveled to Santo Domingo yesterday and will be there through Saturday. He arrived yesterday safely with no problems. This is a trip that got rescheduled from last weekend since the country was in a State-of-Emergency caused by the waves of the Japan tsunami that were coming. Please pray that he will return home safely and that his trip will be productive and successful.
Categories: Ministry, Prayer Requests, Santo Domingo, Travel, Updates
Tags: Answered prayers, Ecuador, Ecuador Info, IPEE, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Santo Domingo, Travel, Trips, Updates
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Pacto Sumaco
I (Joel) had the wonderful opportunity to visit the jungle town of Pacto Sumaco this last Sunday. Pacto Sumaco is a community that began or at least transitioned because of natural disaster. There was a earthquake in 1985 that caused a landslide that destroyed a community of Indigenous folks in the area of El Chaco. Since the town was destroyed, the government went about giving them new land to start up again. This is when they transitioned to the area near the volcano named Sumaco. Unfortunately, the government didn’t give them much of anything else. This is where the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador (IPEE) stepped in and really helped them out. The went about assisting with building a well for clean water, helping set up the government, and eventually helping bring electricity. They helped the community out so much that the eventually renamed themselves Pacto Sumaco, the “Pacto” meaning Covenant as in Evangelical Covenant church. Pretty cool, eh?
Right now, IPEE is helping them out with suggesting new ways to farm. It is basically a farming community which for the most part produces Naranilla, which is a small orange like fruit. The problem with farming Naranilla is that it only has a two to three year life cycle before it destroys the earth that is producing it. IPEE is recommending that they do two things. Switch their primary crop to one that is more long term sustainable, as well as trying to show them that personal gardening is possible. Because of their poverty and lack of variety in crops they produce, their nutrition is very poor. If each farm would create a personal garden with a variety of produce, their level of nutrition would be significantly increased.
You can see pictures below of Sumaco as well as a picture of the personal garden that IPEE has created to demonstrate to the other farmers.
Fellow missionary Chris and a giant leaf in the rainforest in Pacto Sumaco
The garden that IPEE has setup in Sumaco to show the other farmers.
State-of-Emergency Lifted
The State-Of-Emergency was lifted today for Ecuador. We had been under a State-Of-Emergency while we were preparing for the waves from the Japan tsunami to hit the Pacific Coast. Over 200,000 people from the coastal areas of the country had been moved further inland to prepare for the worst. Thankfully very little damage was done and there were no casaulties to report. You can read about it here:
Minor Damage in Latin America
Please join us in pray for the country of Japan as it is dealing with the terrible devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Thankfully none of the Covenant Missionaries were affected by the natural disasters.
The Santiago Partnership