howdy there!
i haven't done a blog post since the one right after i got back, so i am well past due. and considering that we fly home tomorrow night, it might be nice to put something up. jenny and taylor have done a great job with pictures, and i don't own a camera, so i'll stick with a few short words, and a few short stories.
agridulce is a new word that i learned a few days ago, and it perfectly describes how i (we) feel about coming back to the states. it is spanish for "bittersweet", and we are all in that state. the past several weeks have been much more relaxing since the aggies on the AFCSA trip and kyle headed out to brazil, but they have been perhaps my favorite time here. i had a blast with the ags here in lima, and we had some great adventures all over this beautiful country. between service work and good food in lima, a missions retreat and good food in arequipa, and lots of sand and questionable food in huacachina, we together had a packed two weeks. one of my favorite adventures of their time here was when we rented a large van to take to the ruins of pachacamac and to the beach. taylor and i went to pick up the van in a busy part of miraflores, and i was going to drive for the trip, which i was really pumped about, since lima is such a crazy place traffic-wise. as we walked up to the van, we realized that it had a manual transmission, and seeing as how it had been quite a while since i had driven one, we were initially a little stressed about the prospect of driving a big van in wild traffic with an inexperienced driver. but, it turned out to be smooth after all, and i only killed the motor once, though that was in the middle of a busy ovalo (roundabout). when we dropped the van off, full of diesel and with no scratches, i felt one of the most intense senses of relief of my life. but it was a blast getting to motor around the city, and i definitely have an affinity for using the horn now, like a real peruano.
as always, we all have many, many more stories than we can put on this blog, so please if you see us and you want to hear something about peru, ask! i (again, we) would love to tell you about life here, and how we can see God working in this country.
jenny mentioned our surprise party, which was a blast, but i'll finish with a story from last night (my ultrasound bone healer just finished, so i'm ready to crash). i have had the blessing of getting to do many things here in peru, but i got to visit with a few people that i will never forget last night. i have gotten to know a teenager here by the name of moises who lives in a slightly less nice part of town (in the district san juan de miraflores) near our friend from church christian. his parents own a restaurant in the house where he lives, and he seems like any other normal peruvian teenager, talking really fast in spanish and pal-ing around with his older brothers. but, moises has been battling leukemia for the past two years, and christian, several months ago, wanted me to meet and talk to him about my experience with cancer when i was in high school. as a cancer survivor, i definitely felt a bond with moises, and we were able to talk about how our relationships with the Lord were challenged by our sicknesses, but strengthened all the more by the experience. i ask that you will pray for his health, and for his treatment, as his family came to a point where they could no longer afford chemotherapy, so he is taking natural remedies and vitamins. as someone entering the health profession, i have some unease about those kinds of treatments, but he seems to be doing a lot better, and i have faith that God will provide. i am also so thankful for his mother, as she treats us to great food every time we visit. i will definitely miss her maracuya drink (passion fruit). one funny (and not so funny) story we shared together was when he showed me a cell phone video of one of his chemo meds, in the IV bag, draining into the IV in his hand at the time. it was bright kool-aid red, just like one of the most caustic chemo's i received, named doxorubicin/adriamycin. it turns out that we definitely received the same drug, and we both laughed about how it turns your urine bright orange, and how it freaked us both out the first time we went to the bathroom. after that visit, mark and i went to his apartment for a bible study. i have been so blessed to come to this bible study most every week since i have been back, and this was my final time. we began the book of luke, which is one of my favorites in the new testament, but what i will always remember is the time that we had laughing and reminiscing after the study. we had a bumper crowd, as nearly everyone who has come to the study was able to this week, and silvia made spectacular peruvian hot chocolate with a hint of canela (cinnamon), and roxanna brought a great keke (cake), which was full of dried fruit and nuts. they kept bringing me more and more slices of cake, and with all that sugar we all got a little hyped up i think! we told stories and was able to tell them about my medical school starting in august, and how excited i was that i was going to be able to see my family and friends soon, but also how pumped i was at the prospect of coming back to peru and lima, which i hope to be able to do some day soon. i will not soon forget the sweet peruvians that we have gotten to share the past months with, and i hope that we can mantener contacto (maintain contact) through skype and facebook and all of that.
i am going to miss this city and country, with its culture and food, but i am most sad about leaving these people, and i am so thankful for how God has blessed me (us) with so many wonderful friendships here in peru, and also for the team here, and for how they have taught me about the nature of our God not only through their words and mentoring, but also much more through their actions and love, in a 1 john 3:18 kind of way. but, that being said, i am so excited about coming home! in the next few weeks, i'll write another blog about what is going on, but as i was telling mark "selleck" clancy the other day, when you have so many things to look forward to, it is hard to be too sad about moving on. and i do have many things to be excited about: texas, mom, dad, and matthew, all of my friends, finding a place to live in downtown dallas with shelby, cars and coffee, two weeks of camp of this hills (whoop!), college station, beef bbq bigger than my face, schlotskys, playing nicer guitars, so much tex-mex, summer time (sweating and sunshine!), free refills, getting to use my spanish in a new context, starting medical school, and getting to continue to see God working everywhere. this has been a beautiful, sometime tumultuous, challenging, and blessed chapter of my life, but i am excited about turning the page.
keep us in your prayers today as we fly! and as always, thank you for your prayers for us, this country, and especially for the work of God here in peru.
-kyle w.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Despedida - A Saying-Goodbye
Here you go, Mom. My post... finally.
If you've been reading our (somewhat sparse) posts you know that we...
flew over the Andes mountains to Puno,
stayed in a boat in Lake Titicaca,
played "Capitan" in said boat,
went to the Peruvian Missions Summit and brought the AFCSA,
and tried to keep "cool" in the sand in Huacachina.
It was a fun, busy month with all our travels (three new places all in one month - Puno, Arequipa, and Ica/Huacachina) and with our great friends from the AFC. It was such a blessing to work with them picking up trash and laying a cement floor with some of our missionary friends, the Burgess family; to hear about the happennings of the last 6 months, and to be able to fellowship and worship with them in the true AFC style that we've been missing.
The past week since they left (taking Kyle G. with them) has definitely been one of rest for the Three(?) still in Lima. Surprisingly I've had a lot of firsts in our last couple weeks... my first time to eat at La Lucha (ask the other three about the oreo milkshakes), the first family group at Eulogia's house, the first scheduled time of open prayer with the team and Peruvians, my first haircut in six months (wow!).
There have been two meetings of our family group at Eulogia's house and both have been so encouraging and shown me the awesome spiritual growth that this family has had just since I've been in Lima. The first was with Eulogia, her daughter Graciela, and son-in-law Edgar. They had all these questions that made me think they are finally understanding what it means for them to be Christians. This week I heard Eulogia pray for the first time and it was so touching. She was so sincere in her want for God and her thanks to Him. I've always heard that seeing the fruits of labor in a faith sense is hard and that usually all you can do is plant a seed. But I was so encouraged to see the "fruits" that Eulogia, Graciela, and Edgar showed these past couple Saturdays sitting in their living room. Praise the Lord for His presence here!
This Saturday we had a surprise despedida - going away party at Carla and Carlos's house. We thought it was going to be a simple dinner with the family and walked into a room full of balloons and painted signs. Pretty soon most all of our friends were there and we were having a blast. I don't think we'll be forgetting that night anytime soon. It was such a fun way to get everyone together at the end of our time here.
-JLD
If you've been reading our (somewhat sparse) posts you know that we...
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| view from the plane |
flew over the Andes mountains to Puno,
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| The Yavari |
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| Kyle W. |
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| Peck, our English friend |
| Kyle G. |
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| Traci, Enoc, Alex, Trenton, Macy, David with Jakob, Alicyn, Kyle G., Shaley, Kyle W., Ariel, Taylor, Jenny |
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| David, Trenton, Alex, Enoc, Kyle G., Kyle W. |
It was a fun, busy month with all our travels (three new places all in one month - Puno, Arequipa, and Ica/Huacachina) and with our great friends from the AFC. It was such a blessing to work with them picking up trash and laying a cement floor with some of our missionary friends, the Burgess family; to hear about the happennings of the last 6 months, and to be able to fellowship and worship with them in the true AFC style that we've been missing.
The past week since they left (taking Kyle G. with them) has definitely been one of rest for the Three(?) still in Lima. Surprisingly I've had a lot of firsts in our last couple weeks... my first time to eat at La Lucha (ask the other three about the oreo milkshakes), the first family group at Eulogia's house, the first scheduled time of open prayer with the team and Peruvians, my first haircut in six months (wow!).
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| Eulogia :) |
This Saturday we had a surprise despedida - going away party at Carla and Carlos's house. We thought it was going to be a simple dinner with the family and walked into a room full of balloons and painted signs. Pretty soon most all of our friends were there and we were having a blast. I don't think we'll be forgetting that night anytime soon. It was such a fun way to get everyone together at the end of our time here.
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| the girls at our despedida |
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| Interns with the Flores family |
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| Kyle W., the new intern Brad, and Mark |
Monday, June 13, 2011
novo lugar (brazil)
I havent posted a blog in over a month and for that I am very sorry. Ill try really hard to make this one mind blowing. So the last month in lima has been pretty busy for me. The interns and I worked hard to prepare for the arrival of our fellow AFCers. Their arrival was exciting, as they immediately jumped into action. over the next couple of weeks they tore through service projects traveled around peru, and adventured through the local gastronomy. Overall their adventure was a huge success. I was excited to get to see friends and build new relationships with people from home. If you would like to read more about the AFCs time in peru go to www.afewinperu.blogspot.com and read some of their post.
Its been a strange feeling the past couple of weeks, knowing that our internship is almost over. Ive never been a big fan of saying goodbye to people. However having the AFC here to help transition back to the states has been a huge blessing. We have had the opportunity to spend lots of time together through multiple bus rides, devos and all sorts of service projects. We had a blast in a town called ica, a place that I have been wanting to visit since I arrived in Peru. In the middle of the dessert in Ica is a small oasis called huacachina (wakacheena). We got to go on adventures in the sand dunes in buggys, and slide down them on snowboard shaped boards. It was a great time for sure. Kyle and I walked around the oasis on the second day looking for the smallest fastest buggy we could find, and hired the guy to tear through the sand dunes with us. It was an adventure I wont forget.
On friday night, I said goodbye to many of the friends I have made over the past 5 months. I enjoyed seeing everyone, and looking back on the friendships that we have built. Its fun to compare our abilities to communicate compared to when we first arrived. It was hard to say goodbye to everybody, but there is always a sense of excitement for what is to come. The next day I left peru with the AFCers bound for my next door neighbors, Brazil. My first impressions of brazil have been really good. I love the city we are in, called porto allegre. We have already been off to a busy start as we went to a profesional soccer game, and cleaned out a house thats getting ready for some new missionaries to move into. Im excited about the rest of our time in Brazil, and im sure that God will bring us some blessings, and great stories. Ill be back in the states on the 1st of july, so give me a call. If you bring the barbecue ill come.
God Bless,
Kyle Glaeser
Its been a strange feeling the past couple of weeks, knowing that our internship is almost over. Ive never been a big fan of saying goodbye to people. However having the AFC here to help transition back to the states has been a huge blessing. We have had the opportunity to spend lots of time together through multiple bus rides, devos and all sorts of service projects. We had a blast in a town called ica, a place that I have been wanting to visit since I arrived in Peru. In the middle of the dessert in Ica is a small oasis called huacachina (wakacheena). We got to go on adventures in the sand dunes in buggys, and slide down them on snowboard shaped boards. It was a great time for sure. Kyle and I walked around the oasis on the second day looking for the smallest fastest buggy we could find, and hired the guy to tear through the sand dunes with us. It was an adventure I wont forget.
On friday night, I said goodbye to many of the friends I have made over the past 5 months. I enjoyed seeing everyone, and looking back on the friendships that we have built. Its fun to compare our abilities to communicate compared to when we first arrived. It was hard to say goodbye to everybody, but there is always a sense of excitement for what is to come. The next day I left peru with the AFCers bound for my next door neighbors, Brazil. My first impressions of brazil have been really good. I love the city we are in, called porto allegre. We have already been off to a busy start as we went to a profesional soccer game, and cleaned out a house thats getting ready for some new missionaries to move into. Im excited about the rest of our time in Brazil, and im sure that God will bring us some blessings, and great stories. Ill be back in the states on the 1st of july, so give me a call. If you bring the barbecue ill come.
God Bless,
Kyle Glaeser
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Senioritis
Well I guess we've gotten our version of senioritis with our trip here when it comes to this blog. We now have less than a month left, and we haven't posted in about a month either :/ Oops!
Here's a quick update:
Kyle W and I went to the hometown of one of our friends who recently graduated as a doctor and Kyle got to help her with a medical campaign. We went to Canta, a small mountain town, and eventually to Lachaqui, a smaller town outside of Canta, and it was beautiful! I have lots of photos on my facebook if you're interested.
Kyle G has been surfing his face off the past few weeks trying to fit as much in as possible before we leave and has almost died a couple of times... no worries...
The four of us flew to Puno with our friend Peck to visit Lake Titicaca and it was AWESOME!!!! but short. I wanna go back. We slept on a boat the first night, Kyle G got sick and had to go get an IV and eventually head home early, we visited some man-made floating islands made out of reeds, saw some traditional dances that were strange and sometimes a little inappropriate, ate some great food, and bought a TON of presents for family and friends :)
We had a missionary women's retreat a couple of weekends ago that was headed up by Stacy Yoakum and was AWESOME as well :) She did a great job. We spent the weekend resting and reconnecting with God through worship, prayer and study. It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating time for me and I think for everyone else that went as well.
Currently the Aggies For Christ: South America (AFCSA) group is here for 3 weeks and we've been having a blast working with them, showing them the city, and just getting to hang out with friends we haven't seen in a while. Our mentor Traci got to come with them too, so we've also been enjoying spending time with her and having deeper conversations about our time here. They will be here until June 11th, when they head to Brazil. While they've been here, we've worked on a few service projects, seen a little of the city, shopped for souvenirs, and passed out fliers for and participated in La Gran Fiesta! This was a party that the church put on to celebrate a season of outreach in the church. There were over 100 people there!! Which is huge for us :)
Here's a quick update:
Kyle W and I went to the hometown of one of our friends who recently graduated as a doctor and Kyle got to help her with a medical campaign. We went to Canta, a small mountain town, and eventually to Lachaqui, a smaller town outside of Canta, and it was beautiful! I have lots of photos on my facebook if you're interested.
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| Panoramic view from Lachaqui |
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| Kyle in Canta |
Kyle G has been surfing his face off the past few weeks trying to fit as much in as possible before we leave and has almost died a couple of times... no worries...
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| Classic |
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| Kyle, Jenny and I on one of the floating islands |
We had a missionary women's retreat a couple of weekends ago that was headed up by Stacy Yoakum and was AWESOME as well :) She did a great job. We spent the weekend resting and reconnecting with God through worship, prayer and study. It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating time for me and I think for everyone else that went as well.
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| The group :) We're silly |
Currently the Aggies For Christ: South America (AFCSA) group is here for 3 weeks and we've been having a blast working with them, showing them the city, and just getting to hang out with friends we haven't seen in a while. Our mentor Traci got to come with them too, so we've also been enjoying spending time with her and having deeper conversations about our time here. They will be here until June 11th, when they head to Brazil. While they've been here, we've worked on a few service projects, seen a little of the city, shopped for souvenirs, and passed out fliers for and participated in La Gran Fiesta! This was a party that the church put on to celebrate a season of outreach in the church. There were over 100 people there!! Which is huge for us :)
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| Before cleaning up at a school in Villa Maria |
Currently we are in Arequipa for the annual Peruvian Missions Summit (yes, that makes PMS and it is a constant source of laughs). The mission teams from Lima, Arequipa and Cusco get together once a year to catch up and have a time of encouragement. The AFC team and interns all took a 15 hour bus ride last night and we arrived this morning and have been resting and playing with the alpacas that live here :)
Until next time!
Taylor
Until next time!
Taylor
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Departamento de Voluntarios - Intern Apartment
I've got several exciting things to share in this post. The first is about a Bible study I've been doing with Stacy during our mentor time. The English speaking women's group was reading Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer when Taylor and I started going, and Stacy and I decided to finish the parts that the group had done before we joined. It has been a great study making me rethink my ideas of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God in my life. God has used this study to break down my wrong beliefs and to teach me so much about Himself. I totally recommend this study to any group of women, small or large.
The team had some visitors during Semana Santa that the interns were espeically excited about: Kelly and Sara Davidson! I'm sure John Mark and his family were excited since their grandparents were in town, but they weren't the only ones. It was so great to have the leaders of AFC, who have been wonderful mentors to all of the interns over the past four years, in town for a while. On a Monday we got to have a special time of conversation and yummy food from "the goddess of homemaking" that was reflective and encouraging. Thanks Kelly and Sara for being such great role models for us on so many levels. We love you!
Speaking of AFC love... the AFC South America group will be here in a little over two weeks. It is the interns' "job" to hang out with them while they are here doing ministry, encouraging the team, and learning about the culture. The team has been planning for their few weeks here and we are really excited about it. We would love for you to follow their blog while they are traveling and to pray for their preparation, fundraising, travel, and growth.
Now about the title of this post... I'm writing this blog sitting in the new intern apartment! Taylor and I moved from the Fletcher house to the apartment on Thursday after spending about a month furnishing it with help from the whole team. We will finish our time in Lima living in the apartment then in August, four new girl interns will move in for their 9 months with the team. Two of these girls, Lyndsay and Chelsey, have a blog already. Please pray for our preparations for them and for the time they have left in the states and the time they'll have here in Lima.
Big things are happenning in Lima!
Until next time,
JLD
The team had some visitors during Semana Santa that the interns were espeically excited about: Kelly and Sara Davidson! I'm sure John Mark and his family were excited since their grandparents were in town, but they weren't the only ones. It was so great to have the leaders of AFC, who have been wonderful mentors to all of the interns over the past four years, in town for a while. On a Monday we got to have a special time of conversation and yummy food from "the goddess of homemaking" that was reflective and encouraging. Thanks Kelly and Sara for being such great role models for us on so many levels. We love you!
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| AFC love! |
Speaking of AFC love... the AFC South America group will be here in a little over two weeks. It is the interns' "job" to hang out with them while they are here doing ministry, encouraging the team, and learning about the culture. The team has been planning for their few weeks here and we are really excited about it. We would love for you to follow their blog while they are traveling and to pray for their preparation, fundraising, travel, and growth.
Now about the title of this post... I'm writing this blog sitting in the new intern apartment! Taylor and I moved from the Fletcher house to the apartment on Thursday after spending about a month furnishing it with help from the whole team. We will finish our time in Lima living in the apartment then in August, four new girl interns will move in for their 9 months with the team. Two of these girls, Lyndsay and Chelsey, have a blog already. Please pray for our preparations for them and for the time they have left in the states and the time they'll have here in Lima.
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| The chair I'm sitting in now in the intern apartment. |
Until next time,
JLD
Monday, May 2, 2011
Aventura
It has been a while since I have posted a blog, and for that I do apologize. It has certainly been quite a few weeks and there is a lot of great stories. So lets get started.
The jungle.
If you read jennys post then you saw that we went to the jungle. This was an amazing trip, and I wish you could have been there, whoever you are. We went to a town called pulcalpa in the amazon jungle. While we were there we built the foundation for a church in a village of people who mostly spoke shipebo, a local amazona language. It was a little frustrating that after all this work we have put into spanish, there was a large group of people that we could not communicate with because they didnt speak spanish either. Overall the trip was a success as we were able to complete the project at hand, and also spend a lot of quality time with the kids and people of the area. we also had a half day were we went to the river and went swimming off a boat. I climbed a tree with a sloth also, which was a pretty sweet adventure in itself. When I got up in the tree i realized that it was covered in the largest black ants i have ever seen, and they were getting on me. I tried really hard not to move too much as I was hanging over what looked to be prime real-estate for anacondas and crocodiles. After trying to keep my cool for a while, a local told me they dont bite, which really wasn't very comforting.
Mens Advance.
I decided to bring a little AFC tradition to Lima. Last week the guys and I loaded up for a 2 day trip to get as far into the mountains as we could. We were far more than successful as we left sea level that morning and set up camp a few hours later at 14,800 ft. I was blessed with good health for the night, but i wasnt blessed with warm clothes in the well below freezing temperatures. Everything became well worth it just to see the stars from this place. THEY WERE AMAZING..... I have never seen anything like it in my life. I could not tell where constelations were because they were overwhelmed by clouds of stars. Later that night 3 of our 4 guys had to evacuate the mountain side to to major altitude sickness. Some cookies were lost, some heads were pounding, but all in all they managed to make it back down to 5000 ft were they could survive. When I woke up in the morning the end of my sleeping bag were my feet where was coated in ice. This gave me the impression that it had gotten very cold the night before. John mark and I woke up early, and being the adventurers we are we decided to set out for a nearby summit of 16000 ft. After one and a half breathless hours we reached the goal and stood at the highest point of our lives. It was a good, but very short of breath feeling.
Ministry,
We were able to organize a service project to do with the peruvians, in the neighborhood of Mark. We repainted an alleyway that had been covered with graffiti in support of a local soccer team. I was a little discouraged at first as not as many peruvians showed up as we had hoped, but the project turned out to be a blessing as we attracted the attention of some of the locals.
One of my friends at the beach came up with a great idea, and I would like it if you guys could be praying for it. He suggested that we get some of the older kids from the villa maria area, where we do our sunday morning kids church, and give them surf lessons. The surfing class here is for the most part dominated by the upper class. The kids in villa maria, will likely not have a chance to enjoy things like the beach very often. Im hoping that by taking some of them out there we will be able to deepen relationships, and maybe find a good niche for them.
Thanks for your prayers and support,
Kyle Glaeser
The jungle.
If you read jennys post then you saw that we went to the jungle. This was an amazing trip, and I wish you could have been there, whoever you are. We went to a town called pulcalpa in the amazon jungle. While we were there we built the foundation for a church in a village of people who mostly spoke shipebo, a local amazona language. It was a little frustrating that after all this work we have put into spanish, there was a large group of people that we could not communicate with because they didnt speak spanish either. Overall the trip was a success as we were able to complete the project at hand, and also spend a lot of quality time with the kids and people of the area. we also had a half day were we went to the river and went swimming off a boat. I climbed a tree with a sloth also, which was a pretty sweet adventure in itself. When I got up in the tree i realized that it was covered in the largest black ants i have ever seen, and they were getting on me. I tried really hard not to move too much as I was hanging over what looked to be prime real-estate for anacondas and crocodiles. After trying to keep my cool for a while, a local told me they dont bite, which really wasn't very comforting.
Mens Advance.
I decided to bring a little AFC tradition to Lima. Last week the guys and I loaded up for a 2 day trip to get as far into the mountains as we could. We were far more than successful as we left sea level that morning and set up camp a few hours later at 14,800 ft. I was blessed with good health for the night, but i wasnt blessed with warm clothes in the well below freezing temperatures. Everything became well worth it just to see the stars from this place. THEY WERE AMAZING..... I have never seen anything like it in my life. I could not tell where constelations were because they were overwhelmed by clouds of stars. Later that night 3 of our 4 guys had to evacuate the mountain side to to major altitude sickness. Some cookies were lost, some heads were pounding, but all in all they managed to make it back down to 5000 ft were they could survive. When I woke up in the morning the end of my sleeping bag were my feet where was coated in ice. This gave me the impression that it had gotten very cold the night before. John mark and I woke up early, and being the adventurers we are we decided to set out for a nearby summit of 16000 ft. After one and a half breathless hours we reached the goal and stood at the highest point of our lives. It was a good, but very short of breath feeling.
Ministry,
We were able to organize a service project to do with the peruvians, in the neighborhood of Mark. We repainted an alleyway that had been covered with graffiti in support of a local soccer team. I was a little discouraged at first as not as many peruvians showed up as we had hoped, but the project turned out to be a blessing as we attracted the attention of some of the locals.
One of my friends at the beach came up with a great idea, and I would like it if you guys could be praying for it. He suggested that we get some of the older kids from the villa maria area, where we do our sunday morning kids church, and give them surf lessons. The surfing class here is for the most part dominated by the upper class. The kids in villa maria, will likely not have a chance to enjoy things like the beach very often. Im hoping that by taking some of them out there we will be able to deepen relationships, and maybe find a good niche for them.
Thanks for your prayers and support,
Kyle Glaeser
Friday, April 22, 2011
i'm baaaaaaaaaaack!
well howdy!
as of yesterday at 9:30 pm, i am a peruvian again! it is such a blessing to be back here in lima, and i am definitely not going to take the rest of our time here for granted. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do with so many people, and i'm really glad to be getting back here during Semana Santa (Holy Week), so that i can be involved with all of the activities and gatherings. but first, i'll catch y'all up on my adventures in physical therapy (aka pain) land and my time in texas.
i just completed three weeks of therapy in rockwall, and i have recovered full range of motion! this is really exciting, because it's now just a matter of time until my bone is fully healed, and i can have complete confidence that i will recover full use of my shoulder and arm again. it will be september or october before my bone is completely healed, and i'll be able to do whatever i want in terms of physical activity, but it's just nice to be able to use my arm. God gave us two for a reason, i figure. i had my last appointment with my doctor on wednesday, and while i have gotten fantastic reports from my therapists, my latest x-rays showed that my bone is about 60-70% healed, which is slower healing than expected. so, i got fitted for this cool ultrasound bone stimulator thing that i wear once a day, which will hopefully help my bone heal a little quicker. long story short, my arm feels pretty good, i can use it again, i just can't lift too much weight. not a bad deal, all things considered.
my last several weeks in rowlett were great! over my time at home, we got to go some great concerts (sister hazel and yonder mountain string band), some great games (a couple of mavs games, including the first playoff game), and eat some great food. i definitely got my fill of all of my favorite foods, everything from chile rellenos at pancho and lefty's, to fish tacos at flying fish, and loads of bbq and burgers from all over the place. it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with my family at home, both mom, dad, and matthew, and my church family at heritage church of christ in rowlett. it's been since high school that i've spent so much time at home, and it's always good to be back. i got to make several trips to college station also, to see folks and go to aggie baseballs games. i love it down there! also, last monday, my grandmother audrey westbrook (my mawmaw) passed away at the age of 80, and we had a graveside service for her last wednesday in foulke, arkansas. it was really difficult, but i was so glad to be home for all of that. she was an amazing woman, and i am looking forward to spending time with her again someday.
my flights yesterday went very smoothly, which is always nice. actually, there was one interesting thing that happened. i was really excited about the flight from miami to lima, because i figured that i would be able to hear lots of spanish conversations and stuff like that. but, it turned out that there were about 40 middle schoolers from a catholic school in quebec on a weeklong mission trip to lima all around me on the flight, and those kids could rapid fire speak that french. so instead of spanish, i was surrounded by crazy french-speaking kiddos. it was very strange.
anyways, thanks so much for all of your prayers over the past few months. it was challenging to be away, but God took care of everything, and i'm just happy to be here now! if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two months, we would appreciate it. thanks so much for everything that you do!
hasta luego!
-kyle w.
as of yesterday at 9:30 pm, i am a peruvian again! it is such a blessing to be back here in lima, and i am definitely not going to take the rest of our time here for granted. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do with so many people, and i'm really glad to be getting back here during Semana Santa (Holy Week), so that i can be involved with all of the activities and gatherings. but first, i'll catch y'all up on my adventures in physical therapy (aka pain) land and my time in texas.
i just completed three weeks of therapy in rockwall, and i have recovered full range of motion! this is really exciting, because it's now just a matter of time until my bone is fully healed, and i can have complete confidence that i will recover full use of my shoulder and arm again. it will be september or october before my bone is completely healed, and i'll be able to do whatever i want in terms of physical activity, but it's just nice to be able to use my arm. God gave us two for a reason, i figure. i had my last appointment with my doctor on wednesday, and while i have gotten fantastic reports from my therapists, my latest x-rays showed that my bone is about 60-70% healed, which is slower healing than expected. so, i got fitted for this cool ultrasound bone stimulator thing that i wear once a day, which will hopefully help my bone heal a little quicker. long story short, my arm feels pretty good, i can use it again, i just can't lift too much weight. not a bad deal, all things considered.
my last several weeks in rowlett were great! over my time at home, we got to go some great concerts (sister hazel and yonder mountain string band), some great games (a couple of mavs games, including the first playoff game), and eat some great food. i definitely got my fill of all of my favorite foods, everything from chile rellenos at pancho and lefty's, to fish tacos at flying fish, and loads of bbq and burgers from all over the place. it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with my family at home, both mom, dad, and matthew, and my church family at heritage church of christ in rowlett. it's been since high school that i've spent so much time at home, and it's always good to be back. i got to make several trips to college station also, to see folks and go to aggie baseballs games. i love it down there! also, last monday, my grandmother audrey westbrook (my mawmaw) passed away at the age of 80, and we had a graveside service for her last wednesday in foulke, arkansas. it was really difficult, but i was so glad to be home for all of that. she was an amazing woman, and i am looking forward to spending time with her again someday.
my flights yesterday went very smoothly, which is always nice. actually, there was one interesting thing that happened. i was really excited about the flight from miami to lima, because i figured that i would be able to hear lots of spanish conversations and stuff like that. but, it turned out that there were about 40 middle schoolers from a catholic school in quebec on a weeklong mission trip to lima all around me on the flight, and those kids could rapid fire speak that french. so instead of spanish, i was surrounded by crazy french-speaking kiddos. it was very strange.
anyways, thanks so much for all of your prayers over the past few months. it was challenging to be away, but God took care of everything, and i'm just happy to be here now! if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two months, we would appreciate it. thanks so much for everything that you do!
hasta luego!
-kyle w.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
La Selva - The Jungle
I finally got to go on my first trip outside of Lima last week! Jenny and Kyle have both been out of the city to go to Cusco/Maccu Picchu, but this was my first time to see a different part of the country. From Monday to Friday of last week, the 3 of us together with Wes, Gaby (Peruvian friend), Mark Burgess (another missionary friend in Lima), his interns Allison and Peck, Allison's mom Robin, and a friend of Mark's wife, Catherine headed out to Pucallpa, about a 2 hour flight from Lima. Mark has been to Pucallpa and worked with the village we went to several times before this trip. Our goals for the trip were to help them start building a newer, sturdier building for the church there and, because Allison's mom is a doctor, have a small scale medical mission as well.
On Thursday we took the morning to do a little sightseeing and shopping. We went to a market (mainly for fish) and walked around, looking very out of place as a huge group of gringos. It was really fun and interesting though to see all the fish and fresh vegetables and fruit for sale. Some of us bought machetes, hammocks, and Wes bought a few crocodile skulls haha. After the first market we went down to the river, where there are more markets and more fish and a great view from the clock tower there. The river is called the Ucayali and it is one of the largest tributaries to the Amason. Then we drove over to the Laguna part of the river for a boat ride! We saw a couple of perezosos (sloths) in their natural habitat and the boys decided to climb up in the tree to take pictures of them. Also, there were houses that were half way underwater because it is the wet season right now, and a few of us went for a swim off the side of the boat! (video)
The hotel where we stayed was in the more urban part of Pucallpa and was very nice. It had a pool and AC and everything! haha The village we worked in was about a 30 minute mototaxi ride from our hotel. We drove out there every morning around 9 after having a devotional and breakfast, worked until lunch when the ladies in the village would cook us food (it was always great!!), then started work again until around 5, showers, dinner, swim.... That was the basic schedule for every day.
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| Peck, Kyle and Wes squeezed into their mototaxi |
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| Gaby with our monkey friend! We loved him :) |
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| The sky there was beautiful! Very different from the pollution in Lima. |
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| Day at the market. Here we have some crocodile, medium sized fish, and really large fish... |
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| Panoramic of the Ucayali River |
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| Gaby, Jenny and I on our boat ride :) |
Other fun adventures from the trip:
There was a parade for one of the presidential candidates, Ollanta, while we were there and we saw him drive by in his truck. Very cool except we don't want him to be the president.
That cute monkey that Gaby is holding pooped on me :( He was so cute though. I want a pet monkey.
The last day that we worked, Friday, it rained all afternoon, so we just played in the rain and mud with the kids from the village!! I hadn't seen real rain since we got to Lima. It was awesome.
I accidentally ordered chicken feet for dinner one night... I do have some boundaries when it comes to food haha
Gaby learned how to swim! She didn't know how before the trip but we practiced in the pool and then she swam in the river :)
Kyle, Gaby and I got temporary tattoos! But by "temporary" they meant "the next time your skin touches water, this will come off." Not exactly the 15 days I was promised haha
Random update from Lima: We have officially started renting an apartment for interns and Jenny and I are working on getting it furnished and set up for the 4 new intern girls that will be coming to Lima in August!
AND Kyle gets back this Thursday!!! WHOOPP!!!!! So excited about that :)
Love and miss you all!!
Taylor
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
¡Sube al Bus! - Get on the Bus!
Forget the plans that I told you I had yesterday. This is what happens in Peru... plans change. This time for the better, in fact, the new plans turned into awesomeness.
When John Mark picked us up for jam session we realized that there was only going to be one Peruvian with us. So Kyle and John Mark, being the adventure seekers that they are, decided to check off something on their list of crazy things to do: be on Peruvian TV. The lucky show that was graced by the presence of JM, Kyle, Taylor, Gaby, and me - El Último Pasajero (The Last Passenger), a game show where high schools compete to win a free end-of-the-year-trip.
We basically just walked into the studio and the workers with their fancy headsets asked if we were there to be part of the show. We decided that we were so they gave us shirts to wear and a free Sprite, that we were supposed to hide until they told us. The theme song of the show is Sube al Bus (Get on the Bus) since the schools are competing for a trip. At the end each team gets to pick a key to try to start their bus and win.
So we joined with a school from Miraflores to cheer for their team of students. The audience was completely students from three different schools and they were all going crazy. Right away three members of each team had to play a game of slip-n-slide mixed with darts, where they slid from one end of a giant soap-covered target to see how far they could get. Blue won that challenge yay!
Then there was a commercial time where we all took out our hidden Sprite and drank it. The slogan for Sprite right now in Peru is La Verdad Refresca (The True Soft Drink). So the team leaders competed in a true/false game of high school knowledge trivia and the red team won. Later there was a challenge where two girls got haircuts to see who would cut the most grams of hair off. It was intense and one girl even cried!
After the last commercial break there was another trivia game. Each team member who got a question right got to get on the bus. In the end, the green team's bus started and they won the trip. It was an exciting hour and a half for all of us gringos... a definitely Peruvian experience!
Chau!
-JLD
When John Mark picked us up for jam session we realized that there was only going to be one Peruvian with us. So Kyle and John Mark, being the adventure seekers that they are, decided to check off something on their list of crazy things to do: be on Peruvian TV. The lucky show that was graced by the presence of JM, Kyle, Taylor, Gaby, and me - El Último Pasajero (The Last Passenger), a game show where high schools compete to win a free end-of-the-year-trip.
We basically just walked into the studio and the workers with their fancy headsets asked if we were there to be part of the show. We decided that we were so they gave us shirts to wear and a free Sprite, that we were supposed to hide until they told us. The theme song of the show is Sube al Bus (Get on the Bus) since the schools are competing for a trip. At the end each team gets to pick a key to try to start their bus and win.
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| Gaby with her shirt. Go azul! |
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| So that's what the studio of a TV show looks like! |
After the last commercial break there was another trivia game. Each team member who got a question right got to get on the bus. In the end, the green team's bus started and they won the trip. It was an exciting hour and a half for all of us gringos... a definitely Peruvian experience!
Chau!
-JLD
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
A Medio Camino - Halfway
As of today we've been in Lima three months. That's half of our internship! So we've really setteled into our schedules here. A big schedule change, though, was when our parents visited over spring break. My parents and sister got to be a part of some of the normal activities like kids' time in Villa Maria on Sunday morning and women's Bible study on Saturday. We also went to Machu Picchu for a big change in scenery and schedule.
Speaking of schedules, let me tell you what today looks like for me. At nine I walked to Starbucks to meet Kyle, Wes, and our British missionary friends to plan our mission trip to Pucallpa, a city in the jungle. The trip will be next Monday through Friday and we'll be laying a concrete floor for a church there (hello memories of high school mission trips to Mexico!) as well as doing a small medical campaign. You would think that a meeting about building materials would be really boring, but with the language jokes (mixing US and UK English and Spanish all together) and the general laid back personalities of everyone involved, it was a rather entertaining time. Now I'm taking my designated "communication/administrative/fit-whatever-needs-to-be-done" time to write this blog. Around 2 I'll take a bus to Ele Latina for Spanish class with my teacher Mary. We have a one-on-one class and it's great because we can just have conversations and I learn so much. After that I'll meet up with Taylor, Kyle, our friend Gaby, and John Mark (with whoever can fit into his car) to go to jam session to practice songs for church, learn new ones, and have a bit of musical fun with everyone there. I'll go home for dinner after that, do a bit of homework, read some of When Helping Hurts (the book our team is currently reading and discussing together), then get to be early for the girls' 6am work out tomorrow morning.
Each day has something different, but that's just a small look into my life right now.
Chau!
-JLD
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| Durham family at Machu Picchu |
Each day has something different, but that's just a small look into my life right now.
Chau!
-JLD
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| I saw real llamas in Cusco and at Machu Picchu! |
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Lots happening around here.
I never though that I would eat lunch in the same room as a dead man, but we can get to that later. First off My family came down to visit this past week, and we had a grand ol time. They flew in at the wonderful hour of 4:30 in the am on Monday, and I met them in the airport at 6:30 am(still too early) to fly to Cuzco. We got to Cuzco and found our hotel, which was a beautiful little place built in the mid 1600s. The next day we took a tour of the amazing sacred valley in the cuzco province, and visited some pre incan ruins that were scattered about it. Pictures dont do justice to how large and stunning the mountains are in this area. Ill try to pick come good pictures, but it just doesn't compare to the real thing. On wednesday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning (my family is a little intense) to catch the fist train to the incan trail. The train dropped us off in the middle of the jungle with two other people we met on the train and our guide. Together we went off into the wilderness and hiked for hours and hours through amazing scenery and huge ancient ruins. After all this we made it to the entrance of Machu Picchu, called the Sun Gate. It was really cool to get to hike on a religious trail made by the Incan people a very long time ago. That night we stayed in a hostal in Aguas Calientes (Hot Waters). and as to be expected we were off again sometime in the early morning. we hiked around Machu Picchu some, then me and my brother conquered the infamous Huinua Picchu wich turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The next day we went back to lima for some R&R. I got to take my brother surfing on saturday morning and after I gave him a quick lesson on land, we went out and he caught his first wave on his first try, and rode it all the way out. It was pretty incredible.
On the Incan trail
Machu Picchu, and behind me is Huainu Picchu.
My fam and a waterfall.
One of my peruvian friends who I have connected very well with is named Luis. Luis's Grandfather had been sick for a while with cancer. Now Luis works as a security guard outside of Justin's house, and his grandfather lives in the jungle, pretty far away from us. When we heard his grandfather didnt have much time left we got pretty upset that he could see him, so we all decided to take him and his brother on a bus with us to Oxapampa, which is a jungle town started by german immigrants in the 1890s. We got to the bus station at 7 pm on sunday night, and drove from sea level to almost 14000ft in about 6 hours. I hardly slept at all on the 10 hour bus ride. When we got there, we took Luis to the hospital, and he got to visit with his grandfather as we all met his family. The rest of the day was a pretty fun adventure, as we borrowed Luis's Cousin's motorcycle taxi, and explored Oxapampa. We also ate at his cousins, and his grandmas house. Which was an adventure in itself. We had coffee that was grown dried and brewed at their house, that tasted pretty great.
The next day, we awoke to the news that his grandfather had just passed. we went to his grandmas house where they were preparing the body. We weren't sure what to do so we just sat around as everyone went about their business. About one hour later were told to pass into the room were the body was, so that we may view it. we went in, and were able to comfort Luis during this sad moment. Not long after that they all left the room, asking us to wait there. The brought us sweet milk with coffee, and some bread to eat while we waited. Im not sure why we had to wait there, but we sat there for a couple of hours in the presence of a dead man not knowing what to do. I have to admit it was pretty awkward at times. I think somewhere in my subconscious I decided to make it more awkard, as I accidently knocked my sweet milk all over the floor. I tried to handle it quietly, but the towel they gave me to clean it up was made out of leather, and didn't do one thing to help the situation but to spread it around. It became quite an ordeal, and the daughter wound up coming in to re clean the entire floor. I leaned over to Wes at this point and asked him, "How is anyone in the states ever going to understand what this is like". He said," We dont have the words to describe the awkwardness of sitting in a room before the funeral of a man we did not know, and being asked to say a few words to everyone. They will simply never know". I wish there was a way to describe the strangeness of such a situation.
Later that night we caught a bus back to Lima, another 10 hour trip, but this time we were on the top front row of the double decker bus as it passed other busses on the mountain roads with huge cliffs the whole way. You can imagine how well I slept.
Me, Luis, and Justin in Oxapampa.
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser
Just Thinking (about how bad it would be to fall)
All in all we had an amazing vacation, but I got back to Lima to the news that Wes, Justin, and I were making a trip to the jungle the next day. Which leads me to my next story.One of my peruvian friends who I have connected very well with is named Luis. Luis's Grandfather had been sick for a while with cancer. Now Luis works as a security guard outside of Justin's house, and his grandfather lives in the jungle, pretty far away from us. When we heard his grandfather didnt have much time left we got pretty upset that he could see him, so we all decided to take him and his brother on a bus with us to Oxapampa, which is a jungle town started by german immigrants in the 1890s. We got to the bus station at 7 pm on sunday night, and drove from sea level to almost 14000ft in about 6 hours. I hardly slept at all on the 10 hour bus ride. When we got there, we took Luis to the hospital, and he got to visit with his grandfather as we all met his family. The rest of the day was a pretty fun adventure, as we borrowed Luis's Cousin's motorcycle taxi, and explored Oxapampa. We also ate at his cousins, and his grandmas house. Which was an adventure in itself. We had coffee that was grown dried and brewed at their house, that tasted pretty great.
The next day, we awoke to the news that his grandfather had just passed. we went to his grandmas house where they were preparing the body. We weren't sure what to do so we just sat around as everyone went about their business. About one hour later were told to pass into the room were the body was, so that we may view it. we went in, and were able to comfort Luis during this sad moment. Not long after that they all left the room, asking us to wait there. The brought us sweet milk with coffee, and some bread to eat while we waited. Im not sure why we had to wait there, but we sat there for a couple of hours in the presence of a dead man not knowing what to do. I have to admit it was pretty awkward at times. I think somewhere in my subconscious I decided to make it more awkard, as I accidently knocked my sweet milk all over the floor. I tried to handle it quietly, but the towel they gave me to clean it up was made out of leather, and didn't do one thing to help the situation but to spread it around. It became quite an ordeal, and the daughter wound up coming in to re clean the entire floor. I leaned over to Wes at this point and asked him, "How is anyone in the states ever going to understand what this is like". He said," We dont have the words to describe the awkwardness of sitting in a room before the funeral of a man we did not know, and being asked to say a few words to everyone. They will simply never know". I wish there was a way to describe the strangeness of such a situation.
Later that night we caught a bus back to Lima, another 10 hour trip, but this time we were on the top front row of the double decker bus as it passed other busses on the mountain roads with huge cliffs the whole way. You can imagine how well I slept.
Me, Luis, and Justin in Oxapampa.
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser
Thursday, March 10, 2011
65 days is a long time. (sort of)
I have now live in another country for 65 days.
When I imagined what it would be like living in lima, my head was full of dreams of how different I would be in just a couple of months. I tried my best not to come into this with too many expectations, but by this point in my internship, I was supposed to be a gallant tan spanish speaking super intern, that was leading bible studies and saying beautiful spanish prayers that brought tears to peruvian eyes all while working into the pro surfing circuit. It looks like Im going to have to settle. Now I know thats a little over the top, but it is true that despite my best attempts not to, I made some expectations that may have been a little far fetched. That being said, here are some things that I feel like have developed or changed as a result of my living here.
Adaption
I have always felt like i had the ability to adapt to any situation, whether it be roughing it in the jungle for 3 months with only a pocket knife and a bag of gummy bears, or living in the lap of luxury with a leer jet and a house on three different continents. ( one of which would be antartica by the way). However I have found parts of that to be true and parts to be not true. The first thing I discovered once the initial excitement of being here wore off was that I am most certainly an American, and I do have a desire for things that are American. For instance BBQ is very American, and is something I struggle to live without. As silly as that sounds, in ways it is true. There are certain standards of cleanliness, and security that come along with being an American, and breaking through those has been uncomfortable at times. However I am proud to say that faced with a situation in which I am required to adapt I have succeeded in the overall.
My spiritual life
I dont spend much time talking about my spiritual life. Whether I should spend more doing so I really dont know. That being said I definitely had some notions on how my spiritual life would be developed from being here. But once again as the first stages of being here passed I realized that there is still a good deal of effort that must be put into maintaining my spiritual disciplines. Thankfully with some guidance from a new dear friend of mine, I have been able to push the boundaries on developing new habits, and seeking them daily.
Finally: My crazy story for the week
While we were in fortaleza (or villa maria) on sunday, me and Wes went in search of a service project opportunity for our church. We climbed to the top of the mountain to ask the newest residence what they needed the most. When we got up there we saw a group of about one hundred of them gathered for a meeting on the continued construction of a road for the water trucks. As I am very tall and very white, they immediately noticed us and sent over a slightly drunk messenger to query upon our presence. When we told him what we were doing there he insisted that we come tell the group. When we got to the group they gathered around us and were cheering and clapping and yelling whatever words they new in english from, "hello" to, "I love you". When the "leader" asked Wes a question everyone went silent and listened intently to the response. Wes went on to tell a little bit about the children's church we offer on sunday mornings, and we received a fair response from the crowd. We were invited to stay with some people, but had to decline due to "prior engagements". They also invited us to stay with some women for a different kind of visit. (again we obviously had to refuse. There will be no gringo kids running round that place any time soon.) The whole situation turned a little awkward at that point, so we made our great escape to the sound of more applause. It took a little bit of time to digest what had happened, but it was certainly an experience.
Thats all for know,
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser
When I imagined what it would be like living in lima, my head was full of dreams of how different I would be in just a couple of months. I tried my best not to come into this with too many expectations, but by this point in my internship, I was supposed to be a gallant tan spanish speaking super intern, that was leading bible studies and saying beautiful spanish prayers that brought tears to peruvian eyes all while working into the pro surfing circuit. It looks like Im going to have to settle. Now I know thats a little over the top, but it is true that despite my best attempts not to, I made some expectations that may have been a little far fetched. That being said, here are some things that I feel like have developed or changed as a result of my living here.
Adaption
I have always felt like i had the ability to adapt to any situation, whether it be roughing it in the jungle for 3 months with only a pocket knife and a bag of gummy bears, or living in the lap of luxury with a leer jet and a house on three different continents. ( one of which would be antartica by the way). However I have found parts of that to be true and parts to be not true. The first thing I discovered once the initial excitement of being here wore off was that I am most certainly an American, and I do have a desire for things that are American. For instance BBQ is very American, and is something I struggle to live without. As silly as that sounds, in ways it is true. There are certain standards of cleanliness, and security that come along with being an American, and breaking through those has been uncomfortable at times. However I am proud to say that faced with a situation in which I am required to adapt I have succeeded in the overall.
My spiritual life
I dont spend much time talking about my spiritual life. Whether I should spend more doing so I really dont know. That being said I definitely had some notions on how my spiritual life would be developed from being here. But once again as the first stages of being here passed I realized that there is still a good deal of effort that must be put into maintaining my spiritual disciplines. Thankfully with some guidance from a new dear friend of mine, I have been able to push the boundaries on developing new habits, and seeking them daily.
Finally: My crazy story for the week
While we were in fortaleza (or villa maria) on sunday, me and Wes went in search of a service project opportunity for our church. We climbed to the top of the mountain to ask the newest residence what they needed the most. When we got up there we saw a group of about one hundred of them gathered for a meeting on the continued construction of a road for the water trucks. As I am very tall and very white, they immediately noticed us and sent over a slightly drunk messenger to query upon our presence. When we told him what we were doing there he insisted that we come tell the group. When we got to the group they gathered around us and were cheering and clapping and yelling whatever words they new in english from, "hello" to, "I love you". When the "leader" asked Wes a question everyone went silent and listened intently to the response. Wes went on to tell a little bit about the children's church we offer on sunday mornings, and we received a fair response from the crowd. We were invited to stay with some people, but had to decline due to "prior engagements". They also invited us to stay with some women for a different kind of visit. (again we obviously had to refuse. There will be no gringo kids running round that place any time soon.) The whole situation turned a little awkward at that point, so we made our great escape to the sound of more applause. It took a little bit of time to digest what had happened, but it was certainly an experience.
Thats all for know,
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Cosas Nuevas - New Things
First of all, I would like to apologize for not posting more often... I have no excuse haha Basically everything that everyone has been saying applies to me too, so I'm just going to update you on some of my favorite recent activities.
Kids Club in Villa Maria
So I know we've talked about this before, but recently the interns have been given the responsibility of organizing the activites for our kids' time in Villa Maria on Sunday mornings. We've been doing a different Bible story every week with games and coloring sheets and lots of great songs, and it's been going really good. It seems like the kids are getting more and more excited every week to be there and hang out with us, and that is making us more excited as well :) The kids are really sweet and attentive and great about participating in most everything. It has also been a good opportunity for some of the team kids to interact with the Peruvian kids! Here is an awesome video, made by the talented John Mark Davidson, of one of the mornings :) most of it is in Spanish, but you'll get the gist of it...
El Tiempo Para Niños En Villa Maria del Triunfo
Bible Studies
Pretty much as soon as we got here, Jenny and I jumped into a women's Bible study that was already going on with Stacy, Alison, 2 other missionary wives from England and another intern from Oklahoma (staying with one of the families from England). We are studying Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer, and I must say, this has been an inspiring experience, both from the encouragement that the text itself is giving me and from the different points of view that I am getting to see from the other women. We have all been pretty open with each other about things that are going on in our lives, and just getting to hear some older (by a little) and wiser women discuss things that are pertinent to my life right now has been a great experience for me.
Also, starting this Saturday, March 12th, we are going to be having another women's Bible study with several of the Peruvian girls in our church!! I'm am SO excited about this. It is something we've been talking about for a while, so I'm glad it's actually going to be happening! It's only going to be once a month at first, because it was difficult to coordinate everyone's schedules, but this first time, our Peruvian friend Carmen will be organizing the discussion :) She is definitely one of the leaders among the women that I've met so far, and one of my best friends here. I'm so glad to be working on this with her, and I'm excited to dive into the Word with my new friends!
Adventures with American Food
Although I LOVE the "comida peruana" here, I have definitely been looking for ways to keep a little American-ness in my diet. One such thing is I have found the Peruvian version of Frosted Flakes! They are called Zucarias (I think because they are covered in sugar - azucar) but they really are just like Frosted Flakes :) and I love them!! and I eat them almost every day!
Also, I recently decided to try and make a recipe I got from my grandmother called "Chicken in the Floor." (The story behind the name is long and not the point, so ask me about it sometime haha) I shopped for the ingredients and cooked it with my Peruvian friend Gaby, and it was fun helping her practice her English through cooking! I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe, but surprisingly it turned out great! Not exactly like Lana's, but close enough for me :)
There are also restaurants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Chili's that I can resort to if I get a hankering for some "American" food.
Ejercicios (exercises)
One thing that I have been really conscience of since coming here is my over-all health and how easily it can be affected by changes in diet and location, etc. Every Monday and Wednesday morning and sometimes Thursday, we have a girls work-out time. And when I say morning, I mean MORN-ING! We get to the park where we work out close to the beach around 6 am.... ugh that is so early!! But doing this has most definitely helped with my health and getting adjusted and my energy during the day as well. But man it is early! haha I am personally so proud of myself for sticking with this, but I have a bunch of really great encouragers that get on to me if I sleep it :) Stephanie and Tara were both exercise instructors when they were still in Texas, so we are getting some intense workouts! But yeah, working out has never been something I have really been dedicated to or really even enjoyed very much, but I love this time to spend with the team girls and some new friends that joined the class!
Families!
This weekend starts the crazy week of visitors! Kyle G's family (extended as well), Jenny's family, my family, Lee's parents, Stephanie's mom, and John Mark's sister and brother-in-law will all be here in Lima this week!! It's crazy, but we are all SOOO excited for them to get here. I know personally, I am looking forward to showing my parents and sister where I work and live and hang-out and introduce them to the people I see every week, and at the same time have a fun vacation with them and show them some of the really cool parts of Lima. Kyle and Jenny's families will also both be going to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu, so that's exciting! I think this will be a great time, especially for us interns, to take a little break from normal every-day life and do some different fun things! I'm hoping this will be a refreshing time for us :) SO EXCITED!!!
Language School
One last thing: after a much-longer-than-planned break from language school, we are starting that back up again this week on a less intensive schedule than before. We will all be doing 6 hours a week of one-on-one study with an instructor as well as a couple of hours of focused practice with a "language partner," one of our new Peruvian friends. Mine will be with Gaby (the girl I mentioned cooking with) and the time will be spent half in Spanish and half in English. I think this will be a great way for us to grow our relationships with these particular people, and it will be great practice for both parties.
Ok, that's all I had! Thanks for keeping up with us and keeping all of us in your prayers :) I know that it means a lot to all of us to know that we have SO many people supporting us while we are here! After being here for over 2 months now, I can say that this experience is going to change us and grow us in ways that we don't even really realize yet, and I am so excited! Thank you all for partnering with us in this crazy adventure!
Love, Taylor
ps Sorry I didn't have any pictures... there just weren't really any related to my topics haha
Kids Club in Villa Maria
So I know we've talked about this before, but recently the interns have been given the responsibility of organizing the activites for our kids' time in Villa Maria on Sunday mornings. We've been doing a different Bible story every week with games and coloring sheets and lots of great songs, and it's been going really good. It seems like the kids are getting more and more excited every week to be there and hang out with us, and that is making us more excited as well :) The kids are really sweet and attentive and great about participating in most everything. It has also been a good opportunity for some of the team kids to interact with the Peruvian kids! Here is an awesome video, made by the talented John Mark Davidson, of one of the mornings :) most of it is in Spanish, but you'll get the gist of it...
El Tiempo Para Niños En Villa Maria del Triunfo
Bible Studies
Pretty much as soon as we got here, Jenny and I jumped into a women's Bible study that was already going on with Stacy, Alison, 2 other missionary wives from England and another intern from Oklahoma (staying with one of the families from England). We are studying Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer, and I must say, this has been an inspiring experience, both from the encouragement that the text itself is giving me and from the different points of view that I am getting to see from the other women. We have all been pretty open with each other about things that are going on in our lives, and just getting to hear some older (by a little) and wiser women discuss things that are pertinent to my life right now has been a great experience for me.
Also, starting this Saturday, March 12th, we are going to be having another women's Bible study with several of the Peruvian girls in our church!! I'm am SO excited about this. It is something we've been talking about for a while, so I'm glad it's actually going to be happening! It's only going to be once a month at first, because it was difficult to coordinate everyone's schedules, but this first time, our Peruvian friend Carmen will be organizing the discussion :) She is definitely one of the leaders among the women that I've met so far, and one of my best friends here. I'm so glad to be working on this with her, and I'm excited to dive into the Word with my new friends!
Adventures with American Food
Although I LOVE the "comida peruana" here, I have definitely been looking for ways to keep a little American-ness in my diet. One such thing is I have found the Peruvian version of Frosted Flakes! They are called Zucarias (I think because they are covered in sugar - azucar) but they really are just like Frosted Flakes :) and I love them!! and I eat them almost every day!
Also, I recently decided to try and make a recipe I got from my grandmother called "Chicken in the Floor." (The story behind the name is long and not the point, so ask me about it sometime haha) I shopped for the ingredients and cooked it with my Peruvian friend Gaby, and it was fun helping her practice her English through cooking! I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe, but surprisingly it turned out great! Not exactly like Lana's, but close enough for me :)
There are also restaurants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Chili's that I can resort to if I get a hankering for some "American" food.
Ejercicios (exercises)
One thing that I have been really conscience of since coming here is my over-all health and how easily it can be affected by changes in diet and location, etc. Every Monday and Wednesday morning and sometimes Thursday, we have a girls work-out time. And when I say morning, I mean MORN-ING! We get to the park where we work out close to the beach around 6 am.... ugh that is so early!! But doing this has most definitely helped with my health and getting adjusted and my energy during the day as well. But man it is early! haha I am personally so proud of myself for sticking with this, but I have a bunch of really great encouragers that get on to me if I sleep it :) Stephanie and Tara were both exercise instructors when they were still in Texas, so we are getting some intense workouts! But yeah, working out has never been something I have really been dedicated to or really even enjoyed very much, but I love this time to spend with the team girls and some new friends that joined the class!
Families!
This weekend starts the crazy week of visitors! Kyle G's family (extended as well), Jenny's family, my family, Lee's parents, Stephanie's mom, and John Mark's sister and brother-in-law will all be here in Lima this week!! It's crazy, but we are all SOOO excited for them to get here. I know personally, I am looking forward to showing my parents and sister where I work and live and hang-out and introduce them to the people I see every week, and at the same time have a fun vacation with them and show them some of the really cool parts of Lima. Kyle and Jenny's families will also both be going to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu, so that's exciting! I think this will be a great time, especially for us interns, to take a little break from normal every-day life and do some different fun things! I'm hoping this will be a refreshing time for us :) SO EXCITED!!!
Language School
One last thing: after a much-longer-than-planned break from language school, we are starting that back up again this week on a less intensive schedule than before. We will all be doing 6 hours a week of one-on-one study with an instructor as well as a couple of hours of focused practice with a "language partner," one of our new Peruvian friends. Mine will be with Gaby (the girl I mentioned cooking with) and the time will be spent half in Spanish and half in English. I think this will be a great way for us to grow our relationships with these particular people, and it will be great practice for both parties.
Ok, that's all I had! Thanks for keeping up with us and keeping all of us in your prayers :) I know that it means a lot to all of us to know that we have SO many people supporting us while we are here! After being here for over 2 months now, I can say that this experience is going to change us and grow us in ways that we don't even really realize yet, and I am so excited! Thank you all for partnering with us in this crazy adventure!
Love, Taylor
ps Sorry I didn't have any pictures... there just weren't really any related to my topics haha
Saturday, March 5, 2011
La Vida Diaria - Daily Life
Over the past couple of weeks I've been making a list of things that I think would be interesting to tell people about. I just realized that it's a pretty long list... consider yourself warned. :)
Some of the smaller moments are what I think makes life so interesting. This probably has something to do with the fact that my primary love language is quality time (take the quiz and find out what yours is, you know you want to). Take a haricut, for example. Everyone gets them, but not always at 11p.m. in the middle of a kitchen. Well that's what Kyle decided to do a couple weeks ago. We've started watching Survivor (my new favorite show haha), so one night after it was over Kyle came into the living room with the clippers and got Wes to cut his hair while Taylor and I laughed the whole time. I'm sure you can see why:
Last week a group of us went to a praise night at a local church. I've been to lots of events like that before, but I was really touched by this one. I have to pay so much more attention to the words of the songs, prayers, and messages. So I am more invested in the words God is speaking to me in those times. Also, the church was started years ago by missionaries and it has grown into a huge group of believers. It was so encouraging to me to know that the work of missionaries is impactful here in Lima.
That saying is so true: you learn something new every day. A lot of what I learn is about the culture including the Catholic wedding I got to go to, complete with traditional little kid Peruvian dancers, and that there are people everywhere trying to sell you things. In fact, last time we had a beach day I had the option to buy scarves, swimsuit cover-ups, sunglasses, jewelry, ice cream, sandwiches, and even books. And that was just at the beach! All of these vendors (and hailing taxis) has taught me about bargaining skills that I never thought I would know. I've also learned so much about how a team of people works together. It's a longer process than I first thought and it involves more meetings than I expected. Through a couple of our most recent team meetings (one at the beach and one with our mentor David) I've realized that the meetings help me to know more about the people I work with and about myself. I'd like to ask you to pray for our continued patience and that we would come to find out even more.
I love making connections with people here. Last week Kyle, Taylor, and I got to meet and have dinner with our good friend Carolina's family. Carolina was so helpful in our preparation, we asked her so many questions about Lima before we left since she grew up here and now lives in College Station. We had a great time and are so thankful for our friends everywhere.
We've almost always got something to celebrate here Just yesterday it was Maddox's 4th birthday. The interns and the Fletchers went to Cieneguilla to play at the pool, let the kids ride horses, and enjoy the sun. For dinner the whole team got together at Pizza Hut (which is considerably nicer here than any I've been to in the states). We had a great time and everyone enjoyed the blue cake!
Some of the smaller moments are what I think makes life so interesting. This probably has something to do with the fact that my primary love language is quality time (take the quiz and find out what yours is, you know you want to). Take a haricut, for example. Everyone gets them, but not always at 11p.m. in the middle of a kitchen. Well that's what Kyle decided to do a couple weeks ago. We've started watching Survivor (my new favorite show haha), so one night after it was over Kyle came into the living room with the clippers and got Wes to cut his hair while Taylor and I laughed the whole time. I'm sure you can see why:
Another one of those small moments is watching a movie. And here I mean a kids' movie: animated, Disney, usually about 15 years old. Something as simple as sitting on the couch or the floor with Sofia and Maddox and watching a movie is so fun and makes me feel like a little kid again. I love it. Something else I love: competition, which is great since I'm surrounded by boys who have to name a winner for whatever situation may arise. Recently, after acting like the grown up 30 somethings that they are at a team meeting, the team guys decided to have an impromptu arm wrestling tournament. And after the next meeting, there were races on the beach. I was included in these (and obviously lost haha) and it was great to just have fun with the people I work with everyday.
Some of the small things have a stronger impact in the moment. I feel like we mention the sunsets here in almost every post, but they really are great. And we see them way more than I ever did in Texas. Each time I'm reminded of the power and greatness of God. It amazes me that He made something so beautiful and unique for our enjoyment.
 |
| One of the most recent sunsets over the Pacific |
That saying is so true: you learn something new every day. A lot of what I learn is about the culture including the Catholic wedding I got to go to, complete with traditional little kid Peruvian dancers, and that there are people everywhere trying to sell you things. In fact, last time we had a beach day I had the option to buy scarves, swimsuit cover-ups, sunglasses, jewelry, ice cream, sandwiches, and even books. And that was just at the beach! All of these vendors (and hailing taxis) has taught me about bargaining skills that I never thought I would know. I've also learned so much about how a team of people works together. It's a longer process than I first thought and it involves more meetings than I expected. Through a couple of our most recent team meetings (one at the beach and one with our mentor David) I've realized that the meetings help me to know more about the people I work with and about myself. I'd like to ask you to pray for our continued patience and that we would come to find out even more.
I love making connections with people here. Last week Kyle, Taylor, and I got to meet and have dinner with our good friend Carolina's family. Carolina was so helpful in our preparation, we asked her so many questions about Lima before we left since she grew up here and now lives in College Station. We had a great time and are so thankful for our friends everywhere.
 |
| The interns before we went to eat with Carolina's sister (and nephew) and parents |
Friday, March 4, 2011
the healing process.
howdy from texas!
first off, i thought that it should be known that this is being typed with two hands! this might not seem remarkable, but let me tell you, when you've only been able to do everything with one hand for four weeks, it is incredibly liberating to be able to use the other one too. bunches of people have asked me how things are going in texas, and how the healing is going, so i figured that an update might be nice. this one won't have any interesting pictures, because i am in dallas. haha there are interesting things here, but i reckon that y'all can visualize what i'm talking about.
so, texas. i came back to the states two weeks ago last saturday, and it has been an interesting time back. on the monday after i arrived back, i had my first visit with my orthopaedic surgeon here in rockwall, and from the x-rays he took he said that everything looked good in terms of the surgery that i had in lima, and at the time he advised me to keep the sling on pretty much all the time, and to limit movement as much as possible. i had a follow-up visit two weeks later (which was this past monday), which i will get to later. so, the first appointment was encouraging, but not very informative. oh side note, first impressions upon coming back to america. it smells so ridiculously clean here. my point of entry back was miami dade airport, which isn't known as a particularly sterile place, but as soon as i got off the plane, there was this indescribable sense of cleanliness and sterility to the terminal. it was very strange! i reckon that it had been about six weeks since i had experience any air filtration, so that was a peculiar shock. anyways, my first week back in the states was excellent, and mostly spent relaxing with my sweet mommy and daddy, american food (whoop tex-mex!), and all of the car magazines that had come to the house since i had been gone. fortunately, the weather was pretty nice and warm when i got back, so i got to spend some time outside strolling around too. it was definitely a little bizarre to be back. you know how if you plan for a week-long trip, by the end of the week it feels like you've been in that place for a really long time? i have learned how powerful expectations are to our brains, because i was in lima for exactly five and a half weeks, but it felt like i had hardly left the states, and i think that it's because i had my mind psyched up for a six month trip. when we were preparing to go to lima, we worked intentionally on not making expectations about what our trip would be like, but we hardly realized that we had made one crucial expectation: that we/i would be there for six full months! anyways, all that to say that it really wasn't that weird to be back.
the next weekend, my best bud shelby anders came up from college station to visit me in rowlett, and we had a grand time hanging out, driving around dallas looking for places to live next fall, eating taco bell, and playing gran turismo 5. i was hoping to come the college station the next weekend (this past weekend) to visit everyone, but since i am not supposed to drive yet, i was at the mercy of others for transportation. my parents were going to bring me down for the weekend, but there turned out to be stuff at church they had to be around for, so shelby and i were talking, and since i didn't have anything going that week, we decided that it would be awesome if i just rode back to cstat with him, and chilled there for the week! so i did. and it was one of the best weeks of my life, full of good food and the best conversations ever. i was so blessed to spend really extended amounts of time with people that i love in deep conversation, and it was cool water for my soul. and being in college station with no class or anything hanging over your head is pretty sweet. so that was an unexpected blessing, and it was so great to see everyone back home in aggieland. i will be back for a few more weekends once i can drive again soon, and i am already looking forward to the one college station fav food that i missed, a good ole half-pound burger from koppe bridge.
on monday, i had my second visit with the doc, and i got a lot of interesting news. first off, the x-rays showed that i am having great healing of the bone and is grows back together. this was somewhat of a concern, considering the radiation that i had during my cancer treatments years ago. radiation is known to brittle bones by frying the blood vessels that promote circulation, and because my bone appears to be healing at a normal rate, it would seem that i have good circulation to the break, so hallelujah it ought to heal nicely! so that was good news. but interestingly, i will not begin physical therapy for my shoulder and all for three more weeks. but in the meantime, i am able to not wear my sling all the time, and i am allowed to do any movement of my arm that keeps my elbow below my shoulder, and with minimal weight lifting, like five pounds max. so that's why i can now type with my left hand, sort of play guitar, and generally be a little more useful. but i'm still hurting a little, especially as i am starting to move my gimpy shoulder around more and loosen it back up. so the healing process is well underway :) also interestingly, my return date of april 13th looks good, because that will be about 11 weeks from surgery, and the projected healing time of my injury and surgery is 10-12 weeks. but, that time allows for recovery of full range of motion, such that i can do normal life activities with no worries. but, it will be july or august before the bone itself will be fully healed, so for the last two and a half months that i'll be back in lima, i won't be doing any flag football or rock climbing or anything too intense, which is a little sad but probably a good thing :) ill stay in one piece this time around i reckon! i am looking forward to being able to use my arm with no worries in august though, lifting weights, playing basketball, and not skimboarding anymore haha. that will be grand. but, just being back in lima again, even with limited abilities, will be most wonderful.
i feel like i am naturally predisposed to being a positive person, so this whole episode hasn't been a huge hit to my happiness or anything like that, but there has definitely been some dealing with disappointment. but, i am confident that i will look back on this time, and be thankful that i was here in texas rather than lima. i don't know how yet, but i know that god makes all things work for the good. i think that my week in college station played into that. so as i'm here, god has already been showing me, and teaching me so much more about his nature and about how he works. i still feel like im on serve abroad, on in texas i figure. im speaking lots of spanish with people i meet here, reading my handy spanish bible (thanks mark!), and trying to keep an open eye for god's leadings here in rowlett. all that, plus healing and eating great american food too :) but oh man, what i would do for some good aji de gallina right about now!
anyways, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, and i'm so excited about getting to spend more time here in rowlett, but also getting to head back south to that country i love. i covet your prayers for healing, and also for the three who haven't broken and all of the work in lima. god is good!
¡chau!
the other kyle (kyle w)
first off, i thought that it should be known that this is being typed with two hands! this might not seem remarkable, but let me tell you, when you've only been able to do everything with one hand for four weeks, it is incredibly liberating to be able to use the other one too. bunches of people have asked me how things are going in texas, and how the healing is going, so i figured that an update might be nice. this one won't have any interesting pictures, because i am in dallas. haha there are interesting things here, but i reckon that y'all can visualize what i'm talking about.
so, texas. i came back to the states two weeks ago last saturday, and it has been an interesting time back. on the monday after i arrived back, i had my first visit with my orthopaedic surgeon here in rockwall, and from the x-rays he took he said that everything looked good in terms of the surgery that i had in lima, and at the time he advised me to keep the sling on pretty much all the time, and to limit movement as much as possible. i had a follow-up visit two weeks later (which was this past monday), which i will get to later. so, the first appointment was encouraging, but not very informative. oh side note, first impressions upon coming back to america. it smells so ridiculously clean here. my point of entry back was miami dade airport, which isn't known as a particularly sterile place, but as soon as i got off the plane, there was this indescribable sense of cleanliness and sterility to the terminal. it was very strange! i reckon that it had been about six weeks since i had experience any air filtration, so that was a peculiar shock. anyways, my first week back in the states was excellent, and mostly spent relaxing with my sweet mommy and daddy, american food (whoop tex-mex!), and all of the car magazines that had come to the house since i had been gone. fortunately, the weather was pretty nice and warm when i got back, so i got to spend some time outside strolling around too. it was definitely a little bizarre to be back. you know how if you plan for a week-long trip, by the end of the week it feels like you've been in that place for a really long time? i have learned how powerful expectations are to our brains, because i was in lima for exactly five and a half weeks, but it felt like i had hardly left the states, and i think that it's because i had my mind psyched up for a six month trip. when we were preparing to go to lima, we worked intentionally on not making expectations about what our trip would be like, but we hardly realized that we had made one crucial expectation: that we/i would be there for six full months! anyways, all that to say that it really wasn't that weird to be back.
the next weekend, my best bud shelby anders came up from college station to visit me in rowlett, and we had a grand time hanging out, driving around dallas looking for places to live next fall, eating taco bell, and playing gran turismo 5. i was hoping to come the college station the next weekend (this past weekend) to visit everyone, but since i am not supposed to drive yet, i was at the mercy of others for transportation. my parents were going to bring me down for the weekend, but there turned out to be stuff at church they had to be around for, so shelby and i were talking, and since i didn't have anything going that week, we decided that it would be awesome if i just rode back to cstat with him, and chilled there for the week! so i did. and it was one of the best weeks of my life, full of good food and the best conversations ever. i was so blessed to spend really extended amounts of time with people that i love in deep conversation, and it was cool water for my soul. and being in college station with no class or anything hanging over your head is pretty sweet. so that was an unexpected blessing, and it was so great to see everyone back home in aggieland. i will be back for a few more weekends once i can drive again soon, and i am already looking forward to the one college station fav food that i missed, a good ole half-pound burger from koppe bridge.
on monday, i had my second visit with the doc, and i got a lot of interesting news. first off, the x-rays showed that i am having great healing of the bone and is grows back together. this was somewhat of a concern, considering the radiation that i had during my cancer treatments years ago. radiation is known to brittle bones by frying the blood vessels that promote circulation, and because my bone appears to be healing at a normal rate, it would seem that i have good circulation to the break, so hallelujah it ought to heal nicely! so that was good news. but interestingly, i will not begin physical therapy for my shoulder and all for three more weeks. but in the meantime, i am able to not wear my sling all the time, and i am allowed to do any movement of my arm that keeps my elbow below my shoulder, and with minimal weight lifting, like five pounds max. so that's why i can now type with my left hand, sort of play guitar, and generally be a little more useful. but i'm still hurting a little, especially as i am starting to move my gimpy shoulder around more and loosen it back up. so the healing process is well underway :) also interestingly, my return date of april 13th looks good, because that will be about 11 weeks from surgery, and the projected healing time of my injury and surgery is 10-12 weeks. but, that time allows for recovery of full range of motion, such that i can do normal life activities with no worries. but, it will be july or august before the bone itself will be fully healed, so for the last two and a half months that i'll be back in lima, i won't be doing any flag football or rock climbing or anything too intense, which is a little sad but probably a good thing :) ill stay in one piece this time around i reckon! i am looking forward to being able to use my arm with no worries in august though, lifting weights, playing basketball, and not skimboarding anymore haha. that will be grand. but, just being back in lima again, even with limited abilities, will be most wonderful.
i feel like i am naturally predisposed to being a positive person, so this whole episode hasn't been a huge hit to my happiness or anything like that, but there has definitely been some dealing with disappointment. but, i am confident that i will look back on this time, and be thankful that i was here in texas rather than lima. i don't know how yet, but i know that god makes all things work for the good. i think that my week in college station played into that. so as i'm here, god has already been showing me, and teaching me so much more about his nature and about how he works. i still feel like im on serve abroad, on in texas i figure. im speaking lots of spanish with people i meet here, reading my handy spanish bible (thanks mark!), and trying to keep an open eye for god's leadings here in rowlett. all that, plus healing and eating great american food too :) but oh man, what i would do for some good aji de gallina right about now!
anyways, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, and i'm so excited about getting to spend more time here in rowlett, but also getting to head back south to that country i love. i covet your prayers for healing, and also for the three who haven't broken and all of the work in lima. god is good!
¡chau!
the other kyle (kyle w)
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