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Monday Update

29 Jun 2020

6:58 am

Got an email from the insurance company saying that because of the strict state of emergency here in Arequipa the air ambulance will only take Mary Beth on the flight. I feel I need to be with her. Can I drive separately to Lima? Will they let me out of Arequipa?

8:17 am

Mary Beth is doing better today. She feels fine and is in good spirits. But as soon as she gets upright she feels weak and wiped out. Even sitting up has its limits. Paul just escorted her from the bed to the couch downstairs. She eats her meals lying down on the couch. The cat is enjoying her condition and sits and sleeps on her much of the day!

9:10 am

MB has to have a negative COVID test before she can travel out of Arequipa because of the state of emergency. But today's a holiday. Peter and Paul Day. No labs are open that do the COVID tests, so we will have to wait until tomorrow to advance. Thankfully, Mary Beth seems to be stable.

Sunday update

28 Jun 2020

As lots of people want to know what is going on with Mary Beth's health, we will be updating this page several times a day instead of trying to update everyone personally. Thanks for praying.

This morning a got a call from the emergency evacuation insurance company at 2:10 am. They are in the UK, so that is a normal-be-awake sort of time of day for them. Yesterday, they had asked how early they could call and I told them that if they had something important to tell me to call any time. Humorously, he told me that they would be calling back later in the morning after they had more of a plan. Must have been an accidental dial.

8:38 am

The guy from the insurance company called back to say that because of the state of emergency they couldn't get a Canadian to the USA at this time. They aren't even sure they can get an air ambulance out of Arequipa. But they think they can. They found a hospital in Lima that they think can do the surgery. I asked for a phone number of the surgeon in Lima to find out directly from him if they do the type of surgery Mary Beth needs.

9:32 am

The insurance company emailed me saying that we need to get a permission to travel from the ministry of health to be able to go to Lima. We will need to get tested for COVID first.

10:10 am

Talked to CT surgeon, Dr. Homes in Lima at the Clínica Inca. He said that his colleagues do the surgery and asked me to send him a video of all of the CT scans of Mary Beth's thorax. I was surprised how well it worked to take a video of my computer screen going through the slices of the CT.

1:48 pm

I contacted a lab about getting the COVID test done. Since today is an all-day curfew and tomorrow is a holiday (Peter and Paul day), they said they can't do it until Wednesday.

1:54 pm

Tania Catacora, the director of MMI volunteered to help us find a lab that is open to do the test at the latest tomorrow. Pray she can find a functioning lab.

2:43 pm

Tania can't find any labs open today. She promised to keep searching in the morning.

3:12 pm

Mary Beth's mom found this article about another woman with a very similar experience. https://dailyjournalonline.com/news/local/local-woman-has-new-lease-on-life/article_0ae31a21-3df0-562c-bb8a-600aa724ba70.html

You can't get there from here

26 Jun 2020

As you my know, Mary Beth hasn't been feeling well for a little over a month. It all started with a migraine, and then daily headaches. We got an MRI of her head. Normal. EKGs. Some benign abnormalities. A 24-hour heart monitor (Holter). Some runs of increased heart rate, nothing definitive. Checked her vision. Close to perfect (and she still married me! Love IS blind). Orthostatic blood pressures were very abnormal however. Some rib chest pain on Monday gave me a clue to what turned out to be the diagnosis.

Mary Beth was born with a pectus excavatum abnormality, which is when the sternum goes inward and can put pressure on the heart, affecting its ability to pump blood. Growing up, while playing with classmates, she noticed that she was very short of breath after running short distances. She was diagnosed with asthma and given inhalers that didn't really help. Monday night we got a CT scan which confirmed what we suspected: Her heart is getting squished. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone in Peru who does this operation on adults. It is usually done earlier in life. There are places in the USA and Canada that do the surgery, but with the borders closed to international travel how do we get there? We have evacuation insurance with Aetna and they are currently working on getting us to North America, though we don't know if it will be tomorrow or in a week or even where we might be going! In the meantime, Mary Beth is very weak and can't stand up for more than about 30 seconds at a time. If she is lying down, she feels okay.

Her heart is squished like a jelly bean in this CT scan.

Here is Allen's CT of the Thorax. The heart isn't being compressed.

Pray that we can get her to North America soon and that the surgery is successful.

They say speed bumps cause more accidents than they prevent...

20 May 2020

Today I dropped off Mia at the church where we are packing bags of food for Venezuelan refugees and poor Peruvians and headed to Economax for what was supposed to be a quick trip to get a few things. Four blocks from my destination I thought, "There are police near the entry of Economax. Where is my permission to be out during lockdown to show them." I glanced toward the passenger seat where I thought it was and it wasn't there. BAM! I hit the car in front of me! He had slowed down for the really big speed bumps on the avenue and I hit him in the moment I had looked for my permit. Ugh! Thankfully, the driver was super nice and didn't start yelling at me. And thankfully, he wasn't hurt! I called my insurance agent who sent a claims person who arrived on a motorcycle 30 minutes later. By then, the other driver and I decided it would be easiest for me to just give him $200 (he only asked for $170) and go on our ways and not spend the day filling out forms in the police station.

This is a picture of the car I hit. Give thanks that no one was hurt. Our SUV has a barely crooked front bumper now.

update 27JUN2020: Paul and I were out for a run (running errands) and we saw this car again near where I hit it. It was fixed and looking good as new!

Packin' Papas

05 May 2020

'Papa' is the word for potato in Spanish. It's also the word for 'Pope' which has made for some pretty hilarious menu translations in some restaurants. (e.g. 'baked pope'!) Right now potatoes are cheap. This week our emergency relief project bought 3 tons of potatoes for 3.34¢ (USD) per pound! (CAD 10.33¢/kg) Our job today was to divide them into plastic bags of 3kg each (6.6 pounds) to give to hungry families this week.

Mia and Mary Beth stand in the midst of our task. Each sack of potatoes weighs about 220 pounds (100kg).

If you want to help feed hungry Venezuelan refugees and poor Peruvians please consider donating here.

Can we do 700 bags this week?

01 May 2020

“Can we do 700 bags this week?” was the question posed last Monday to the team of workers responsible for packing food bags. We had done about 600 the previous week, so what was 100 more? God has been gracious in providing the funds and faithful workers to serve in this ministry.

An obstacle we have faced is finding enough food and getting it to the place where bags are packed. Our vehicles were packed to capacity carrying food for just 300 bags. It was also getting increasingly difficult to find enough food without spending hours driving around to different places, avoiding roads that had been blocked off, explaining our work to police who regularly stopped us, and finding that stores that had been open previously, were now closed.

A colleague runs a Breakfast Program which delivers food to churches to provide breakfasts for children in need. He recommended his delivery person, and we made contact with her. She now weekly delivers some of the food we need. This has been a great help.

Another concern was preventing “burn-out” for those who were working long hours every day packing and delivering. The work was divided into morning and afternoon “shifts” so people could have a break. The Lord was also faithful in providing new people to pack, so that the same people didn’t have to come every day. Some regular workers had to take days off because of illness or injury, but we were still able to get the required number of bags packed.

A quick update on a previous blog —- Oriana’s baby boy recovered from his fever with the medication we were able to provide, and her niece who was covered with a rash also improved within one day after receiving medicated cream. She is also now fully recovered. Thanks to all who prayed!

We are in the process of making this an official project of SIM which people can donate directly to. We don’t know how long the quarantine will last, or for how long people will need this service. God knows, though, and our prayer is that God will provide the funds for as long as this project is needed. Please join us in prayer. In a future blog we will give information on donating directly to the project. Another way to help with similar needs around the world is to donate to SIM’s emergency fund.

Food for Refugees

22 Apr 2020

For over a month, Peru has shut down all but essential businesses to try to contain the corona virus. If you have money saved up you can survive easily enough. You can order food delivered to your door and go to the banks and pharmacies still. But if you are a refugee from Venezuela (there are an estimated 800,000 in Peru alone), life is much harder. You probably don't have any money saved up. Your job as a waitress in a restaurant is gone. You probably don't have a home and the landlord of the tiny apartment you are living in is probably threatening to kick you out for not paying your rent. Even begging on the street is hard as few people are out and foreigners (even us from North America) are held somewhat suspect during crises like this.

Because of this, SIM Peru has been delivering bags of food to Venezuelan refugees here. Today Mia, Mary Beth and I helped prepare 289 bags of rice, potatoes, spaghetti, tuna, evaporated milk, lentils, sugar, beans and a Gospel tract that others will take out to people on Friday and Saturday.

If you are interested in helping out with relief efforts like this, you can donate through this website. If you are in Peru and would like to help, contact me and I will give you bank information.

Please pray for me

17 Apr 2020

“Please pray for me. Pray for my children and my family.” This request came from Oriana, a woman we are helping through our Venzuelan Refugee Project. Oriana came to Peru as part of a group of 5 families who belonged to the same church in Venezuela. She has a 5-month old baby boy who was suffering from fever, and an online doctor had advised antibiotics. (Antibiotics are sadly very over-prescribed here.) She was asking for help in buying the antibiotics. I had her talk to a colleague who is also a doctor, and he advised her to simply treat the fever with fever medication instead of using such strong medicine. We provided the medication for her, and her son is now doing much better.

Oriana lives with her sister and brother-in-law, who also escaped from Venezuela. Her 3-year-old niece has become covered with an unidentified itchy rash. In these times, the only way non-emergency cases like this may be treated is by phone and photos. So we showed photos of the child’s condition to the pharmacist (who often double as doctors here) and she recommended Vaseline and another medicated cream to put on at night. Please pray for healing for this child.

Oriana’s family is only one of many, many needy Venezuelan families here in Arequipa. As you can see, food is not the only need they have. Please pray for our project, as we seek to help these families with their critical needs. Pray for wisdom, guidance, and provision.

We currently have the funds to continue this project for only one more week. The quarantine is currently until April 26th, and may be extended. If you would like to donate to our project, please see the information below.

How can we increase our capacity?

17 Apr 2020

What started as a project to help feed 150 families through this critical time has exploded. This week, we’re delivering these care packages to almost 500 families and we’re looking at ways we can continue to expand to meet the need. Estimates are that there are over 12,000 Venezuelan refugees in our city.

Here’s an example of what we put into one package to give to each family. It costs us roughly USD12 to help feed a family for a week.

Our big challenge now is how can we increase our capacity. In the last week we’ve become more efficient in buying food and packing it but there’s a limit to how much more efficient we can become. We can’t expand our team or bring in volunteers because the government has put in place strict restrictions about who can work. These are generally a good thing because it forces people to stay at home but this is unfortunate for us.

A large group of Venezuelans wait for their package. The police are here too ensuring that people keep a distance from each other.

We’re also spending more than we expected. We’ve opened the project to let Peruvians give financially or donate food and we already received a few generous gifts. If you’d like to support a family you can give through the SIM International Relief Fund:

SIM US website

SIM Australia website

A gift of $24 will help 2 families with food for a week. $240 will help 20 families.

Please pray for wisdom in how we use our time and resources. Please pray that we can make an impact greater than simply feeding people. Pray that we can show love to the people that we serve with food.

We needed a Miracle

06 Apr 2020

We started Saturday needing a miracle. We had coordinated with a two groups of Venezuelans to deliver food bags to them that afternoon. The second group was quite large, and we feared we wouldn’t have quite enough bags. Matthias read the story of the feeding of the 5,000 from the Bible, and we prayed that God would once again provide so that these hungry people could be fed.

A team of 8 people spent the morning packaging the different food items and making bags; they came to 85. The bags were then packed into two waiting vehicles.

We visited the first group of 11 families, all living in the same hostel. After giving them their food bags, we talked with them about the Lord. They all seemed to be believers. One lady asked me for prayer for a family member who was hospitalized in Bolivia. What must it be like to have family members scattered among different countries at a time like this? We had a time of prayer in the group, then we bid them farewell and went to where we were to meet with the second group.

They were waiting for us in the street. There were also police waiting, because there was a crowd. Matthias went to talk with the police to explain to them what we were doing. We encouraged the people to maintain several feet of distance between them as they formed a line. This group was rather organized and had composed a list of the people who were coming — according to the list, we were going to run out. We started handing out the food bags, and the last one went to the last person in line. We had exactly enough! God is truly our Provider!

Please pray that God will continue to provide, and give us wisdom and strength as we seek to minister to these people in this time of crisis.

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