Living with Scars
A lot of us live with scars. Some of the scars are obvious, outward scars. Some are a little more hidden, and some of us carry scars that no one else knows about.
This year I have done a lot of speaking with my family during our one year ministry assignment. It is a time where we visit supporting churches or individuals, check in with them and let them know what is happening with the work in Ecuador. Because I knew I would be in churches, I felt it very important to talk about my obvious scar on my face. Not because I felt I had to explain the scar, but because I felt if I had a platform, then I needed to use that platform to speak truth, healing and honestly, the power of God that I have witnessed in my life. It isn’t because I am special or chosen or really anything. It is just simply that God healed me and being witness to that, I feel like other people need to know it.
The parallel to that is that I am also carrying my own hidden scars of these past couple of years. Deep grief and hurt that I have carried as part of this hard time of ministry. I have been honest, maybe not in specifics with every person I meet, by I have been honest that ministry has been hard. I don’t think that is a form of weakness, but I think it is true form of honesty that people need to hear. It’s hard to share both of these truths, but I think there is something about being vulnerable in what we share that allows people space to not only share their own stories and their own scars, but it also allows them to see that God is big enough to carry them. There is something healing about sharing stories and sharing scars because we all have them, we all carry them. When we share those scars, others feel a place where they can share them too. Sometimes that is hard, sometimes its healing, sometimes it leads to miracles, sometimes it leads to brokenness of relationships for healing to happen.
So, April 1st is the one-year anniversary of my cancer surgery. I have somehow earned more scars this last year with other possible cancer on the skin. Praise the Lord it has not been. But in the last year I have learned that I am not ashamed to carry my scars. My scars tell a story, my story. It is one of healing and miracles and I think we need more stories told of how God heals! It isn’t something that happened centuries ago, it still happens and there is power in calling on the “Lord of Hosts”, Jehovah Sabaoth to fight our battles for us when we can’t fight for ourselves. There is healing in telling people they too can call on this same Lord. He isn’t a distant, far-away God. He is a close, present God that catches our tears and sits with us and mourns with us.
So, I carry and live with my scars because my story is important to share and yours are too!
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Medical Caravan to the Jungle
During the first week of March, Kim was able to travel to Ecuador with 2 other Nurse Practitioners from Chicago to gather with women from Ecuador and Finland to partner in the Ecuadorian jungle. We traveled to the area of Puka Peña which you can see by the map photos is right next to a river. We traveled 8 hours from Cayambe in a car and then 1.5 hours in canoe. Puka Peña has 150-200 people living in this area, their houses tucked within the jungle trees. The majority of the people spend their time working the land.
This community lives far from society, with no internet, no electricity, no easy access to the outside world. For some, it was a 3-hour trek to get to the medical caravan.
In total about 245 patients were seen by our medical team, 33 by dental hygiene. Many of the women brought their families to be seen as well. Teeth cleanings, filling cavities, and needed extractions were available as well. Workshops were held on the cycle of violence and how violence affects women. Menstrual workshops provided education about menstruation and reproduction. Kits with feminine items were given to women and families.
On the last day of the caravan, the team served another community of the Secoya people made up of 50 families. They speak their own language, completely different from Spanish. They are renowned for their knowledge of medicinal plants, with traditional uses for over 1,000 different plants. The Secoya now number around 600 people in Ecuador.
We are so grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve together in various capacities in partnership, creating spaces together to learn, grow and care in different ways. We look forward to continued partnership and learning together with women leading the way!
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Changes on the Horizon-From Kim
It has been wonderful to spend time with many of you as we have been on Ministry Assignment this year in the U.S. We enjoyed being around tables, drinking coffee and eating good food, sharing life together. We have appreciated honesty and openness in being able to share that these last couple of years have been difficult for us in ministry as a family and that moving to the U.S. has been a challenge. We have so appreciated safe spaces to be prayed for and welcomed in with open arms. We have felt care from in our home church in Joliet, IL, Church of the Good Shepard, that has lived out radical hospitality for our family.
When planning the transition back to the U.S., we had, in true Delp fashion, created a plan of how that might look and how we could as a family, as a couple and as missionaries make the transition tolerable. Doing so, we knew that I would likely have to work at some point as a Nurse Practitioner and our plan was for that to happen after our Ministry Assignment had ended in June of 2025. In true missionary fashion, we have had to be flexible, which is always the first thing we tell teams in Ecuador that they need to do. As we moved to the U.S., we soon realized that I would need to get a job sooner because, as most of you know, it is not cheap to live in the U.S. In November, I took at job as a Nurse Practitioner at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago. The reason for this is because the financial strains of our family were greater than what we could handle on missionary salaries. Because of taking full time employment at Lawndale, I was given two options by Serve Globally, both of which included resigning as Global Personnel as I am not able to have a full-time job outside of Serve Globally. As of April 1, 2025, I will no longer be a Serve Globally employee.
Although I write that with heaviness and grief, there is hope in knowing that I continue to be a missionary. The ministry God created in Ecuador doesn’t change and my commitment to all that God is doing doesn’t change. Earlier this month, I returned from a Women’s Caravan in the jungle with Ecuadorian Covenant Women ministries ladies, caring for families holistically and sharing the love and care of Jesus. We plan to return in July to partner with a Covenant team from CT. So, friends, although my time officially with Serve Globally is done, the ministry in Ecuador remains and I will continue serving in the ways I always have. I plan to continue to serve, mainly through Medical Caravans and a medical liaison from the U.S. to Ecuador from now and into the future.
For those supporting churches of ours in the days to come, you will receive information from Serve Globally leadership about these changes. I encourage you that if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us and ask any questions you may have. We won’t be offended or upset by that, but we know that this is a big change that seems sudden, so questions will likely occur.
Love to all,
Kim
Categories: Clinic, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment
Tags: Ministry Assignment, Updates, Women's Caravans
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Simeon’s Words of Gratitude
We are just so, so incredibly thankful for the wonderful love and support shown to Simeon with his birthday and his knee surgery that fell on his birthday. The knee injury was a big blow to his spirits and receiving such beautiful encouragement really meant the world to him.
Simeon received somewhere around 80 cards, letters and gifts from all over the U.S. and Canada as well as he received a gift and encouraging messages from friends in Ecuador in the project as well as from his friends in school. He received books from people that were sent to encourage him, one from a former professional soccer player who had to overcome the same acl injury in order to pursue his goal of playing professional soccer. Additionally, Simeon received words of encouragement through video messages sent from Ecuadorian professional soccer players, the kind of guys he has looked up to his whole life. And really that’s not even covering half of what all he received as he got so many gifts from Canada and all over the U.S. and so many heartfelt and timely letters and cards to encourage Simeon in his journey.
Being his parents with great love for our son going through a difficult time, you couldn’t have made us any more encouraged through your encouragement for Simeon. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We love you all!
And to provide an update: Simeon is doing well after his surgery. Every day there is a little less pain and a little more mobility, so things seem to be going well. He participates in Physical Therapy twice a week and does home exercises to strengthen his leg. He is taking less and less pain medicine so it will be good once we can wean him off that. His spirits have somewhat gotten better as his pain has decreased and mobility has increased, but we continue to ask for your prayers for that and his continued recovery.
Categories: Family Fun, Home, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment, Prayer Requests, Reflections, Simeon, Updates
Tags: Answered prayers, Blog, Family Fun, Home, Home Assignment, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Reflections, Simeon, Updates
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Upcoming Church Visits – Come and See us!
Please check out our calendar of many upcoming church visits. Please come and see us! We’d love to see you!
End of Year of Updates
Happy New Year!
As we close out 2024 as a family here in Romeoville, we are just filled with such a deep sense of peace and gratitude for so many blessings in 2024. Whether it be a joy filled sense of gratitude for our amazing staff in Cayambe, all of the support from family and friends in our transition from Ecuador and to the States or all of the wonderful new begginings with our lives here in the U.S, we just know God has been the center of it all and so we give Him all the praise, glory and honor! We especially thank Him for healing Kim from skin cancer earlier this year.
Additionally, we just want to give you all a big THANK YOU because you have been an instrument of God and his goodness toward us. Thank you for all of your support, care and love in 2024! We can’t thank you enough!!
Here is our end-of-year newsletter in case you hadn’t seen it yet:
Delp Family Christmas Newsletter 2024
We also recorded this video update around Thanksgiving time:
Here is where you can learn about and give to the Santiago Partnership’s end-of-year campaign: 10 Years of Impact
And as always, you can also give to support the Delp Family and our ministry through the Evangelical Covenant church: Our Support
Thank you so much for who you are what you all you have done in 2024!
Bendiciones,
Joel, Kim, Simeon, Esther and Manchas Delp
Categories: Cayambe, Ephraim, Esther, Family Fun, Home Assignment, Ministry, Ministry Assignment, Simeon, Travel, Updates
Tags: 501c3, Cayambe, Ecuador Info, Family Fun, Friends, Home Assignment, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Reflections, The Santiago Partnership, Travel, Trips, Updates
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Broken AND…
Gather your broken pieces, every single one, and drop them at the feet of the only One that can piece you back together. And when you are WHOLE in Him, don’t you dare hide those parts of you that speak of His glory the loudest. May we always be those that tell our whole story to see Jesus wholly woven within it. –Bekah Blankenship, 2016
As I have thought over the last month about a title, since I started writing this blog post, I knew that the word “broken” would be in it. However, I couldn’t figure out another word to add with it. The main reason being because, the words that can come after “broken AND” can be very different each day. Some days it could be “broken and angry”, some days “broken and beautiful” or “frustrated” or “overwhelmed.” There are a large number of combinations, but none seemed to fit. So, I went with AND. Because the broken can always be coupled with a different word, but the word changes. That is OK. It doesn’t always have to be wrapped up and nice because life isn’t always that way.
It’s interesting doing an international move. Maybe interesting isn’t the exact right word, exhausting, overwhelming, full, busy are maybe just a few that describe it better than “interesting.” I suppose there isn’t one word that wraps it all up perfectly to explain to those who haven’t done it. I’m not trying to be melo-dramatic or oversell it. I’m just trying to give glimpses in to our view of a big international transition.
As we started unpacking bags today (over a month ago now), I was surprised to see the things that were broken. Things we had worked meticulously to protect. Some things we knew were extra fragile or items that had special, significant meaning, thess things we protect. But some things we don’t think about being quite as meticulous about. We wrap it in a blanket, but it isn’t sufficient protection and we open up the suitcase and it is full of glass. Some things are only half-broken. The glass of the picture frame is broken, but the photo is intact, for example. Or the wood part of a painting is scratched, but the significant part is fine. Maybe a book is torn, but the pages and words, although worn, still read the same. The significance of the items haven’t changed, in fact, they may hold even more significance because they have traveled with us through hard transitions, but they still remain.
But sometimes things are best left in the suitcases. Yes, it is true. When you open the bags, you reveal the mess inside. What has been hidden for a few months after being packed up, sometimes packed rapidly and carelessly, sometimes packed meticulously is now being revealed. Usually when things are being packed, there is the element of not knowing exactly where or when or how it will be opened up. That can be translated to life too! Life that seemed known, stable and easy now carries more things undone, more life not in a specific place. A house that may have looked put together now is a disaster and messy. Leaving it in the suitcase means that at least it is contained somewhere and sometimes leaving it contained in a different space is easier than trying to clean it all up in that moment.
In transition, and in life in general, sometimes, well, really, almost all the time, it is easier to leave our broken things, our messy situations, our hurts and our grief in one place. A place where it is contained in its messiness and a place we don’t always have to deal with. But it starts escaping sometimes in to other places that are not contained. It can come out in anger or sadness, a lot of times at the worst times. But I was reminded earlier of the quote above that our brokenness was never meant to be carried by us. Our broken things and our weaknesses can be laid at the feet of the one who can carry it and has been carrying it all along. Because our stories don’t end in our broken things. Our broken things point to the healer of our brokenness. Our scars and wounds point to the one who can heal them and turn them in to something that doesn’t just speak brokenness, but speaks life and healing.
As I held the broken pieces of pictures and Christmas ornaments and special mugs, I realized that some were worth salvaging, but some things needed to be thrown away. It was OK to let them go and it was a good representation to me that some grief I am currently dealing with in leaving stability and things that are known can be traded for the unknown written story that God has me in. The broken pieces are OK because they are all part of a bigger story and picture that God Himself is writing.
Categories: Ephraim, Esther, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment, Reflections
Tags: Blog, Grief, Ministry, Reflections
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Living amidst the Unpacked Suitcases
Transition feels a lot like grief sometimes. Maybe it is because, at least in my experience in transitions, grief holds a lot of space. Transition is not a one-size-fits-all experience. Each person feels it and lives it differently than another. There are probably different parts of transitions, just like there are parts or steps of grief, but no one person experiences it exactly the same way. There isn’t a number of days I can give you that says, THIS DAY I will feel like this life feels like normal again. It can’t. As much as we would like it to just go back to how it used to be, it won’t.
The kids have asked us at different times when life will feel like it did in Ecuador. I wish I had a good answer for that. But, the hard and real answer is that it won’t. Our idea and maybe even ideal of what life looked like previously in Ecuador changes. The expectations of how we imagined our transition to life here in the U.S. is way different and honestly, it doesn’t feel normal. That doesn’t equal bad, it just equals different. There are some days we are glad we don’t have to schedule our lives around pico y placa (the day of the week in Ecuador when we can’t drive at rush hour). There are days when it is 95 degrees in the shade and we just miss our breezy, beautiful “eternal Spring” weather at 10,000 feet in Ecuador. There have been days I miss walking a few steps to the nearest “tienda” on the corner when I run out of eggs or flour instead of having to get in the car and go to a big, overwhelming, full-of-people store to get one thing (that turns in to 15)! And there are days I am grateful that I can order all my groceries online and have someone deliver them to my house 3 hours later. I am not really fond of the part of transition I am in. However, we are together. We live with the boxes and unpacked suitcases. We live through this new part of transition together. With all of its hard and good. With struggles to find friends to sit with at lunch and joys of pool dates with new friends. The joys of speaking Spanish with all the soccer parents, but missing the huge cheering section of cheering for our kids in Ecuador! We are grateful that home doesn’t mean a building or a structure. It includes people and it includes the presence of God. A presence that is bigger than our situation and that is our constant normal even when we feel like nothing around us is normal at all. Home is when we are in the presence of the true living God. The same God of Moses and Mary. It isn’t to make light or trivialize what we are living. It is a comfort knowing that God cares enough about our situation to live with us in it.
We may be in an interesting time of transition, but our dog Manchas, has found this new place to feel pretty homey. Trading in plastic laundry baskets for comfy woven ones with the socks that have no matches!
Categories: Family Fun, Home, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment, Prayer Requests, Reflections
Tags: Blog, Home, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment, Reflections
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Do you want to connect?
This is our time to connect with you. We are beginning our 1-year of Ministry Assignmment (formerly known as Home Assignment) where we connect with our supporters and our supporting churches. We have had a busy transition since landing in Chicago on June 20th and are still in the midst of this transition. During the month of September, our goal is to begin setting up our visits to our supporting churches as well as wtih those supporters who would like to connect with us.
We would like to connect with you! We have created two forms for you to fill out whether you are a supporting church or are an individual/family supporter or a small group. Or even if you aren’t a supporter and would like to connect, we would love to meet with you. Please take a few minutes to fill out one of these forms to help us make it the best possible visit that we can.
If you are a supporting church, please click here: Church Sign Up Form
Or if you are an individual or family supporter or a small group (or would just like to setup a time to visit with us), please click here: Individual Sign Up Form
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at any time. You can email us at joel-kim.delp (at) covchurch.org or if you would like to setup a phone call, just email us your phone number and we will give you a call.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO CONNECTING WITH YOU THIS YEAR!!!
Categories: Family Fun, Home, Home Assignment, Ministry, Ministry Assignment, Travel, Updates
Tags: Evangelical Covenant Church, Family Fun, Home Assignment, Ministry Assignment, Travel, Trips, Updates
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The Santiago Partnership