{"id":9725,"date":"2026-03-31T12:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=9725"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:44:18","slug":"joel-in-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=9725","title":{"rendered":"Joel in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am writing to you here today on March 31st<\/sup> after arriving back from Ecuador early this morning at 2 a.m.\u00a0 I just got a little bit of sleep, but I wanted to write to you here while things were fresh on my brain and the excitement from the past few days has me ready to share with you in what I experienced.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was only in Ecuador for 3.5 days, but it was quick, yet productive time there.\u00a0 I traveled down to be a part of the Evangelical Covenant Church\u2019s (IPEE) 2026 Annual Meeting (called Asamblea in Spanish) at the Covenant Campgrounds in Santo Domingo, Ecuador.\u00a0 If the name sounds familiar and you have been following the Delp family along for a while, you may remember that I (Joel) served as a Camp Manager for a couple of years during our first term as missionaries from 2010 through 2012.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was so wonderful to be back at the campgrounds at such a familiar and beloved place for us as a family and for all the sisters and brothers who are a part of the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination in Ecuador.\u00a0 I got to see our good friends, Ruben and Amparo Rocha, who have been serving the campgrounds for over 20 years now.\u00a0 Additionally, I got to see and reconnect with so many Covenant sisters and brothers in Christ from all over Ecuador, many whom I hadn\u2019t seen nor talked to for quite a few years.\u00a0 One of the first impressions that I had as I was arriving and greeting so many friends is that the church is made up of so many of the same faithful folks who show up every year to be a part of our national gathering.\u00a0 I was so reminded of how we are family of faith in that we remain faithful to God, his Word and each other and we work to pass this faith onto the next generation.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was invited to participate in the Annual Meeting at the request of Santiago Guaman, the President of FACE, as well as Pastor Christian Sani, the President of the denomination to support FACE in their presentation of the annual report at Annual Meeting.\u00a0 We engaged in meetings for three days and discussed and decided upon many delicate and difficult topics.\u00a0 Each problem or difficulty was met, discussed and decided upon with a course of action without much discord nor bickering, a fact that isn\u2019t always the case at this meeting.\u00a0 In the end, I have never been a part of an Asamblea so well run and efficient.\u00a0 We actually finished early, something I had never experienced before with all of the Annual Meetings that I had been a part of in the past.\u00a0 There were many difficult decisions made but, in the end, resolutions were agreed upon with a sense of unity and purpose.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was invited to speak after Santiago delivered his Annual Report and fielded some questions from the those attending.\u00a0 I explained that from my viewpoint, the ministry in Cayambe and Ibarra being carried out through FACE was doing well and is a blessing for many people.\u00a0 I shared how there is much respect for the ministries by those in the ECC, Serve Globally and the Santiago Partnership.\u00a0 I shared how in my role as the Executive Director of the Santiago Partnership, that we were engaged in significant steps to ensure the integrity and accountability of the financial processes and ministries to ensure that donations were being used correctly, but that we do this with a lot of love and in partnership as we are in it together.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

In addition to the decisions of the national church and the reporting that took place, we also engaged in activities of graduating seminary students, ordaining pastors and receiving communion together.\u00a0 The morning and nights were filled with passionate worship services and the confident sharing of the word.\u00a0 Finally, new leadership of the denomination were voted on and empowered to serve.\u00a0 President Sani was elected to a new two-year term and new leadership councils and presidents of conferences were elected and charged to their work.<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

After making the short but curvy trip to Santo Domingo in a rental car, I quickly flew back home as our kids are on Spring Break this week and we have some fun, family activities planned.\u00a0 I step away from Ecuador and write to you now feeling encouraged and excited by the Covenant Church of Ecuador and its future as we continue to minister together in the gospel.<\/h2>\n

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Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am writing to you here today on March 31st after arriving back from Ecuador early this morning at 2 a.m.\u00a0 I just got a little bit of sleep, but I wanted to write to you here while things were fresh on my brain and the excitement from the past few days has me ready … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,508,10,72],"tags":[24664,186,171,4055,154,115,24649,18825,24648,178,24651],"class_list":["post-9725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry","category-santo-domingo","category-travel","category-updates","tag-cayambe","tag-ecuador-info","tag-evangelical-covenant-church","tag-face","tag-friends","tag-ipee","tag-ministry","tag-the-santiago-partnership","tag-travel","tag-trips","tag-updates"],"yoast_head":"\nJoel in Ecuador - Delplog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/delp\/?p=9725\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joel in Ecuador - 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