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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CLINIC EXPANSION PROJECT 2017

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Joel & Kim

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/

The pictures below show you the expansion of the clinic that was completed earlier in the year that included a new waiting area, bathrooms and an office.  The rest of the photos are of the large expansion that is underway that we talked about above for the therapy rooms and additional space for the future.

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WELCOME ANNALEA!

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Joel & Kim

We want to officially introduce to you Annalea Egging.  Although she has been here 6 months already, we have held off on the introductions because she has been studying Spanish primarily and getting settled in to life here in Ecuador.

Annalea is a Covenant first-term missionary who is and will be working with the Santiago Partnership in the area of medicine.  She has already helped in many capacities and has jumped right in with both feet.  She started last week working in the clinic alongside our physicians.  Annalea has been a Labor and Delivery nurse for 12 years and she also specializes in perinatal loss.  She has a variety of gifts that compliment us and the team here in Ecuador.

Kim and Annalea were in nursing school together at North Park University and she went to Covenant Bible college in Ecuador (2000) and was a dean of women at CBC in 2007.  She has visited Ecuador many other times and has also served in Africa before coming to serve as a missionary in Ecuador.

We are SO excited to welcome Annalea and are anticipating what God is going to do in and through her.  She is currently working in the clinic in women’s health in collaboration with our physicians.  She will also continue working with our medical caravans and will be adding more educational pieces to the clinic and community at large surrounding the clinic.  She will also be helping organize a women’s week in September in collaboration with Ecuadorian partners to serve Kichwa women holistically.

Welcome Annalea!  We’re so excited to have you!   https://www.santiagopartnership.org/about/

To learn more about Annalea and her journey in Ecuador, how to pray for her and support her, follow her at her blog:  https://annaleaswanderings.wordpress.com/

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LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Joel & Kim

I (Kim) am keenly reminded quite often how our pasts can come back around.  That is definitely a loaded comment.  Of course, the negative parts of our pasts can. We can think of them and be angry or upset or be controlled by them.  Regardless our pasts shape us for better or worse.  People also shape us and our paths cross with many people along the way.  I have been aware of that this month as we have had visitors from our past.  We haven’t seen them since our time at North Park University, almost 13 years ago.  We went to nursing school together.  They have been supporters and encouragers for quite some time.

We have seen a lot of people from our past who have supported and encouraged us from the beginning when our ideas of a clinic and home were just that, ideas, dreams, what we would say “a calling”.    Support and encouragement may seem like simple words.  We use them a lot.  But we don’t take them for granted or use them lightly.   When we first started talking about this ‘call’ or dream that we felt we were supposed to do with our lives, some people came out of the wood work to support us.  Some, l’m sure thought we were crazy, which is understandable. Some days WE think we are crazy!  But whether from our past or people we don’t even know yet, the encouragement that we receive and the support given some days is overwhelming.  We are shown so often through this encouragement that we are where we are supposed to be.  Although days are hard and yes sometimes we think we are crazy, that encouragement we receive gets us through.  The support we receive keeps us and the Santiago Partnership going.  This is the time for new beginnings with the Santiago Partnership.  The clinic is open for over a year and the home for at-risk children for 2 months.  We have many friends who are part of these new endeavors.  At the same time, as we receive visits from our previous connections (Indiana Wesleyan University, North Park University, Northwest Covenant Church, etc..), we are reminded of all our friends from the past who help make this project possible.

We are thankful for our past and we look forward to our future and the future of the project and the Santiago Partnership.

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Thank you Northwest Covenant Church!

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Joel & Kim

Our Construction Project for 2017: Expanding our Medical Clinic. We had the pleasure of hosting Northwest Covenant Church from Mt. Prospect, IL (our Home church!) and they are helping us with our clinic expansion.

The Clinic Expansion Project is our construction project for this year and it has the goal of completing an expansion 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 as well.  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 expansion previously in what we built earlier this year with the adding of the space for the bathrooms, office and expanded waiting here.  With what we have left to build for this expansion, we will need approximately another $25,000 in funding to complete the project.  What Northwest Covenant Church did during their time here will help a great deal but we will need more help.  If you could 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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Minga in OUR House

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Joel & Kim

A few weeks ago, we had a bunch of friends over for a Minga in OUR house.  Just as a reminder, “Minga” is a Kichwa word that means coming together to do something together for the greater good… similar to that of an Amish “Barn Raising.”  We are used to holding Minga’s on the building of the Home for At Risk Children as well as the construction on the Medical Clinic.  This was the first time that we ever did something like this that is “ours.”  We were just so touched by the outpouring of love and support.  There were about 20 people there in total with about 8 children additionally.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.  See the pictures below.

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