Diospi Suyana---Peru: 2016

In our Monday night woman's group we started an oil painting project. We always end with a devotional message but their was the hardest project to get them to stop and take a break! The women thoroughly enjoyed both painting and our study of how to be a woman of excellence.

When the women had finished their projects we envied them, their friend and their family to the church one night. They were able to share their art work, with finger food and then David shared a short message. It was good because some of the women sell produce in the Sunday market and otherwise never are part of a church family.

Hipolita.

Wilma. Katerina's aunt.

Ruth.

"I am the vine and you are the branches" by Deisy

Katerina (Who has now invited her mom and several aunts)

Pokemon--by Igor (one of David's students and Ruth's son)

A thank you painting for Klaus and Martina. It says "Well done, good and faithful servent. -Jesus" in German.

Mi primera pintura, gracias a mi esposa.

My (David's) first oil painting, thanks to my wife (who taught me how to paint).

Discipleship---Teaching to fish
We just finished the first part of a four part series---what it means to be a disciple of Christ and the spiritual disciplines.
The book teaches around a diagram that can be easily explained to others. These photos are me showing them how to explain the whole diagram and then several of them practicing. The "final exam was to come....

Below: Xiomara explaining the Cross of the Disciple

Above: Eddie with the neck pillow on his head. :)
Below: Andrea presenting the cross of the Disciple.

Be Courageous!
In Sunday school we are covering a series of the prophets titled "Be Courageous." So one Sunday David, a couple helpers and I took the kids on a hike up a mountain that looks over Curahuasi. We formed four teams. Along the way each teach had to complete several challenges, including: making a pyramid and carrying their team leader.

The cow found the mandrine oranges the kids had left unattended.

And then came the "final exam" for the discipleship group. In pairs of two and three, they divided the sunday school group into 3 groups and each pair presented the Cross of the Disciple to their peers.

Baby Shower
The word for "baby shower" in Spanish is "baby shower." :) Their's lots of borrowed phrases in Spanish because they borrow cultural customs from us.
A couple in our church, Genovea and David, are soon to have their first child. It's fun to see the similaries and differences in what they do. David and I were in charge of the the food and opened up our home. Karla (from Bolvia) and Damaris (from Lima, Peru) where incharge of the games.

Left: Maria Pilar and Eddie. Right: Versus Damaris and Miqui (left of photo on the left). Eddie drank all the water from his bottle before Miqui even got1/10 of the way.

DAvid and Genovea. Genovea won in puting the diaper on the stuffed animal the fastest.

Above: Who can decide first what you are eating?

Above: Baby crawl.....David won throwing his body across the room.

Above: We don't need cable. David has front row seats to all the local soccer games when ever he wants (our windows overlook the local soccer stadium).

When you can't figure out what explains all the random findings....Think LUPUS!

   Milka is a 23 year old woman who presented to the emergency room one Sunday with fever and alot of non specific symptoms for one week. It started with throat pain (her throat looked normal), diarrea, vomiting and abdominal pain (she had a little voluntary guarding on abdominal exam), her bones and muscles hurt all over, weakness, anorexia, and a headache (she had fever and heart rate of 116 in the ER).
    Monday and Tuesday I did extensive evaluation because each result showed more and more abnormalities. Her CRP was 315, WBC 12 with 86% neutrophils, Hemaglobin 9 with MCV 90, platelets normal. Her lungs developed rales with IV fluids. Chest XR showed bilateral hilar infiltrates. Her cardiac eco showed pericardial effusion and bilateral plueral effusion. Her abdominal ultrasound showed a little ascites, inflamation of the intestinal wall and a little inflamation of the gallbladder. Thyphoid screen negative. Liver and kidney function normal. She then developed petechea. PT and aPTT where prolonged. ESR 90.
    With emperic antibiotic treatment covering the lungs and abdomen her CRP and White count started coming down. She continued taquicardic. Her whole body started to swell and she because weaker and weaker.
   With such diverse symptoms I started suspecting Lupus or some autoimmune disease because they're so common here. Thursday her CRP was in the 100's and she'd received 5 days of antibiotics (just incase it was more of a sepsis picture), so I started Prednisone 50mg a day and checked ANA (which is a send out test and takes a couple of weeks to come back).
   Milka started to recover little by little. She was able to eat a little and her strength came back. And she was able to go home the next Monday with a Prednisone taper.
Two weeks later she returned for her follow up. Her ANA came back strongly positive for Lupus. She continued almost the same with her pericardial effusion and had developed a little heart failure, so her Prednisone was bumped back up and she was started on Metotrexate (there is Hydroxychloroquine here in Peru but not in Diospi and it's expensive).
Please pray for Milka because Lupus will affect her and be a constant part of her life from now on. Below she is posing for her picture so that the world can pray for her.

5th Grade sleepover
David's 5th grade homeroom had a sleepover to celebrate the year. But it's not what you would expect.
They started out their Friday morning traveling to two elementary schools and one highschool to present three skits: Joy Robber (about how the only joy that no one can take from you is Christ in your heart), True Christian (about what makes us true Christians is not going to church, reading the bible, etc but having Jesus in our hearts), and the last skit was about how Christ is the only thing that can free us from sin.
Then the kids ended by explaining the Book Without Words, which uses Green, Black, Red, White, and Yellow to explain the gospel.

LUNCH!

Above: The center piece of the Art Show organized by Manuela, a volunteer from Columbia: she spend some time in each class. Found the students with talent, and continued teaching them art.
Below: Dinner! Antecuchu (meat grilled on a stick).

Below: Bonfire, roasting marshmellows, singing, and a message from Christian, the school director.

Above: Christian, the school director.

Having fun in the gym! Above: David (the kids love him so much because he's just a big kid)! :)

Above: Several of the boys waking up for the 6am jog.
Below: 6am run to our "prayer site" where we all prayed and then came back.We divided into 3 teams.

Above: Mine.

Above: Alvino's. Alivo is a high school math teacher at Diopsi from Abancay. He heard about Diospi after being admitted into the hospital as my patient two years ago. He stated that at that time (previously "Catholic", which here in Peru often times means more that you're Peruvian than that you have a personal relationship with Jesus) he started reading the bible and then went as far as LIma searching for God. Now he's a evangelical Christian. Sometimes when I think how he was as a patient I think I've mistaken him for another patient because he is so different. Alvino is now a good friend of David.